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There are numerous accounts of the founding of Singapore in 1819. Most of these histories, from very close associates and relatives of Raffles, his admirers and even later historians, present sympathetic accounts of the man. The reasons for the establishment of a trading station there, however, has generated more difference of opinion.
Read the the opinions of the various historians below and consider for yourself, what factors led to the founding of Singapore in 1819.
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Account A - By the historian Jim Baker, in his book Crossroads: A Popular History of Malaysia and Singapore. The book was printed in 1999, and updated in 2014.
(Baker discusses the political situation in Southeast Asia in the early 1810s when many Dutch colonies were in British hands for safekeeping during the global Napoleonic War with France. With the war coming to an end, there was a fear that the Dutch would return to reclaim all her colonial possessions in the Malay world)"Throughout this time, Raffles continued to advocate that Britain should retain all Dutch possessions in the archipelago after the war in Europe was over.... The British had already decided to keep the Dutch colonies they had seized on the cape of Africa and in Ceylon. Thus if the Dutch were going to have an empire, their possessions in the archipelago would have to be returned.
In 1818, the Dutch territories were returned, and Raffles became governor of the British colony of Bencoolen. Situated on the western coast of Sumatra, it was a relatively insignificant assignment, but he had his foot in the door. It was from this base that Raffles would establish modern Singapore - but that in itself was not his greatest impact on the history of Malaysia and Singapore. Singapore was a means to an end, that end being British control of the straits [of Melaka] and the trade that flowed through it. Ultimately, Raffles' move on Singapore led to British domination of the entire Malay peninsula.... There is little doubt that Singapore was the site he had in mind for a British base. It was an ideal site - it had an excellent natural harbour, ample timber supplies and fresh drinking water. Moreover, it sat astride some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world."
Account B - Christopher Hale presents his version of the events leading up to the founding of Singapore, in his recent book Massacre in Malaya: Exposing Britain's My Lai (2015)
"Born onboard his drunken father's ship in the Caribbean, young Thomas [Stamford Raffles] grew up in shabby Walworth. His family was impecunious and his education unimpressive. Raffles joined the East India Company as a junior clerk aged just 14 in the secretary's office. But young Raffles was pushy, ambitious and a classic autodidact, eager to learn about the byzantine ways of John Company, and the exotic new worlds of the East where Company men could make their mark and their fortune....
Like his masters at Leadenhall Street, Raffles was an ardent believer in the gods of free trade. The Southeast Asian shrine of free trade would be the port city of Singapore....
The foundation of Singapore was indeed a pivotal moment in British imperial history. The port city would become one of the great synapses of imperial trade and power and would be one of the last imperial bases abandoned by the British as the sun finally set on the empire in the 1960s. The city expanded with breathtaking speed. Singapore would become the Babylon of the East. It owed its diversity and astonishing growth to Raffles' vision of a free port....
The point we should draw out is the manner in which the British exploited, coerced, manipulated and in the end cheated the local rulers. A great deal of tortuous plotting by all sides had preceded the famous landing by Raffles and Major Farquhar and their meeting with the Temenggong, the hereditary prime minister of the Joor-Riau-Lingga Sultanate. Raffles had exploited a petty dynastic squabble, as European colonisers would on many future occasions." (p55-56)
Account C - my own perspective on the events of 1819, somewhat different from the above two versions. This is presented in my book British Strategic Interests in the Straits Of Malacca, 1786 - 1819.
"It has almost become a common place assumption that the 1819 founding of Singapore at the southern tip of the strategically-located Straits of Malacca represented for the English East India Company a desire to strengthen trade with China; that it was part of an optimistic and confident swing to the east which had as its goal, the lucrative tea trade.
However, to reach this conclusion is to disregard the volatile and sometimes unpredictable relationship the British had with the Dutch Netherlands between 1780 and 1824 which was strained to its limits by the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and which prompted the British to move into the Straits of Malacca.
The eastward movement through the Straits did take place, but it was slow and reluctant, and it was carried out by the British under duress. In this process, the origin of the swing, India, was more important than its object, China.
The British acquisitions of Penang in 1786, Malacca in 1795 and Singapore in 1819 were for Indian rather than for Chinese reasons. They pertained directly or indirectly to the security of India prior to, during, and following the war with France between 1793 and 1815.
Thus, modern Singapore did not 'begin' with the landing of the visionary Stamford Raffles on her soil on 29 January 1819, which is the common tale. Rather, its conception was to be found in British India and given shape by the acquisition of Penang as a potential naval base. The expansion of British India was characterised not by British naval mastery of the Eastern Seas in the Malay world, but by limitations in her sea power. The role the Royal Navy played was dictated by events in Europe and India, and any expansion of British influence and power to be undertaken by the navy had to be necessarily subordinate to the defence of India."
Account D - This is a composite account by Mark Ravinder Frost and Tu-Mei Balasingamchow in Singapore: A Biography (2009), that recreates the scene at the Singapore River on 6 February 1819.
“The day of the signing of the Treaty, 6 February 1819, dawned bright and sunny. A small cluster of tents had mushroomed on the Padang – then, as today, a flat, grassy area. Preparations had begun the previous week, during which a hundred Chinese plantation workers had cleared the ground and readied it for the coming formalities. One tent stood out, dressed up with rich scarlet cloth which was used to cover the floor and the five chairs inside, and to line a path from the door and then for about a hundred feet by the side of the river bank. At noon, some 30 officers and soldiers of the East India Company gathered and the hubbub of activity drew local Malay and Chinese bystanders, who squatted by the bedecked tent in anticipation.
About an hour later, a burst of canon announced the arrival of Tengku Long. Attired in brightly coloured garments of silk and escorted by a military guard, the soon-to-be Sultan of Singapore was accorded the full royal treatment. As he processed down the red carpet, the Company soldiers who lined the way executed a ceremonial presentation of arms. At the door to the tent, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles stood waiting, about to see his long-cherished dream become a reality…. After the Treaty signing, the Union Jack was raised on the beach, to an accompaniment of artillery volleys and salutes. Then the Company officers and Malay leaders celebrated with a banquet.”
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