Thomas Stamford Raffles

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Thomas Stamford Raffles, 1824

Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles (born July 6, 1781 in Port Morant , Jamaica , † July 5, 1826 in London ) was a British explorer , statesman and founder of modern Singapore .

Early life

Stamford Raffles was born on July 6, 1781 on the merchant ship Ann off the coast of Port Morant, Jamaica . His father, the indebted captain of the ship, Benjamin Raffles (d. June 1797) and his wife Anne Raffles (née Lyde) were on their way home from the West Indies to Great Britain .

The little money the family earned was just enough for school. In 1795, at the age of 14, Raffles had to break it off in order to support his mother and four sisters financially. So he began to work in London as an employee for the British East India Company , which held the monopoly on trade with the British colonies in East Asia and shaped many of the British conquests overseas. There he copied letters, reports and other texts by hand for about ten years. Despite the adverse circumstances, he taught himself several languages ​​during this time and studied science on his own. That earned him a good reputation.

Penang

In 1805, he was sent to Penang Island (then Prince of Wales Island ) off the west coast of Malaysia , where his long association with Southeast Asia began. In Penang, he was appointed deputy secretary to the newly installed governor of Penang. Raffles also married for the first time: his first wife was Olivia Mariamne Devenish, the widow of a surgeon from Madras.

On Penang, Raffles deal intensively with the language and culture of the Malay peoples on the island. This knowledge, but also his humor, aroused the interest of the Governor General of India Lord Minto . He sent him to Malacca to prepare for the invasion of Java .

Java

British invasion of Java

In 1811 the Kingdom of Holland and with it the colony of Java were annexed by France . The island had previously been used as a base to capture and destroy British merchant ships. British troops landed on Java on August 6, 1811. The war was quickly won within 45 days by Admiral Robert Stopford , General Frederick Augustus Wetherall and Colonel Rollo Gillespie, and the island was occupied. Lord Minto made Raffles responsible for the victory, which is why he appointed him lieutenant governor of Java on September 11, 1811.

Governor of Java

At the age of 30, Raffles ruled Java and numerous small islands with a total of several million inhabitants. He chose Buitenzorg (now Bogor ) as his place of residence . Raffles used the British as senior officials, but like the French they kept many Dutch officials in the administration. He ordered a land survey , divided the island into sixteen administrative units and introduced a land tax. In addition, he switched the road traffic to left-hand traffic according to the English model .

During the relatively brief British rule in Java, Raffles carried out some significant military expeditions against local Javanese princes to bring them under British rule.

Most significant was the attack on Yogyakarta on June 21, 1812, one of the two most powerful indigenous communities in Java. The humiliation of the residents was profound. This event may have fueled the ingrained hostility towards the European occupiers that eventually sparked the Java War of the 1820s.

Raffles restricted the local slave trade during his tenure as lieutenant and governor . This was in line with British policy in the Asian territories - but slavery remained widespread.

For the first time under Raffles, numerous ancient monuments were systematically cataloged in Java. The first detailed English-language report on the Hindu temple Prambanan was prepared by Colin Mackenzie, while the Buddhist temple Borobudur was measured and cleared of vegetation by HC Cornelius. In his book The History of Java , Raffles has described the island's history since ancient times.

After four and a half years, however, he was deposed as governor and replaced by John Fendall. His reforms were too expensive and not successful enough for the British East India Company. In addition, his first wife had died, one reason why his health was deteriorating.

His advocate Lord Minto had also died and Java fell back to the Dutch in 1815. So he returned to London in 1816 with a damaged reputation in order to clear his name. On the way he visited Napoléon Bonaparte on St. Helena , but found him uncomfortable and unimpressive.

Stay in England

He was well received in London society. In 1817, Prince Regent George IV beat him to a Knight Bachelor degree and was accepted into the Royal Society . He brought his extensive ethnographic collection to England.

When his book The History of Java appeared in 1817 , he stopped using his first name Thomas. Instead he used his middle name Stamford, probably not to be confused with Sir Thomas Sevestre or his cousin Thomas Raffles. Also in 1817, on February 22nd, he married his second wife, Sophia Hull.

Raffles was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Bencoolen (now Bengkulu Province in Indonesia) on October 15 and left with his wife.

Governor of Bencoolen

On March 19, 1818, the two arrived in Bencoolen off the west coast of Sumatra . Despite the prestige associated with the title of Lieutenant Governor, Bencoolen was a colonial hinterland whose only relevant export product was pepper . The only thing Bencoolen was known for in Britain was the murder of former resident Thomas Parr.

