To Marina Bay and the world's best airport: 19th-century Singapore with old photos
It is hard to imagine, but only two hundred years ago, at the place where Singapore today stands, one of the most developed cities in Asia, there was a small village. In 1819, one of the British Empire’s fathers, the colonizer Stamford Raffles, came here and literally tricked the island into being. Then this territory was ruled by the Sultan Johor, who was under the influence of the Dutch. The Englishman made a knight's move and agreed with the sultan Hussein's brother, to whom the officials were more supportive. As a result, Hussein was declared the legal ruler of Singapore, and the island fell under the influence of the British.
Officially, he became a colony later, after almost fifty years. However, by this time, the small village, in which at the beginning of the 19th century there were no more than a thousand people, had grown tenfold: by the 1860s, about 60 thousand people already inhabited Singapore. For a couple of decades, huge plantations appeared here, on which people came to work. Well, when the rubber industry began to develop in Singapore at the end of the 19th century, it became one of the main industrial centers of Asia.
Despite the fact that the British ruled here, its Asian roots were felt in everything on the island. In the end, the main population was Chinese. In just a few decades, the island was built up, and it began to resemble a European town. However, the fact that it was Asia was still betrayed by rickshaws and small fishing stilt houses. So let's see how Singapore looked long before Marina Bay Sands and Changi Airport!