SSA2211 Revision Lecture

8/3/2019 SSA2211 Revision Lecture

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/ssa2211-revision-lecture 1/17

SSA2211:Evolution of a

Global City-StateRevision Lecture

Semester 1, AY2011-2012



This module…

• Challenged you to examine the arguments for and against

1819 as the ‘traditional’ starting point for Singapore’s history.

• Challenges you to QUESTION your assumptions on Singapore’s

development and history.

• Explored the role conflict and trade has played in this island’searly modern and modern history.

• Explored the tensions between Singapore as a nation state

and its evolution as a Global city state.



How have we explored Singapore’s

History?

1. Idea of the Longue Duree…seeing this Island’s history from a

longer perspective.

2. Moving away from the ‘heroes and big events’ approach?

3. Exploring globalisation in terms of idea of trade, conflict and

culture.

4. From a history of ‘nation building’ to that of a global city?



.Duree…seeing this island’s

history from a longerperspective.• Temasek era through to the present-day…do we see

patterns emerging?

• We can see that larger forces been important in shapingthe history of Singapore.

• CAN WE SEE CONTINUITY??? Taking a longer view allows usto better trace potential connections from past to present.

Some questions:

• Has the island always been externally-oriented? Why?

• Has a plural society always been a feature of the port city?

• CAN Singapore ever afford to IGNORE the global market?



• BUT how do we account for ‘gaps’ in Singapore’s story ( ie

the ‘sleepy fishing village’ image) when we take thelongue duree?

What can CHANGE?• From a bustling emporium (Temasek) to a Orang Laut

base (and Johor Sultanate territory), a colony,

battleground and now trading hub…

• How strategic/successful has the Island been at different

stages in its history?

• How has the state/society/economy changed to meet

new challenges?



2. Moving away from the

‘heroes and big events’approach?



• We should consider that human agency IS important in

determining Singapore’s development/fate.

• Luck and opportunity often also meant risk and potential

danger…

• Consider the 4-way struggle for the Straits of Melaka: Singapore

became too risky for any group to ‘claim’.

• Raffles defied EIC instructions and risked conflict with the Dutch

by securing an agreement to use Singapore as a trading base.

• Does post-1965 Singapore also fit this picture??The Accidental

Nation?



3. Exploring globalisation in

terms of trade, conflict andculture.



• Idea of CYCLES of trade and conflict affecting Temasek, Singapura,

colonial Singapore and present-day Singapore.

--This island was successful at times, at others it was subordinate,

and it has also been sidelined.

Is is possible that sometimes the waters around Singapore were

more important than the island?

• Has the island always been externally-oriented? Why?

• Has a plural society always been a feature of the port city?

•

CAN Singapore ever afford to IGNORE the global forces/market?



TRADE: TEMASEK

• Trading Emporium

• Tapping regional trade and the China trade

• Monsoonal trade winds

• Gateway for goods of the Riau Archipelago and South Johor

hinterland. Indian Ocean, Southeast Asian and Chinese

products also brought to the port.

• Distinguished by high-quality products.

• --success was relatively short-lived due to CONFLICT in theregion. Melaka became the predominant trading centre in the

Melaka Straits.



TRADE: Singapore as a colonial

entrepot

Patterns of trade

Commodities

Communities

The characteristics of a

colonial port city

NEW??? OR a

revival of trade?



CONFLICT: From Pax-Sinica to

Pax-Americana• As an independent Nation-State, “no one will defend us if we

do not defend ourselves!”

• Longue Duree: “Singapore often defended as part of a larger

entity”

• Chinese dynastic cycles & rise and fall of dominant powers in

maritime Southeast Asia.

• European powers: Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch





CULTURE: Port city mix?



COSMOPOLITAN Singapore

• Cosmopolitan society in a global city…is this new to

Singapore?

• The Straits Chinese are examples of hybridized culture and the

advantages which can be gained from acting as a ‘go-between’

in multi-racial trading hubs.• Language as unique? Singapore English? Singlish? Can or not?



4. From a history of ‘nation

building’ to that of a global

city?• Do we start at 1819? Or earlier?

• The End of Empire has been traditionally viewed as a turning point

in Singapore’s history.

• Counter argument: this was just a ‘speed bump’ in a 700 yearhistory, Singapore grew even as Empire declined

• Decolonisation and Independence.

•Singapore lost its natural hinterland.

• Tensions emerge between Malayan vs Singaporean identity.

• A Nation state and a global city emerges simultaneously?



Summing up:

• Singapore was not always a sleepy fishing village before

1819.Nor was Singapore always a strategic place.

• Singapore’s evolution has been affected by larger forces of

trade and conflict over a span of centuries.

• Global trade and a multi-ethnic society is not a newdevelopment in Singapore’s history.

• Examining Singapore’s history over a 700 year span provides

us with a richer understanding of Singapore’s place in the

region and can help us to understand WHY and HOW

Singapore has evolved as a global city.

Documents

SSA2211 Revision Lecture