Singapore
Stamford Raffles founded colonial Singapore in 1819 as a trading post of the British East India Company. After the company's collapse in 1858, the islands were ceded to the British Raj as a crown colony. During the Second World War, Singapore was occupied by Japan. It gained independence from the UK in 1963 by federating with other former British territories to form Malaysia, but separated two years later over ideological differences, becoming a sovereign nation in 1965. After early years of turbulence and despite lacking natural resources and a hinterland, the nation developed rapidly as an Asian Tiger economy, based on external trade and its workforce.
Immigration to Singapore
Immigration from China and India to Singapore stopped during the years of Japanese occupation. After the Second World War, the immigration pattern shifted from the influx of migrants from other countries to movement of people between peninsular Malaya and Singapore, with significant number of net migrants moving from Malaya to Singapore. However, after the declaration of independence of Malaya in 1957, the migration of people from Malaya began to fall.