Raffles found the place shabby and immediately set about implementing reforms. These were similar to what he had implemented on Java: For example, the abolition of slavery and the ban on cockfighting and similar games. He replaced the slaves with a contingent of convicts sent to him from India .

At this point he recognized the importance of a British base, which questioned the Dutch supremacy in Southeast Asia and, unlike Bencoolen, could be profitable in the long term. However, the strategic position of the poorly maintained British colonies such as Penang or Bencoolen made it impossible to abandon them. Raffles therefore explored alternatives in the area - above all Bangka , which, however, had been given back to the Dutch after the British conquered Java. Bintan was also considered. The island was overlooked by Francis Light before establishing the British settlement on Penang in 1786. Because of its proximity to Malacca, the island in the Riau Archipelago was an attractive choice.

In his correspondence with the British administration in Calcutta , Raffles also stressed the need to exercise some influence over local chiefs. Since the return of the Dutch, this has decreased significantly. Raffles sent Thomas Travers to the Netherlands as ambassador to negotiate an expansion of British business interests in Southeast Asia. When this failed and Raffles' own expeditions in Bencoolen found only treacherous terrain and barely any exportable goods, his desire to build a better British presence solidified.

Foundation of Singapore

Stamford Raffles statue in Singapore

In late 1818 Raffles sailed for Calcutta to convince the new Governor General of India, Lord Hastings , that a new base was needed to protect British trade with the Far East. Despite Lord Hastings' bad opinion of Raffles, thanks to his numerous new contacts, he was able to obtain permission to build a settlement.

On December 7, 1818, with Hastings' permission, he set out to establish this very base east of the Strait of Malaka . On January 29th he reached his destination: a sparsely populated island off the southern tip of Malaysia. There he negotiated with an envoy from the Sultan of Johor . Just nine days later, on February 6, he was already signing the official contract with Sultan Hussein, in which the British East India Company was given control of the island of Singapore . A small British military presence and trading post were established.

In doing so, he risked a conflict with the Dutch: official Dutch complaints arrived before the end of the month, and Raffles tried to calm the situation by instructing Major William Farquhar, the resident of Singapore , not to interfere in the politics of the surrounding islands . In addition, his actions were officially rejected by the British government. Despite numerous threats and serious considerations by the Dutch governor general in Java, no military measures were taken.

In London, Viscount Castlereagh tried to allay Dutch fears. The Dutch did not recognize the treaty between Raffles and the Sultan of Johor because the Sultanate was within the Dutch sphere of influence. However, measures were also taken to clarify the balance of power in Southeast Asia, which ultimately culminated in the British-Dutch Treaty of 1824 . From then on, Singapore was officially tolerated by the Netherlands.

Bencoolen 1820-1822

After the founding of Singapore, Raffles initially returned to Bencoolen for three years, from where he also ruled Singapore. In doing so, however, he duped the authorities in Penang, which is much closer to Singapore, who refused to send troops to replenish the Singapore garrison.

Food production on Bencoolen became a problem, but the East India Company was only interested in profit, not the residents. Raffles then ran the colony like a landlord his estate. His spending on nature conservation was seriously frowned upon. His impeachment was discussed in both Calcutta and London , while Castlereagh continued negotiations with the Dutch.

A series of personal tragedies began for Raffles in 1821: his eldest son, Leopold Stamford (b. 1818), died during an epidemic on July 4, 1821. His eldest daughter, Charlotte (b. 1818) and his youngest son, Stamford Marsden (b. 1820) suffered from the intestinal disease dysentery at the end of the year . First his son died on January 3, 1822, followed ten days later by Charlotte.

For four months, Raffles and his wife Sophia remained devastated. On top of all the problems was the suicide of Castlereagh in London and the ousting of Lord Hastings, Governor General of India. Now he decided to visit Singapore before returning to England. He is accompanied by his wife Sophia and their only surviving child, Ella.

Raffles was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1822 .

Singapore 1822-1823

When Raffles returned to Singapore in October 1822, the initial five hundred villagers on the island had grown to five thousand merchants, soldiers and officials.

Raffles was determined to destroy the Dutch trade monopoly in the region and replace it with a gateway for trade with China and Japan. To achieve this, Singapore was reorganized: it should grow from a village to a modern city. The so-called Raffles Town Plan provided separate districts for each ethnic group in order to avoid conflicts. In addition, numerous streets, schools and administrative buildings were built and the Resident Court , a court, came into being.

Most importantly, Singapore was declared a free port. That way it could best compete with the ports in the region that were controlled by the Netherlands.

