Singapore is perhaps the only society to be reasonable to call a matriarchy. 65% of land is owned by women and 75% of political leaders are women. Since the Singaporean Congress was formally created to govern the island in 1840 only 6 men have been President, four of which were in the last hundred years. This abnormal culture originated, as with most things Singaporean, in 1812, when a massive influx of mostly female* slaves from then to 1822 exploded the population from around 500 to above 10,000 and would have been more if more had chosen not to go to America.
This means that around 6,000 to 7,000 of the island’s inhabitants were women by 1822, and the massive disparity wouldn’t be nearly balanced until 1880. These women were given stipends that allowed them to buy a plot of land for a house and many pooled together to buy land for farming communes, other started businesses,** and a few crews bought their own tradeships***.
The island had a simple elected position to govern similar to a mayor, to which a woman named Yan Zhen had been elected. In 1832, with the outbreak of the Anglo-American War, came the British invasion of Singapore. Most of the inhabitants of the island, including the stationed Marine brigade, fled to Lanfang or Johor. However many, around 5000 people, stayed behind. A majority of which were women freed on the island that bought land and built their homes there.
The British were not kind occupiers, not only did they look down upon “orientals,” they hated anything that had to do with America and its culture. When the commanding officer of the British forces, Major Sentinel Bigby, marched to the governing house for the city he demanded the woman standing at the front of it to go fetch the governor, assuming she was a servant.
She, Yan Zhen, responded that she was the one in charge of the island and would be negotiating for it. Bigby, incredulous, laughed, and tried to send her off to find the “real leader” of the island. Becoming angry at her subsequent insistence she was the real leader he ordered her arrest. When it became apparent later that she was indeed the elected leader, he dismissed her of her position and placed himself as the military governor during the occupation. He was in command of the island for another 4 years. He was a notorious racist and misogynist, and his lack of care for the island's inhabitants was the defining factor of the brutality of the occupation. Bigby never punished any mistreatment of the people there, which only encouraged the sadistic portions of his army to go about their barbarity.
Yan Zhen reportedly died after two months of being beaten and raped by her guards. 168 other women were known to have died similar deaths, not counting the 30 women that were executed for dissidence, with countless others raped and left alive. The Rape of Singapore, along with many other atrocities during the Anglo-American War, by the British forces was not recognized by Britain until the early 20th century, with the event notably being one of the last, and left a stain on the psyche of all those involved.
By the end of the occupation, the women who had experienced the rampant misogyny and gross mistreatment by the men of Britain became in return misandrist. This misandry, though not becoming law for the most part and fading within a couple of generations, set a suspicion in the island’s culture of men in power, as well as fueling an extremely radical, for the time, feminist movement. The combination of a woman majority population and landownership practically ensured that the feminist movement was engrained in the spirit and law of Singapore.
Singapore became very feminist in its culture, the children that were raised there having it ingrained into them that women were on the same standing as men in all ways. Those who owned the land of the household were seen as the head of the household, and eventually, that turned into the woman being the default head.
The congress placed massive tariffs on British goods coming through the port. The constitution enshrined freedom from religion in response to the Islamic powers with shariah law surrounding them, making the state officially atheist. Several misandrist laws were enacted from 1840 to 1870, though fortunately, most were repealed shortly after due to foreign pressure.
The most consequential tradition that arose from this time was the precedent of the inheritance of land and business being given to the eldest daughter, instead of the eldest son. Barring a will, it is presumed that ownership will be given to women first, even today. With land being a rare commodity on the small island it became nearly synonymous with wealth. These wealthy women in turn supported women candidates for congress, who in turn enacted laws that supported wealthy people. The laws were in letter completely gender-neutral, but their enforcement heavily favored women due to most wealthy people being women.
Singapore, however, was not at all a horrible place to live for a man, despite propaganda otherwise. Compulsory education was introduced in 1844, and you were free to venture to American universities no matter your gender. Many men, seeking to strike out and acquire land for themselves elsewhere, joined the US military, others sought gainful employment with the Indies Strait Trade Company. Singaporean men were well known for their exceeding politeness. Labor in Singapore was, and is, dominated by men. Often a man became wealthy purely through marriage, becoming an integral part of whatever business they wedded into, even if they didn’t own it.
The reactions from its neighbors were a mix of mostly negative. It’s certain that if America had not been the protector of Singapore, and if it wasn’t a major trade port, it would have perished. The Islamic sultanates surrounding the nation hated it for “banning” Islam, and many European traders disliked its tariffs and resented its strategic location. However the Qing saw it as a very strange extension of itself due to their appreciation of America, sympathy for British atrocities, and the fact that it was majority Chinese, so Singapore and its traders were granted favored status by the Qing until their collapse.
Singapore became a huge center of culture, with such establishments as the Free Flower Theater, the Singapore Academy of the Arts and Philosophy, and the famous Yan Zhen Memorial Food Market. It quickly became a tourist attraction for all sorts, to see a mystical “amazon republic,” and later a holy site for feminist movements across the world.
Overseas in Europe, Singapore was not noticed much by the public on the continent. France notably had excellent relations, as it was by far the most liberal in its views towards women, however, most other nations had a stance of mild distaste.
The British, however, as with most things American, detested the nation. It was mocked by anti-suffrage activists as what happens when women aren’t kept in the home. The National Drama, the National Artform of Singapore, was denounced as “gauche American smut, unfitting for the imagination, let alone the stage” and “a disgrace to the spirit of Shakespeare.” The tariffs set on British goods were a large annoyance, and The Indies Strait Trade Company infuriated their endeavors in the region.
The distaste between the two nations has lasted to the modern day...
*Estimates range from 60-70% of the slaves freed were female
**The main reason women had to pool together to start businesses was that the labor and resources to build and maintain such buildings were very expensive. Most women built their own houses out of local materials by themselves.
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