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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2021
This article proposes that Singapore should be considered as a settler colony during its first years of settlement. The first Residents, William Farquhar, Thomas Stamford Raffles and John Crawfurd all attempted to build Singapore as a settler colony, similar to those in Australia and North America. The difference was, however, that they looked to attract Chinese, Malay and Indian settlers as well as Europeans. By viewing Singapore as a settler colony, this article reinterprets our understanding of who constitutes a settler within settler colonial frameworks. It concludes that settler colonialism was not directly about moving indigenous people off the land, but rather establishing a new system of sovereignty in which individuals (regardless of race) were allowed to own land and become settlers. Nevertheless, the actions of the settlers and the British authorities created violent tensions with the original Malay inhabitants that were only resolved by the transfer of sovereignty from Sultan Hussein to the East India Company.
I would like to thank Robert Cribb, Anthony Milner and Peter Borschberg for their advice in developing the argument of this article. I am also very gratefully indebted to Benjamin Khoo, for his assistance in accessing archives for me in Singapore during the Covid-19 induced hiatus in global travel. I would also like to thank the reviewers and editorial team for their advice in developing this article.
1 Wake, C.H., ‘Raffles and the Rajas: The founding of Singapore in Malayan and British colonial history’, Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 48, 1 (1975): 47–73Google Scholar.
2 J.A. Hobson, Imperialism: A study (London: George Allen & Unwin [1902]1968).
3 Anthony Reid, ‘Malaysia/Singapore as immigrant societies’, Asia Research Insitute (ARI) Working Paper no. 141 (Singapore: ARI, 2010); Lorenzo Veracini, Settler colonialism: A theoretical overview (Houndmills: Palgrave, 2010); Patrick Wolfe, Settler colonialism and the transformation of anthropology: The politics and poetics of an ethnographic event (London: Cassell, 1999). A number of chapters in The Oxford history of the British Empire: Vol. 3, The nineteenth century, ed. Andrew Porter (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), also make this distinction. For example: Peter Burroughs, ‘Imperial institutions and the government of empire’, pp. 170–97; Marjory Harper, ‘British migration and the peopling of the empire’, pp. 75–87; Martin Lynn, ‘British policy, trade, and informal empire in the mid-nineteenth century’, pp. 102–21; B.R. Tomlinson, ‘Economics and empire: The periphery and the imperial economy’, pp. 51–74.
4 Warwick Anderson, The cultivation of whiteness: Science, health and racial destiny in Australia (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 2005); Veracini, Settler colonialism.
5 C.D. Cowan, ‘Nineteenth-century Malaya: The origins of British political control’ (London: Oxford University Press, 1961); W.D. McIntyre, The imperial frontier in the tropics, 1865–75 (London: Macmillan, 1967); C. Northcote Parkinson, British intervention in Malaya, 1867–1877 (Singapore: University of Malaya Press, 1964); Anthony Webster, Gentlemen capitalists: British imperialism in South East Asia 1770–1890 (London: Tauris Academic Studies, 1998).
6 Robert J. Miller, Native America, discovered and conquered: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis and Clark and manifest destiny (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2008); Henry Reynolds, The law of the land, 2nd ed. (Ringwood, Vic: Penguin, 1992).
7 Lisa Ford, Settler sovereignty: Jurisdiction and indigenous people in America and Australia, 1788–1836 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010).
8 Reid, ‘Malaysia/Singapore as immigrant societies’.
9 Thomas Wallace, Select Committee on State of Affairs of East India Company, and Trade between Great Britain, E. Indies and China. First Report (China Trade), Minutes of Evidence, Appendix (House of Commons Papers, no. 644, 1830), p. 308; T.J. Newbold, Political and statistical account of the British Settlements in the Straits of Malacca viz Pinang, Malacca, and Singapore; with a history of the Malayan States the Peninsula of Malacca, vol. 1 (London: John Murray, 1839), p. 283.
10 Newbold, ibid., p. 283.
11 John Crawfurd, Journal of an embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Courts of Siam and Cochin China; Exhibiting a view of the actual state of those kingdoms, vol. 2 (London: H. Colburn & R. Bentley, 1830), p. 381.
12 Colin M. Turnbull, The Straits Settlements 1826–67: Indian presidency to crown colony (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1972), p. 23.
13 Cowan, Nineteenth-century Malaya.
14 Clement Liew, ‘Town planning and building in early colonial Singapore, 1819–1839: Sir Stamford Raffles and the collaborative development of a colonial port city’ (PhD diss., National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, 2010), pp. 19–20.
