William Farquhar was appointed by Sir Stamford Raffles as the first British Resident and Commandant of Singapore in 1819 to develop the colony, while he left it in his charge, for the next 4 years.
Singapore gets it's name from the Kingdom of Singapura founded by Sang Nila Utama, a Sri Vijayan prince, it was earlier known as Temasek, under the Majapahit and Siamese kingdoms. The last king was Parameswara or Iskandar Shah.
Repeated attacks by the Majapahit forced Parameswara to move to Malacca. In 1613, the Portuguese raiders burned down the settlement, as the island faded into obscurity becoming part of the Johor Sultanate.
While Raffles gets the credit for founding the colonial settlement, the main work was actually done by William Farquhar, who negotiated with the Sultan to set up a trading post there.it was Farquhar, who actually built up the original colonial settlement in Singapore, as he allowed the local traders to set up their outposts, and played an important role in it's development.
Farquhar however had a fall out with Raffles, as he disregarded the latter's original plans. He was fired by Raffles and in turn sued him back, before he was stabbed to death by a local Muslim merchant.
Singapore, was formerly a provice of Malaya, that was expelled on August 9, 1965, making it one of the few countries that got their independence rather unwillingly. In the long term though it proved more beneficial, as the tiny island nation emerged as an economic powerhouse on it’s own strength.
It was earlier part of the Malay federation along with Borneo and Sarawak. However the Singapore state Govt differed with the Malaysian Govt, especially on the special privileges given to Malays. Lee Kuan Yew then Singapore CM, led the demand advocating equal treatment for all races in Malaysia. Add to it the increasing racial tensions between the Chinese and Malays, especially the 1964 riots, on June 21, that saw many Chinese attacked, and their shops, properties looted. There were economic tensions too.
Also there was a fear that Singapore then being the economically dominant province, it would dominate Kuala Lumpur. Singapore had restrictions on trade, with rest of Malayisa, and in turn it refused loans to Sabah and Sarawak.
The backdrop was Tunku Abdul Rehman advocating the Bhumiputra policy for the native Malays, who were poorer compared to the Chinese. Lee Kuan Yew who led PAP, believed in equality for all, and was against such reservations. When PAP won the majority of the seats in Singapore during the 1963 Election, the tensions deepened between Tunku's UNMO and PAP.
Lee's policy of equal treatment for all, did not go down well with Malay supremacist UNMO, and the riots began at the Padang in Singapore downtown, when Muslim Malays after celebrating Mawlid, began to indulge in attacks on Chinese.
Provoked by a series of fiery speeches by the organizers, as well as a campaign against the Chinese and PAP, predominantly Muslim Malays, began to attack Chinese residents, leading to severe riots. There was massive damage to property, many Chinese owned shops were burnt down, leading to curfew. The riots subsidized by July 24, with around 23 dead, 454 injured.
