How did the British Govern Singapore Before WWII

The British Empire

1.Pink: colonies held by 1945 2.Orange: Dominions 3.Pink in Orange: colonies of Dominions 4.Dark Red-Brown: areas lost by 1920 5.Light pink: areas occupied in world war II * 6.Purple: Princely States (in India) and other Protectorates 7.Lavender: areas lost by 1705 (England only) 8.Hachured: sphere of influence (click image for better resolution) 9.Salmon: areas of defeated Axis occupied 1943-1955**

Queen Victoria

• 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901 • The Victorian era was at the height

of the Industrial Revolution, a period of significant social, economic, and technological progress in the United Kingdom. Victoria's reign was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire; during this period it reached its zenith, becoming the foremost Global Power of the time.

• Singapore became a full Crown Colony in 1867 under the flagship of the Straits Settlement.

How was Singapore ruled?

• British Government in London (Colonial Office)

• Governor of the Straits Settlements

• The Executive Council > helped to run the Settlements

• The Legislative Council > helped to make laws

Were the locals involved?

• Barely > only a couple of eminent locals > e.g. Dr Lim Boon Keng and Eunos Abdullah

• They were in the Legislative Council > helping to make laws

• Dr Lim wanted to ban opium smoking• Eunos Abdullah wanted more land to set

up Malay village• Their words carried little weight most of

the time.

Problems dealing with law and order

• Chinese secret societies > involved in crime and violence

• Ran opium houses, brothels and gambling dens

• Abuse of immigrants > poor living and working conditions > owed huge debts

• Women forced into flesh trade

• Piracy > menace to lives, property and trade > upset the British as Europeans were not spared

Measures to improve law and order

• Improvement of the police force > increasing pay and better training > employing people who could speak local languages > setting up of Detective Branch (later CID)

• Chinese Protectorate to address Chinese problem > William Pickering

Improvement of social services

• Why did the British realise the need of improving social services for the people?

• Education > increasing demand for English trained personnel to run the office > grants provided to set up schools e.g RI

• Queen’s Scholarship for top students to study in UK e.g. Dr Lim BK

• Setting up of medical colleges e.g. King Edward VII College of Medicine

• Double-standard in treatment of schools > Chinese schools less grant > thought to be anti-British > resentment

Health

• Death rate was high > might affect trade > set up Public Health Department to improve public health e.g. malaria health committee

• They also aimed to improve living conditions such as reducing overcrowding in Chinatown

• Quarantine Law was passed to separate disease carriers in St John Island

British attitudes towards the Asians• Preferential treatment for

the whites • Skin colour mattered • Not meritocratic• Europeans given better

treatment than Asians.• Discrimination in public

places• Remember: “To Kill a

Mockingbird” or Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech

White Men’s Burden

• Orientals and Africans always regarded as the white men’s burden because it was always deemed that Asians and Africans could not rule and take care of themselves.

• It was the colonizers’ belief and justification for their colonization of the ‘savages’.

• Why was this so?

Think!!!

• Why did the Europeans think that they were better? Based on what?

• Many believed in Darwinism or simply ethnocentric> some cultures and societies were more superior than others and therefore they should rule over them.

• How true was this? Or could it be just a question of steamships and gun powder?

Cartoons on Darwinism

Conclusion• Was colonization truly bad?

• Think of the legacy that the British left behind!!!

• If not the British, would we be better off under the Dutch, French, German or Belgian?

• In this post-colonial world, are we still living under the shadow of the West, i.e. neo-colonialism? E.g. Consumption of McDonald’s, Nike, Microsoft, etc.