15 Ibid., p. 24.
16 Chris Youé, ‘Settler colonialism or colonies with settlers?’, Canadian Journal of African Studies/Revue canadienne des études africaines 52, 1 (2018): 70.
17 Veracini, Lorenzo, ‘“Settler colonialism”: Career of a concept’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 41, 2 (2013): 313CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
18 Veracini, Lorenzo, ‘Understanding colonialism and settler colonialism as distinct formations’, Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 16, 5 (2014): 624CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
19 Ibid.
20 Reynolds, The law of the land; Paul Keal, European conquest and the rights of Indigenous Peoples: Moral backwardness of international society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003); Brenna Bhandar, Colonial lives of property: Law, land, and racial regimes of ownership (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2018).
21 Wolf, Patrick, ‘Settler colonialism and the elimination of the native’, Journal of Genocide Research, 8, 4 (2006): 388Google Scholar.
22 Ibid., p. 397.
23 Crawfurd, Journal of an embassy, p. 397.
24 ‘W. Farquhar to T.S. Raffles no. 159, Singapore 11th March 1823’, Straits Settlements Records, L13, Raffles: Letters from Singapore, Singapore National Library.
25 See correspondence in L4 and L5, Straits Settlements Records, Singapore National Library.
26 ‘Extract from the Public Regulations Established on the 26th of June 1819 for the better guidance of the People of this Settlement pointing out where all the different Casts are to reside with their families and Captains or Heads of their Campongs’, Straits Settlements Records, L6, Singapore National Library, p. 12.
27 Anthony Milner, The Malays (Malden: Wiley, 2008), p. 99.
28 ‘Singapore Diary’, IOR/G.34/153, East India Company Records, British Library, p. 278.
29 T.S. Raffles, ‘Education to the Inhabitants of the Further East’, Straits Settlements Records, M2.
30 Alexander Kyd-Lindsay, ‘Journal commencing August 8th 1821’, MS13599 Scottish National Library, p. 96.
31 Ibid.
32 ‘J Crawfurd to G Swinton 10 January 1823’, repr. in J.R. Logan, ed., Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia 9 (Singapore: Jacob Baptist, 1855), p. 461.
33 Ibid.
34 H.T.H., , and an Eye-Witness, , ‘Landing of Raffles in Singapore’, Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 10 (1882): 285Google Scholar.
35 Cynthia Chou, The Orang Suku Laut of Riau, Indonesia: The inalienable gift of territory (London: Routledge, 2010), p. 40.
36 Trocki, Prince of pirates, p. xv.
37 John Crawfurd, Descriptive dictionary of the Indian Islands and adjacent countries (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1971), p. 250.
38 ‘No. 46 W. Farquhar to L N Hull 27th January 1823’, Straits Settlements Records, L13: Raffles: Letters from Singapore, Singapore National Library.
39 Ibid.
40 ‘Farquhar to L N Hull, 11th February 1823’, Straits Settlements Records, L13, Singapore National Library.
41 ‘G Swinton to Temenggong, 5th March 1824’, Straits Settlements Records, M2, Singapore National Library.
42 Gareth Knapman, Race and British colonialism in Southeast Asia, 1770–1870: John Crawfurd and the politics of equality (London: Routledge, 2016).
43 John Crawfurd, History of the Indian Archipelago containing an account of the manners, arts, language, religions, institutions, and commerce of its inhabitants, vol. 3 (London: Frank Cass [1820]1967), p. 62.
44 Ibid.
45 Ibid.
46 Ibid., p. 63.
47 Ibid., p. 62.
48 Crawfurd, Journal of an embassy, p. 395.
49 Ibid., p. 366.
50 ‘W. Farquhar to T.S. Raffles 17th April 1821’, Straits Settlements Records, L4, Singapore National Library, p. 328.
51 Ibid.
52 Ibid., p. 326.
53 Ibid., p. 330.
54 Thomas Stamford Raffles, ‘Arrangements with the Sultan and Toomoongong’, 7 June 1823, in J.R. Logan, ed., ‘Singapore notices’, Journal of the Indian Archipelago (Singapore: 1853), p. 344.
55 ‘No. 46, 27th January 1823’, Straits Settlements Records, L13, Singapore National Library.
56 ‘17th April 1821’, Straits Settlements Records, L4, Singapore National Library, p. 334.
57 Charles Buckley, An anecdotal history of old times in Singapore, vol. 1 (Singapore: Fraser & Neave, 1902), p. 73.
58 Ibid., p. 75.
59 Thomas Stamford Raffles, ‘Letter to anonymous 10 December 1822’, in Lady Sophia Raffles, Memoir of the life and public services of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles (London: John Murray, 1830), pp. 252–3.
