The earliest known mention of Singapore was a 3rd century Chinese account which described Singapore as “Pu-luo-chung” (“island at the end of a peninsula”). Little is known about the island’s history at this time but this matter-of-fact description belies Singapore’s colourful past. Located at the natural meeting point of sea routes at the tip of the Malay Peninsula, Singapore had long known visits from a wide variety of sea craft, from Chinese junks, Indian vessels, Arab dhows and Portuguese battleships to Buginese schooners. By the 14th century, Singapore had become part of the mighty Sri Vijayan Empire and was known as Temasek (“Sea Town”). Legend has it that that the place was renamed Singa Pura or Lion City after a visiting Sumatran prince encountered a strange looking animal he mistook for a lion. Following this the region became established as a minor trading post for the powerful Sumatran Srivijaya Empire and subsequently as a vassal state of the Javanese Majapahit Empire in the mid-13th century. Later, Singapore became embroiled in the struggle for the Malay Peninsula between Siam (now Thailand), and the Java-based Majapahit Empire.

The island might have remained a quiet backwater if not for Sir Stamford Raffles, who arrived in 1819. The British had first established a presence in the Straits of Malacca (now called Melaka) in the 18th century when the East India Company set out to secure and protect its line of trade from China to the colonies in India. Raffles argued for an increased British presence, which he was promptly given. Under his supervision, Singapore’s destiny changed from a swampy, disease-ridden colony to an international port of call where migrants poured in by the thousands, and it became a flourishing colony with a military and naval base. For many years Singapore served as a crucial defence base in the Far East. But the British suffered the ignominy of defeat when Japan invaded the colony in 1941. The British were, however, welcomed back after Japan’s surrender in 1945, but their right to rule was no longer assured. By the 1950s, burgeoning nationalism had led to the formation of a number of political parties as Singapore moved slowly towards self-government. In 1959, The People’s Action Party, was elected, with the Cambridge-educated Lee Kuan Yew becoming Prime Minister, a position he was to hold for the next 31 years.

In 1963, Singapore formed a union with Malaya (now Malaysia) but decided to leave it in 1965. Singapore became an independent Republic and under the shrewd and pragmatic Lee, fashioned a government that was almost totalitarian (suppressing all political opposition), but it succeeded in putting Singapore on a path of inexorable growth. Lee Kuan Yew resigned as Prime Minister in 1990 and was replaced by Goh Chok Tong, a leader more inclined towards democracy and liberalism. The economic downturn of the late 1990s affected Singapore as badly as the rest of Asia but the city-state has staged a recovery and is now back on the growth path.