1 - Background

Summary

The Republic of Singapore comprises the main island of Singapore and some fifty-four small islets within its territorial waters and jurisdiction. The country has a total land area of only 716.1 square kilometres, 500 of which are taken up by the diamond-shaped main island which is 41.8 kilometres in length and 22.5 kilometres in breadth. Singapore is situated at the southern extremity of Peninsular Malaysia, to which it is linked by the 1,056-metre rail-and-road causeway spanning the Straits of Johor. In its wider context, the Republic occupies a strategic position in the principal sea, air, and trade routes between Europe and the Far East and Oceania. Singapore, being only 136.8 kilometres north of the Equator, has an equatorial climate with uniform and high temperatures of about 28°C, high humidity of about 70 per cent, and fairly abundant rainfall of some 2,400 millimetres per year. There is an absence of marked seasonal changes though December is often the wettest and coolest month.

The topography of Singapore is one lacking in contrast as the whole country is of very low elevation with a few small hills no higher than 166 metres. There are many rivers, with the larger ones such as the Kranji and Seletar Rivers used as catchment areas for reservoirs and, of course, the Singapore River which is the traditional busy waterway for small boats in the very heart of the city. The lowland forests that used to cover the island in the early days have retreated with the advance of roads, houses, factories, and cultivated vegetation. What remain are some small pockets of protected reserves, such as the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and the Kranji Nature Reserve, totalling some 2,797 hectares. The built-up area is dominated by public housing high-rise apartments and factories which are concentrated mainly in the industrial town of Jurong on the western side of the main island.

The early history of Singapore prior to the nineteenth century remains largely uncharted, being interwoven with that of the various Buddhist, Hindu, and Islamic empires that existed in the Southeast Asian region. The British, led by Stamford Raffles, landed on the island on 29 January 1819 and soon signed a treaty with the Malay ruler, Sultan Hussein Mohamed Shah of Johor, and established a trading post.