15 February, 1942: Singapore surrenders to the Japanese. Churchill called Singapore the 'worst disaster' and 'largest capitulation' in British history- and he was right. For just as defeat at Yorktown was the final blow that ended the first British Empire, defeat at Singapore was a decisive blow in a decline of the second British Empire- the one which encompassed one quarter of the world's population and land, on which the sun never set.

It's easy to remember today how important it was, but I think our love of simplification has over-endowed it with a mythic quality that over-estimates how important it was. For many people in the colonies of Southeast Asia, the fall of Singapore may have been the biggest blow against colonialism, but it was not the first or last. In retrospect it is easy to see Singapore as the moment in which the Empire ended- but it returned after the war, renewed with a new sense of purpose among the British that Empire was necessary for the rebuilding of a Britain ravaged by war, with an industrial economy shattered by the effort of stopping Hitler.

In fact, in the 1950s Malaya produced over 50% of the dollar earnings in the Sterling area. There was little chance of Britain letting Malaya go. It was not until 1957, when Britain were sure they had a government which was friendly to British interests and had the mandate of the people of Malaya that they let Malaya go; in Singapore, it wasn't till the Lim Yew Hock government demonstrated that the Singapore government was willing to go to extraordinary lengths to keep the peace that the British agreed to talk about constitutional concessions. The British could have easily stayed another couple of decades if they felt they needed to.

Elsewhere, meanwhile, Britain did stay until they were reasonably sure that their interests would be protected. They left Africa mostly in the 1960s; the Caribbean in the 60s and 70s; Hong Kong and Macau at the end of the 90s; and never left a handful of other places, even going to war to protect the Falkland Islands.

Neither was the fall of Singapore the first blow against the Empire. Awareness among the colonised of the weakness of the Europeans had begun with the Russo-Japanese war in 1904-5, and grew as they watched Europeans kill each other in the trenches of World War I. Their faith in European culture and intelligence badly shaken, their faith in the benefits of European capitalism and economics followed during the Great Depression of the 1930s, and World War II was the blow which decisively shattered any remaining belief that the people in the colonies may have had.

Interestingly, what would have happened if the Japanese stayed in Singapore for a longer time and had a chance to consolidate their grip? We remember the Japanese Occupation as a desperate time, but consider as a counterfactual the Japanese occupation of Taiwan for 50 years. The Japanese were brutal and repressive, but they introduced many legal and industrial reforms and institutions, as well as trained up a professional class, that enabled Taiwan's rapid economic advance in the 1960s and 1970s.

Thus, as we pause to remember the events of this day 65 years ago, we should also remember that it wasn't a single blow which destroyed an Empire; nor was it a blow which liberated a people; nor was it a moment which destined doom for our country. Rather, it was an event in a long chain of events which led the people of Singapore to conclude that rule by a more knowledgeable, influential and powerful class had its benefits, especially in terms of the creation of wealth, but the only way for us to truly be free to act in our own interest is to seize control of our own destinies. We continued to learn that lesson today. One hopes that we will never forget and will continue to aspire to a society and system in which every member of our nation is truly at liberty to express their opinion and to pursue their dreams and desires. Then we will truly be free.