Who Founded Singapore? The British East India Company

Modern Singapore was founded as a British trading post on 6 February 1819 by Sir Stamford Raffles, acting for the British East India Company (EIC).

• Raffles negotiated a treaty with Sultan Hussein Shah and the Temenggong, securing a free port.
• The EIC administered Singapore until 1824, when the Anglo-Dutch Treaty ceded it fully to Britain.
• 1826: Joined Penang and Malacca as the Straits Settlements (crown colony 1867).
• 1963: Merger with Malaysia; 1965: Independence.

The EIC's commercial imperative—strategic location on the China trade route—created the entrepôt that became a global city.