{"id":18120,"date":"2019-10-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-10T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/2019\/10\/11\/singapores-shifting-roles-through-the-centuries\/"},"modified":"2021-02-15T16:14:36","modified_gmt":"2021-02-15T08:14:36","slug":"singapores-shifting-roles-through-the-centuries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/2019\/10\/11\/singapores-shifting-roles-through-the-centuries\/","title":{"rendered":"Singapore\u2019s shifting roles through the centuries"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_18121\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18121\" style=\"width: 941px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18121\" src=\"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/08\/Untitled-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"941\" height=\"941\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/08\/Untitled-1.png 941w, https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/08\/Untitled-1-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/08\/Untitled-1-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/08\/Untitled-1-768x768.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 941px) 100vw, 941px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-18121\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: \u2018The horizon of Singapore filled with ships\u2019 by Filbert Kuong from SRN\u2019s SG Photobank<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The study of Singapore\u2019s history across the past 700 years reveals key continuities and discontinuities. In an editorial in The Straits Times, Associate Professor Peter Borschberg (NUS Department of History) highlights two insights from Singapore\u2019s distant past \u2013 firstly, Singapore was and remains a contested space and secondly, Singapore had shifting roles across the centuries.<\/p>\n<p>Being strategically located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, and along the Singapore and Malacca Straits, Singapore and its adjacent waters have historically been coveted both for commercial and military interests. This has resulted in contestations between Majapahit and Siam in the 1300s, Aceh and Portugal in the 1500s, Portugal and The Netherlands in the 1600s, and Britain and The Netherlands in the 1700s. A\/P Borschberg points out that Singapore is still located in a contested space and that the relative stability enjoyed over the past two centuries is historically the exception rather than the norm.<\/p>\n<p>The strategic importance of Singapore also explains its different functions throughout history, such as being an emporium for jungle and marine produce destined for the Chinese market in the 14<sup>th<\/sup> century, a flashpoint during Portuguese-Dutch military confrontations in the 17<sup>th<\/sup> century, and a British trading port in the 19<sup>th<\/sup> century. A\/P Borschberg notes that these developments had less to do with domestic policies than with the greater geopolitical forces outside of Singapore.<\/p>\n<p>Taking into account the changing roles of Singapore amidst varying contestations in the area throughout history, A\/P Borschberg stresses that Singapore\u2019s survival has depended on its ability to reinvent and adapt itself to changing circumstances, and that this is unlikely to change in the future.<\/p>\n<p>Read the article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/opinion\/singapores-shifting-roles-through-the-centuries\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The study of Singapore\u2019s history across the past 700 years reveals key continuities and discontinuities. In an editorial in The Straits Times, Associate Professor Peter Borschberg (NUS Department of History) highlights two insights from Singapore\u2019s distant past \u2013 firstly, Singapore was and remains a contested space and secondly, Singapore had shifting roles across the centuries. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":247,"featured_media":18121,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4529],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/247"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18120"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28606,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18120\/revisions\/28606"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}