Early Colonial Singapore Analysis

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“I am astonished to see how markedly our world is changing. A new world is being created, the old world destroyed. The very jungle becomes a settled district…” This impression of early colonial Singapore was written in the autobiography of Abdullah bin Kadir, who was regarded as a perceptive observer of the life in his day. The change from being “the very jungle” to “a settled district” best describes the development of Singapore in the early colonial time. After long being the “sleepy fishing villages” since the late seventeenth century, Singapore “woke up” and rapidly developed into one of Asia’s greatest port cities after the British arrived on the scene. While socialists and historians are studying the varied reasons for the fast transformation …show more content…

C. Mary Turnbull once has pointed out: "Singapore was fortunate in her three early pioneer administrators: Raffles, a man of extraordinary vision, but for whom Singapore would never have existed; Farquhar, who by his energy, good sense and courage, nursed the infant settlement through its first dangerous years; and Crawfurd, shrewd and sensible, with his feet planted firmly on the ground, who converted into reality Raffles' most practical dreams" . It is a good summing up of Singapore’s three pioneers and leads us to see that it is the joint efforts of families of Raffles, Farquhar and Crawfurd contributing most significantly to the colonial Singapore’s success in terms of the following …show more content…

Therefore, it all thanks to Raffles’ strategic vision that made him select Singapore to be the suitable location realizing British economic and political ambition in the region. One can hardly imagine how Singapore would have been without the family of Raffles. Dr. Ernest Chew described it as “a sparsely inhabited island, on the margins of the Dutch colonial empire in the East Indies” Argument 2: order and law of British system Raffles developed a local regulation organization to ensure the peace and order for the newborn settlement. Members were chosen from British inhabitants to act under the representatives of the British Government. This regulation resulted in the abandon and control of gambling, slavery and cock-fighting and made pawnbrokers subject to licensing regulation. Further, John Crawfurd signed a second treaty with Sultan and Temenggong on 7 June 1823, which extended British possession to most of the island. Moreover, they also traded most of their administrative rights, including port taxes collection of

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