SINGAPORE
Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore is an island state located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. The country is located 137 kilometers north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of the Indonesian Riaus Islands. At 710.2 km², Singapore is a microstat and is the smallest country in Southeast Asia. It is significantly larger than Monaco and the Vatican, which are the only other independent city – states.
According to animalerts, Singapore is the fiftieth country in the world in terms of GDP (PPP) per capita. per capita.
Many laws are enforced very strictly. It is expressed in the English statement: “Singapore is a ‘fine’ country”, where the word fine must be understood in a monetary context (a fine). Read them here.
TIMELINE:
1942 – 8-15. February. The Battle of Singapore. Japan conquers Singapore from the British, and the entire British garrison of 60,000 men goes into Japanese captivity. Winston Churchill called it ” Britain’s biggest defeat “.
1963 – The city gains independence from Britain and joins forces with Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak to form Malaysia. But less than two years later, it withdrew from the federation and became an independent republic on August 9, 1965.
2009 – The Economist Intelligence Unit ranks Singapore tenth on the list of most expensive places to live. It became number three in Asia after Tokyo and Osaka.
THAILAND
Thailand (formerly Siam) is a kingdom in Southeast Asia. It borders Burma (Myanmar), Laos, Cambodia and also extends down the Malacca Peninsula to Malaysia. Member of ASEAN.
Thailand differs from other countries in Southeast Asia in that it has never been colonized. Apart from short periods of submission to neighboring Burma and the Japanese occupation during World War II, Thailand has been independent since the 13th century. Traces of human settlement have been found in Thailand, which are 40,000 years old.
TIMELINE:
1238 – The first Thai empire, Sukothai, is founded by people from what is now southern China on the banks of the Chao Phraya River.
In the middle of the 14th century, another kingdom arose, which had its center further south in Ayutthaya, and which was called Siam. Siam succeeds in subduing the Khmers in present-day Cambodia, and Siam’s borders were moved further west and south along the Malacca Peninsula. However, control of the kingdom’s fringe areas was not very effective.
1767 – Burma conquers the kingdom and destroys Ayutthaya.
1782 – General Chao Phya Chakri takes power and becomes the first in the royal dynasty to sit on the throne yet. He had a new capital built at the small trading post Bangkok on the east side of the mouth of Chao Phraya.
20th Century – In the first decades of the 20th century, Siam became more and more prosperous as rice production and exports increased. Bangkok developed into an important trading center, and tensions rose between the king and the increasingly influential bureaucratic elite, which in 1912 carried out a failed coup attempt against the king. Twenty years later, a bloodless coup put an end to autocracy and a constitutional monarchy was introduced.
1938 – December. Marshal Phibun Songkhram, who was a great admirer of Hitler, gradually seized power and became a dictator. The society was modeled on the European fascist model. It was Phibun who in 1939 changed the country’s name to Thailand.
During World War II, Thailand cooperated with Japan, and the Japanese occupation of the country therefore became very mild. As the fortunes of war turned for the Japanese, discontent with the rule of the Thai people grew, and Phibun was deposed in 1944 by a US- backed resistance movement.
1948 – A military dictator, Phibun, seizes power for the second time.
1973-76 – Stormy democratic period.
1980 – Prem Tinsulanonda becomes leader.
1988 – Democracy is reintroduced.
1991 – New military coup.
1992 – Democracy again after bloody unrest.
1997 – Acute economic crisis – new, democratic constitution is adopted.
2006 – Another military coup.
EAST TIMOR
East Timor, or Timor-Leste, is a country in Asia that consists of the eastern part of the island of Timor. The country is located between Indonesia and Australia. After 400 years as a Portuguese colony, 25 years of Indonesian occupation and 30 months of UN transitional rule, East Timor became independent on 20 May 2002.
It is believed that the island was populated between 20 and 40,000 years BC. of Velo-Australian type (as in Sri Lanka ). The next assumption is that people from Melanesia came around 3000 years BC, followed by people from southern China and northern Indochina around 2500 BC.
TIMELINE:
1520 – Portugal goes ashore at Oecussi in 1520 and begins the colonization of what was dubbed Portuguese Timor. The western part was, like most other islands in the area, colonized by the Netherlands.
1941 – The island was briefly under Dutch and Australian rule before Japanese forces occupied the island (February 1942). Portugal took over again (September 1945), after more than 50,000 Timorese had died in battles against Japan.