60 John Crawfurd, ‘15th July 1823’, Straits Settlements Records, L19, Singapore National Library, pp. 135–7.
61 Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir, The Hikayat Abdullah, trans. A.H. Hill (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1970), p. 160.
62 Ibid.; Miller, H. Eric, ‘Extracts from the letters of Col. Nahuijs’, Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 19, 2 (1941): 169–209Google Scholar.
63 Kadir, Hikayat Abdullah, p. 159.
64 Ibid., pp. 159–60.
65 Buckley, An anecdotal history of old times in Singapore, p. 99.
66 Ibid., p. 195.
67 Ibid., p. 196.
68 Thomas Stamford Raffles, ‘Letter to William Marsden 21 January 1823’, in S. Raffles, Memoir, p. 258.
69 Newbold, Political and statistical account, vol. 1, p. 283.
70 Buckley, An anecdotal history, p. 75.
71 Ibid.
72 Ibid., p. 33.
73 Ibid., p. 85.
74 Ibid.
75 Thomas Stamford Raffles, ‘Appendix: Regulation, no. 1, of 1832, A Regulation for the Registry of Land at Singapore’, in S. Raffles, Memoir, p. 40.
76 Ibid.
77 ‘Original Agreement between Sir Stamford Raffles and Sultan Hussain Mahomed Shah, for the occupation of Singapore, in June 1819’, in A collection of treaties, engagements, and sunnuds, relating to India and neighbouring countries, compiled by C.U. Aitchison (Calcutta: Savielle and Cranenburg; London: Longmans, etc., 1862), vol. 1, p. 293.
78 Wake, ‘Raffles and the Rajas’, p. 66.
79 ‘9 June 1823’, Straits Settlements Records, L17, Singapore National Library, pp. 712–13; also published in Buckley, An anecdotal history, vol. 1, p. 107.
80 Wake, ‘Raffles and the Rajas’, p. 48.
81 ‘T.S. Raffles to J. Crawfurd 7th June, 1823’, repr. in J.R. Logan, ed., Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia 7 (Singapore: Jacob Baptist, 1853), p. 340.
82 ‘Sir T.S. Raffles's letter to the Supreme Government. 7th June, 1823’, repr. in ibid., p. 344.
83 For an analysis of Dutch reactions to Singapore see: Borschberg, Peter, ‘Dutch objections to British Singapore, 1819–1824: Law, politics, commerce and a diplomatic misstep’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 50, 4 (2019): 540–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
84 ‘J Crawfurd to G Swinton 10th January, 1823’, repr. in Logan, Journal of the Indian Archipelago (1855), p. 461.
85 Ibid., p. 462.
86 Ibid., p. 467.
87 Crawfurd, Embassy to Siam, vol. 2, p. 392; Villiers, ‘Report from the Select Committee on the Affairs of the East India Company’, appendix no. 8, p. 99.
88 ‘J Crawfurd to G. Winton, 3 August 1824’, repr. in Logan, Journal of the Indian Archipelago (1853), p. 350.
89 Crawfurd, Journal of an embassy, vol. 2, p. 392; Villiers, ‘Report from the Select Committee’, appendix no. 8, p. 99.
90 Villiers, ibid., p. 98.
91 Dudley and E. Harrowby Ryder, ‘Report from the Select Committee on Commercial Relations with China; together with the minutes of evidence, appendix, and index’, (1847), p. 196.
92 Ibid.
93 See Colonial frontier massacres Australia, 1788–1930, https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/introduction.php; Lyndall Ryan, email communication, 19 July 2020.
94 Crawfurd, Journal of an embassy, vol. 2, p. 392.
95 Buckley, An anecdotal history, p. 156.
96 Wake, ‘Raffles and the Rajas’.
97 Crawfurd, Journal of an embassy, vol. 2, p. 392.
98 Kadir, Hikayat Abdullah, pp. 218–30.
99 Ibid., p. 219.
100 Ibid., p. 218.
101 Ibid., p. 219.
102 These figures have been calculated by taking the exchange rate for the US dollar to British pound for 1824. The US dollar was same value as the Spanish dollar until 1857. The exchange rate was US$4.87 = £1. I then calculated the difference between the value of the pound in 1824 and 2020 using a labour value calculation, i.e. a comparative price on wages rather than real price CPI. Finally, I used the current exchange rate calculation from 18 Nov. 2020 to convert back to US dollars. See Lawrence H. Officer, ‘Dollar-pound exchange rate from 1791’, MeasuringWorth, 2020, http://www.measuringworth.com/exchangepound/, and ‘Five ways to compute the relative value of a UK pound amount, 1270 to present’, MeasuringWorth, 2020, www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/.
