Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign city-state and island country located in maritime Southeast Asia. Singapore is located north of the equator. Its closest neighbours are Malaysia and Indonesia. About 5.40 million people live in Singapore, of which 3.31 million are citizens, and most of them (76%) are Chinese.

Singapore is a unitary parliamentary constitutional republic with a unicameral legislature that has been characterised by dominant-party rule since independence.

In 1613, Portuguese raiders burned down the settlement, and the island faded into obscurity for the next two centuries. By then Singapore was nominally part of the Johor Sultanate. Singapore was set up as a British trading town in 1819 by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles and became an important town in the Malay Archipelago, "Singapore". The country was given colony rank in 1867.

After WWII many people wanted independence. In 1963 Singapore joined with Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak to form the new nation of Malaysia. Singapore wanted equality for all the people of Malaysia. Singapore also wanted a common market to be set up so that goods to Malaysia would not be taxed. However, this was not done causing arguments between the state government of Singapore and the federal government of Malaysia.

Singapore separated from Malaysia and became independent on its own on 9 August 1965.

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