Photography, rowing and the pursuit of data.....and Renee  

Singapore History 

Singapore's history dates back at least eight hundred years, having been a maritime emporium known as Temasek in the 1300's and subsequently a major constituent part of several successive maritime  empires. Its contemporary era began in 1819, when Stamford Raffles established Singapore as an entrepôt trading post of the British Empire. In 1867, the colonies in Southeast Asia were reorganized, and Singapore came under the direct control of Britain as part of the Straits Settlements. During World War II, Singapore was occupied by Japan in 1942 and returned to British control as a separate Crown colony following Japan's surrender in 1945. Singapore gained self-governance in 1959 and, in 1963, became part of the new federation of Malaysia, alongside Malaya, North Borneo, and Sarawak. Ideological differences, most notably the perceived encroachment of the egalitarian "Malaysian Malaysia" political ideology led by Lee Kuan Yew into the other constituent entities of Malaysia—at the perceived expense of the bumiputera and the policies of Ketuanan Melayu—eventually led to Singapore's expulsion from the federation two years later; Singapore became an independent sovereign country in 1965.

Borneo history 

Figurative art painting, over 40,000 (perhaps as old as 52,000) years old, of an unknown animal, in the cave of Lubang Jeriji Saléh near east coast of Borneo. Western coastal cities of Borneo had become trading ports by the 100 AD.  In Chinese manuscripts exports included; gold, camphor, tortoise shells, hornbill ivory, rhinoceros horn, crane crest, beeswax, lakawood (a scented heartwood and root wood of a thick liana, Dalbergia parviflora), dragon's blood, rattan, edible bird's nests   The Indians named Borneo Suvarnabhumi (the land of gold) and also Karpuradvipa (Camphor Island). The Javanese named Borneo Puradvipa, or Diamond Island. Archaeological findings in the Sarawak river delta reveal that the area was a thriving centre of trade between India and China from 500 until about 1300.

​

Stone pillars bearing inscriptions in the Pallava script, found in Kutai (SE Borneo) along the Mahakam River 360AD, constitute some of the oldest evidence of Hindu influence in Southeast Asia.  The religion of Islam entered the island in the 900's, following the arrival of Muslim traders who later converted many indigenous peoples in the coastal areas. By the 1300's, Borneo became a vassal state of Majapahit (a Java maritime empire), later changing its allegiance to the Ming dynasty of China.

​

The Sultan (local Islamic ruler) of Brunei declared independence from Majapahit. During its golden age under Bolkiah from the 1400-1600's the Bruneian sultanate ruled almost the entire coastal area of Borneo (lending its name to the island due to its influence in the region) and several islands in the Philippines. The Sultans  engaged in trade with China by means of the frequently-arriving Chinese junk.  Borneo's interior region remained free from the rule of any kingdoms.

British flag hoisted in 1846. While Borneo was seen as rich, the Portuguese did not make any attempts to conquer it.  At the beginning of British and Dutch exploration on the island, they described the island of Borneo as full of head hunters, with the indigenous in the interior practicing cannibalism, and the waters around the island infested with pirates, especially between the north eastern Borneo and the southern Philippines.

​

Map of the island divided between the British and the Dutch, in 1898. The present boundaries of Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei are largely inherited from the British and Dutch colonial rules. Further expansion by the British continued into the Borneo interior. The British administration then established the first railway network in northern Borneo, known as the North Borneo Railway.  During this time, the British sponsored a large number of Chinese workers to migrate to northern Borneo to work in European plantation and mines, and the Dutch followed suit to increase their economic production.  By 1888, North Borneo, Sarawak and Brunei in northern Borneo had become British protectorate. In 1895, the first  oil concession in  east Borneo, and based on oil seepages in the Mahakam River delta,  and the Seria oil field (N Borneo) in 1929.  When independent Malaysia was formed in 1963, the northern British part was included as the province of Sabah. The Sultan of Borneo rules a small west coast region. The biggest southern and eastern region joined Indonesia which was now  the independent ex-Dutch colony. 

​

Indonesia History 

Since centuries BCE the islands were part of migratory and commercial exchange within south-east Asia, India, Arabian peninsula and east-Africa. From classical antiquity on the archipelago was also a major part of the global spice trade. For centuries Hindu-Buddhist civilizations were dominant, increasing trade links instigated the spread of Islam. By the 16th century, a large part of the Archipelago was ruled under Islamic states, except Bali that retained a Hindu majority. Sultanates, city states, local kingdoms and tribes were all connected through trade, creating a mixed Hindu-Buddhist-Islamic culture, and Malay as lingua franca throughout the region. The islands were  visited by expeditions such as that of Marco Polo in 1292. The first Europeans to establish themselves in Indonesia were the Portuguese in 1512 who established a network of trading posts and fortresses throughout the region, including at the spice islands of the Maluku islands.  

​

Following disruption of Dutch access to spices the first Dutch expedition set sail to reach the East Indies in 1595 to access spices directly from Asia. After many skirmishes and hardships, two-thirds of the crew did not return, the ships made it back to Holland and other Dutch expeditions soon followed. Recognizing the potential of the East Indies trade, the Dutch government amalgamated the competing companies into the United East India Company (" VOC"). The VOC foremost goal was to wage war, capture Portuguese ships and fortresses, disrupt and take over their trade routes, and replace their treaties with rulers across Asia and install a local slave workforce.  A capital was established in Batavia (now Jakarta), which became the center of the VOC's Asian trading network.[15] To their original monopolies on nutmeg, peppers, cloves and cinnamon, the company and later colonial administrations introduced non-indigenous cash crops like coffee, tea, cacao, tobacco, rubber, sugar and opium, and safeguarded their commercial interests by taking over surrounding territory.[15] Smuggling, the ongoing expense of war, corruption, and mismanagement led to bankruptcy by the end of the 18th century. The company was formally dissolved in 1800 and its colonial possessions in the Indonesian archipelago (including much of Java, parts of Sumatra, much of Maluku, and the hinterlands of ports such as Makasar, Manado and Kupang) were nationalized under the Dutch Republic as the Dutch East Indies.

The Dutch East Indies 1800-1949  was a Dutch colony that became Indonesia in 1949. In the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, the Dutch ceded the Dutch Malacca to Britain, which was previously a governorate of the Dutch East Indies. This has consolidated modern-day rule to Malacca state of Malaysia. The Dutch East Indies was formed from the nationalized trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Dutch government in 1800.

Japan's World War II occupation dismantled much of the Dutch colonial state and economy. After1945, Indonesian nationalist  leaders Sukarno and Hatta declared independence instigating the Indonesian National Revolution. The Dutch  fought the Indonesian nationalists in attrition warfare. The United States threatened to terminate financial aid for the Netherlands under the Marshall Plan if they did not agree to transfer sovereignty to Indonesia, leading to Dutch recognition of Indonesian sovereignty in1949.  Dutch–Indonesian  Indonesia became one of the leading nations of the independence movement after World War II. In 1962, the Dutch turned over their last possession in Southeast Asia, Dutch New Guinea (Western New Guinea), to Indonesia under the provisions of the New York Agreement.[10] At that point, the entirety of the colony ceased to exist.

​