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SSA2211Evolution of a Global City-

State

Introductory Lecture

What is this module all about?What are some of the BIG questions well be exploringthis semester?

Semester 1, AY2011-2012

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Documentary

Did you watch the Discovery Channel documentary(link provided on the IVLE)?

WHAT were some of the main ideas?

Did you detect any omissions?

Take a critical approach to what you view/read.

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Raffles as the creator of Singapore

East India Company and the early settlement ofSingapore

Singapore (Straits Settlement) as a Crown Colony in1867

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WHAT IS HISTORY?

All that has happened in the past?

Our past/heritage/social memory?

As students of history we examine the pastthrough: documents, artifacts, oral interviews andtry to understand how and why particular thingshappened.

History as an objective/scientific examination ofevidence to find out what happened, when andwhere.

Study based on the idea that evidence is accurate

and VERIFIABLE.

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Case Study: History inour midst

KTM railway and the TanjongPagar Railway being returnedto Singaporean hands.

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HISTORY: Of Politics? Of transportation? Of Singapores role as a trading

hub/staple port for Malay rubberand tin?

Of local history and communitymemories?

What does this mean to you? Whatmemories would you preserve?What history would you write?

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Traditional Approaches History as elitist, the records

of great men and big events.

Raffles? Lee Kwan Yew?

Official documents/memoirsof political leaders.

Policies, big picture, officialaccounts of events.

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Traditional Approaches(II)

Linear: we trace the progression of history fromearly times through to the present.

i.e. Singapore 1819, early settlement, crowncolony, Independence 1965, global city in thepresent. (Mangrove to Metropolis)

The story of the development of a nation state

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BUT how do we account for gapsin Singapores story (ie thesleepy fishing village image)

and what of the tales contained inthe Malay Annals of mystical kings,lions and the founding of Singapura?

How can we account for suchsources?

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Recent approaches:EXCAVATIONS AT FORT CANNING, 1984

Archaeology: uncovering evidence of Singapores pre-1819 settlements.Temasek era (end of 13th Century). A trading emporium catering toregional and China traders.

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Recent Approaches (II)

Idea of CYCLES of trade and geo-politics that affectedSingapore.

--This island was successful at times, at others it wassubordinate, and it has also been sidelined.

Is is possible that sometimes the waters around Singapore

were more important than the island?!

How can we see Singapores history then? Can wemove beyond the 1819 model for understanding

Singapore? Do you think we should?

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A Peoples History?

Rickshaw coolies, early migrants, traders

Providing a richer view of the Singapore Story

How can these histories help us to consider Singaporesdevelopment?

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Over the semester wellexamine Singapore as:

A port city (part of an oceanic network of ports)

Part of the early Malay World

Part of the China-Southeast Asia interaction with

the founding of Temasek in the late 13th Century A contested area and then port in the East-WestTrade (17th-20th Century)

A global city

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This module

Challenges you to examine the arguments for andagainst 1819 as the traditional starting point forSingapores history.

Presents traditional and non-traditional sources

for examining Singapores history.

Challenges you to QUESTION your assumptions onSingapores development and history. Is there abetter way to narrate the Singapore Story?

What role has geopolitics and trade played inSingapores early modern and modern history?

Examines the tensions between Singapore as anation state and its evolution as a Global city state.