Resident William Farquhar was now causing problems: There were numerous reports of anger with British traders and overreaction to minor violations of the law. For this he was partly officially reprimanded by Calcutta. The public expenditure still commissioned by Raffles and carried out by Farquhar had also become overwhelmingly expensive.

Raffles repeatedly tried to persuade Calcutta to send a replacement for Farquhar; but his letters went unanswered. When Raffles began planning his imminent retirement, Calcutta eventually named John Crawfurd , who had accompanied Raffles for over twenty years, as the new resident of Singapore while Captain William Gordon MacKenzie took over as governor of Bencoolen.

Return to England

Feeling that his work on founding Singapore was finished, he boarded a ship home on June 9, 1823. Before that, he stopped in Batavia to visit his old homeland Java and his opponent, the Dutchman van der Capellen. A final stop in Bencoolen followed. Another family tragedy occurred there when his daughter Flora Nightingall, born on September 19, died on November 28.

On February 2, 1824, Raffles and his family finally left for England on the East Indiaman Fame . However, the ship caught fire 50 miles from Bencoolen. All passengers on board were rescued while the ship itself was completely destroyed. All of his drawings and papers were destroyed in the fire.

Over a year after he left Singapore on August 22, 1824, Raffles finally returned to England. His longest stay in Singapore was only eight months, but he is still considered the founder of Singapore to this day.

Raffle's health continued to deteriorate. His large ethnographic collection and his numerous experiences earned him the reputation of an orientalist .

At the end of November 1824 he and his wife moved to Berners Street in London. Farquhar, who had also returned to London, made serious accusations against Raffles and sued him in the East India Company court. Ultimately, Farquhar's attempts to discredit him were unsuccessful and he was not given the post of Singapore resident.

With this question resolved, Raffles turned to his other great interests: botany and zoology . Raffles was the founder (1825) and first President (elected April 1826) of the Zoological Society of London and the London Zoo .

Not only has he not been granted a pension, but he has been asked to pay £ 22,000 for losses incurred during his tenure. Raffles responded with a detailed justification for his actions at the time. He decided to move to his estate. Before the problem was solved, he was way too sick.

He died of a brain tumor the day before his 45th birthday on July 5, 1826, at Highwood House in Mill Hill, his country estate in north London. His estate was approximately £ 10,000, which was paid to the East India Company to cover its outstanding debt.

Because of his negative attitude towards slavery, he was denied burial in the local parish church (St. Mary's, Hendon) by the pastor Theodor Williams. His family had made their living from the slave trade in Jamaica. A brass plaque was finally put up in 1887. The actual whereabouts of his body was not clarified until 1914 when he was found in a vault. When the church was expanded in the 1920s, his tomb was incorporated into the church. Today a floor plaque with an inscription marks his grave.

Raffles was survived by his second wife Sophia Hull († 1858) and his daughter Ella († 1840). Thirty-three years after his death, Raffles' extensive collection was donated to the British Museum .

Honors, memberships and dedication names

biology

He has researched numerous plants, including Rafflesia arnoldii and he was the first to describe the Kleinkantschil ( Tragulus kanchil ) . The plant genus Rafflesia , the plant family Rafflesiaceae and the pitcher plant species Nepenthes rafflesiana bear his name. Other taxa named after Raffles are the subspecies Callosciurus prevostii rafflesii of the Prevost squirrel , the butterflyfish species Chaetodon rafflesii , the olive-backed woodpecker ( Dinopium rafflesii ), the subspecies Herpestes javanicus rafflesii of the lesser mongoose and the multicolored bearded bird ( Psilopogon ),

Hotels

The most famous hotel in Singapore was named after him, the Raffles Hotel , as was The Stamford by Swissôtel.

Companies

  • Raffles Holdings - as the parent company of Raffles International. It is owned by Temasek Holdings .
  • Raffles Medical Group - a private healthcare provider in Asia that operates medical facilities in thirteen cities in Singapore, China, Japan, Vietnam and Cambodia.
  • Yantai CIMC Raffles Shipyard shipbuilding company in Yantai . The shipyard is one of three shipyards operated by CIMC Raffles Offshore Ltd. operate.

Schools and public institutions

Sports

Transportation

Memberships

Thomas Stamford Raffles was an active member of the Freemasons Association . He was accepted into the Virtue et Artis Amici Lodge on Java . In 1813 he held the office of Master of the Chair in the Friendship Lodge in Surabaya .

