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Britain first established a settlement on the island of Singapore in 1819 under Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, and took possession of the whole island in 1823.It formally became a British colony in 1824, and remained in British hands (apart from the Japanese occupation of 1941-45) until 1963, until the island was granted independence as part of Malaysia.
The history of the Republic of Singapore began when Singapore was expelled from Malaysia and became an independent republic on 9 August 1965. [1] After the separation, the fledgling nation had to become self-sufficient, however was faced with problems including mass unemployment, housing shortages and lack of land and natural resources such as petroleum.
Singapore also served as the administrative centre for Malaya until the 1880s, when the capital was shifted to Kuala Lumpur. In 1834, the British government ended the East India Company's monopoly on the China trade, allowing other British companies to enter the market and leading to a surge in shipping traffic.
Singapore had previously been established as a British colony since 1824, and had been governed as part of the Straits Settlements since 1826. The colony was created when the Straits Settlements was dissolved shortly after the Japanese occupation of Singapore ended in 1945. The power of the British Government was vested in the governor of ...
With the complete withdrawal of British forces from Singapore in 1971, the Naval Base has since been handed over to the Singapore government, which in 1968 converted it into a commercial dockyard (as Sembawang Shipyard, now part of Singapore Exchange-listed SembCorp Marine).
Thereafter the British came to control the entire island of Singapore, which was developed into a thriving colony and port. In 1824, the Dutch conceded any rights they had to the island in the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, and from 1832, Singapore was the seat of government of the Straits Settlements for 114 years until its dissolution in 1946. [5]
Operation Tiderace was the codename of the British plan to retake Singapore following the Japanese surrender in 1945. [4] The liberation force was led by Lord Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander of South East Asia Command.
[1] The 1966 announcements undertook to retain the UK presence in Singapore and Malaysia. However, the mid-late sixties brought an economic crisis and the devaluation of pound sterling. In 1967 and 1968, the government published two further supplements to the review, announcing the strategic withdrawal of British forces deployed East of Suez ...