Where's Singapore

For those that are geographically illiterate... or as the rest of the world calls it American... your probably Google-searching the word Singapore in order to figure out where in the world this country (if you knew it was a country) is located.

Introduction

Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian island city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula around 85-miles north of the equator. An island country, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the Singapore Strait to its south. The country is highly urbanized with very little primary rain-forest remaining, although more land is being created for development through land reclamation.

Crash Course History

Raffles Foundation

Part of various local empires since being inhabited in the 2nd century AD, Singapore hosted a trading post of the East India Company in 1819 with permission from the Sultanate of Johor. The city was founded under the leadership of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, who is considered the 'Father of Singapore' and many landmarks both contemporary and modern carry his name, including the world-famous Raffles Hotel, where its reputed the cocktail Singapore Sling was invented.

The British obtained sovereignty over the island in 1824 and Singapore became one of the British Straits Settlements in 1826, soon becoming a Crown Colony.

World War II (Battle of Singapore)

On 7 December 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and the Pacific War began in earnest. One of Japan's objectives was to capture Southeast Asia and secure the rich supply of natural resources to feed its military and industry needs. Singapore, the main Allied base in the region, was an obvious military target.

The allied military was confident that "Fortress Singapore" would withstand any Japanese attack and this confidence was reinforced by a squadron of British warships dispatched to the defense of Singapore, including the battleship HMS Prince of Wales, and cruiser HMS Repulse.

On 10 December 1941, Prince of Wales and Repulse were sunk 50-miles off the coast of Kuantan in Pahang, by a force of Japanese bombers and torpedo bomber aircraft, in the worst British naval defeat of World War II. After this incident, Singapore and Malaya suffered daily air raids, including those targeting civilian structures such as hospitals or shophouses with casualties ranging from the tens to the hundreds each time.

Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival, led by a Japanese officer, marches under a flag of truce to negotiate the capitulation of Allied forces in Singapore, on 15 February 1942. It was the largest surrender of British-led forces in history.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called the Fall of Singapore the "worst disaster" and "largest capitulation" in British history.

Singapore was occupied by the Japanese from 1942 to 1945. The Japanese army imposed harsh measures against the local population, with troops, particularly ruthless in dealing with the Chinese population. Mass executions claimed between 25,000 and 50,000 lives in Malaya and Singapore. The rest of the population suffered severe hardship throughout the three and a half years of Japanese occupation.

On 12 September 1945, the Japanese forces surrendered to arriving British forces, ten-days after the official Japanese surrender, 37-days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

British & Malay Independence

The failure of Britain to defend Singapore had destroyed its credibility as infallible ruler in the eyes of Singaporeans. Singapore declared independence, uniting with other former British territories to form Malaysia in 1963, although it was separated from Malaysia two years later due to economic restrictions and racial tensions.

During this period, Lee Kuan Yew, a young Cambridge-educated lawyer, became the first Prime Minister of Singapore. Much like Sir Raffles, he is widely recognized as the founding father of modern Singapore.

Since then Singapore has had a massive increase in wealth, and is one of the Four Asian Tigers, a term used in reference to the highly developed economies of Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan. Lee Hsien Loong, the eldest son of Lee Kuan Yew, became the third prime minister of Singapore in 2004 and 2011 saw the first opposition parties elected to parliment.

Economy

Singapore is the world's fourth leading financial center and its port is one of the five busiest ports in the world, the Port of Singapore, competing with the Port of Shanghai (China), Port of Hong Kong (China), Port of Rotterdam (Netherlands), Port of Kobe (Japan) and the Port of Dover (UK). The economy depends heavily on exports and refining imported goods, especially in manufacturing.

The economic and most urbanized section of the island is the Downtown Core, including key districts such as Raffles Place (the tallest building on the island and tallest outside America until 1986) and key administrative buildings such as the Parliament House, the Supreme Court and City Hall as well as numerous commercial buildings and cultural landmarks.

In terms of purchasing power parity, Singapore has the third highest per capita income in the world according to the World Bank. For reference, the United States is rated as eighth.

Government

Singapore is a unitary multiparty parliamentary republic with a Westminster-system of unicameral parliamentary government. The People's Action Party has won the majority every election since self-government in 1959.

Population

There are slightly over 5-million people in Singapore, of which 2.91 million were born locally. The population is highly diverse; the majority are Chinese with almost 75% of the total population, while Malays and Indians forming significant minorities.

The total fertility rate is estimated to be the lowest in the world and well below the rate needed to replace the population. To overcome this problem, the Singapore government has been encouraging foreigners to immigrate to Singapore for the past few decades. The large number of immigrants has kept Singapore's population from declining.

Singapore traditionally has one of the lowest unemployment rate among developed countries. Singaporean unemployment rate has not exceeded 4% in the past decade, hitting a high of 3% during the 2009 global financial crisis and falling to 1.9% in 2011.

Language

Reflecting this diversity, the country has four official languages: English, Chinese, Malay, and Tamil. Singlish is also notable as English-based creole language native to Singapore.