ABSTRACT
Early Singapore was home to fishermen and pirates and served as an outpost for various Indonesian empires, including the Majapahit Empire based on Java (1293-c. 1500). One of the Majapahit emperors called the area Singapura (“Lion City”). It remained a port of call for travelers and merchants from the East and West until British colonial official Thomas Stamford Raffles landed there in 1819. Raffles recognized the importance of Singapore’s access to the Straits of Melaka, which connected British India to the Chinese marketplace. He engineered a treaty with the local sultan that allowed the British East India Company to buy local land. A treaty with the Dutch in 1824 confirmed Singapore within the British sphere of influence.