Works

literature

Web links

Commons : Stamford Raffles  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Vernon Cornelius: Familiy of Sir Stamford Raffles. In: Sinagpore Infopedia. National Library Board Singapore, August 26, 2016, accessed June 15, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Victoria Glendinning: My hero: Thomas Stamford Raffles by Victoria Glendinning. In: theguardian.com. Guardian News and Media Limited, October 26, 2012, accessed June 15, 2018 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l H.F. Pearson: Sir Stamford Raffles. In: Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., March 15, 2016, accessed June 15, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles. In: rmbr.nus.edu.sg. Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, 2000, archived from the original on April 4, 2005 ; accessed on June 15, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Java Expedition 1811. In: nationalarchives.gov.uk. February 23, 2013, accessed June 15, 2018 .
  6. ^ A b c Lady Sophia Raffles: Memoir of the Life and Public Services of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles . Ed .: J. Duncan. tape 1 , 1835, ISBN 978-1-175-03667-4 , pp. 140-141 .
  7. ^ Jochen Schlingmann: Stamford Raffles. In: Asiareisender.de. September 5, 2012, accessed June 15, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Tim Hannigan: Raffles and the British Invasion of Java . Monsoon Books Pte. Ltd, 2013, ISBN 978-981-4358-85-9 .
  9. ↑ Tim Hannigan: The Red-Coat Conquest of Yogyakarta. In: Jakarta Globe. June 21, 2012, accessed June 15, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Borobudur - Timeline. In: pbs.org. Public Broadcasting Service, accessed June 15, 2018 .
  11. ^ Thomas Stamford Raffles: The History of Java . London 1830 ( archive.org ).
  12. ^ William Warden: Letters written on board His Majesty's ship the Northumberland, and at St. Helena; in which the conduct and conversations of Napoleon Buonaparte, and his suite, during the voyage, and the first months of his residence in that island, are faithfully described and related . 1816.
  13. ^ A b About the Raffles Family Collection. In: bl.uk. British Library, accessed June 15, 2018 .
  14. ^ Bonny Tan: Sophia Hull. In: Singapore Infopedia. National Library Board Singapore, 1999, accessed June 16, 2018 .
  15. ^ Tugu Thomas Parr. In: bengkulukota.go.id. Bengkulu Municipal Government, archived from the original on May 15, 2015 ; Retrieved June 16, 2018 (Indonesian).
  16. ^ Anthony Webster: Gentleman Capitalists: British Imperialism in Southeast Asia 1770-1890 . Library of Historical Studies, 1998, ISBN 978-1-86064-171-8 ( google.de ).
  17. ^ Yab Lim Guan Eng: Fort Cornwall's 228th Anniversary Celebration Speech. In: Penang.gov.my. Penang State Government, August 11, 2014, accessed June 16, 2018 .
  18. ↑ a b c d e Heirwin Mohd Nasir: Stamford Raffles's career and contributions to Singapore. In: Singapore Infopedia. National Library Board Singapore, 2014, accessed June 16, 2018 .
  19. ^ Singing of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty (Treaty of London) of 1824. In: History SG. Singapore Government, 2014, accessed June 16, 2018 .
  20. ↑ Members. In: Americanantiquarian.com. American Antiquarian Society, 2018, accessed June 16, 2018 .
  21. ^ Bonny Tan: Raffles Town Plan (Jackson Plan). In: Singapore Infopedia. National Library Board Singapore, 2016, accessed June 16, 2018 .
  22. ^ CM Turnbull: A History of Modern Singapore, 1819-2005 . Ed .: National University of Singapore. NUS Press, Singapore 209, ISBN 978-9971-69-430-2 ( google.de ).
  23. ^ Susan Tsang: Discover Singapore: The City's History & Culture Redefined . Marshall Cavendish, 2008, ISBN 978-981-261-365-3 .
  24. ↑ St Mary's Churchyard, Hendo. In: London Gardens Online. London Parks & Gardens Trust, accessed June 16, 2018 .
  25. ↑ Singapore Airlines with new Raffles Class , NZZ newspaper article from September 6, 2001, accessed on May 5, 2020.
  26. ↑ Eugen Lennhoff, Oskar Posner, Dieter A. Binder: Internationales Freemaurerlexikon . Revised and expanded new edition of the 1932 edition, Munich 2006, 951 pages, ISBN 978-3-7766-5036-5 , Lemma Raffles, Sir Thomas, p. 687
personal data
SURNAME Raffles, Thomas Stamford
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Raffles, Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Founder of Singapore
DATE OF BIRTH July 6, 1781
PLACE OF BIRTH Port Morant off the coast of Jamaica
DATE OF DEATH July 5, 1826
Place of death London