The area of Lion City (the translation of Singapore) was inhabited as long back as the 13th century, when it was a trading centre for the region, however it was only with the intervention of the British, in particular Sir Stamford Raffles in the 19th Century that made Singapore the important regional centre that it is today.
From 1819, migrants poured into Singapore from the rest of the British Empire, drawn by the promise of tax free trade, and the protection provided by the Military and naval bases that had been set up in response to Raffle's desire to use Singapore as a base to protect the trade routes from China to India.
Singapore's growth as one of the most civilised parts of the British Empire continued unabated into the 20th century, and the colony fast became one of the real jewels of the Far East. The Japanese invasion in 1941 resulted in Britain's temporary removal from Singapore, and the only really bloody part in the colony's history.
By the time of the return of rule from London at the end of the War, the seeds of Self Rule for Singapore had been sewn, and after a brief 2 year tempestuous union with Malaysia ended in 1965, Singapore was truly independent, and with the boom of the 1980s, and buoyed with trade and manufacturing, Singapore became one of the wealthiest countries in the Far East, and rapidly developed into the clean modern state it remains today.
