Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm to blame a chuck for boarding and I'm Fara
Speaker 1: Dali and we touched a lot on British imperialism in
Speaker 1: this podcast and in the stories we usually tell, those
Speaker 1: pertaining to India in particular, the British tend to dominate
Speaker 1: and seem like the most powerful governing force in the
Speaker 1: East Indies. But the story that we're going to tell
Speaker 1: today is about the island of Java, which is now
Speaker 1: part of Indonesia, and in the late seventeen hundreds early
Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds or so when our story begins, it was
Speaker 1: actually controlled by the Dutch and their Dutch East India Company.
Speaker 1: So the Dutch had come to control most of the
Speaker 1: East Indies by this time, along with its very lucrative
Speaker 1: spice trade that was kind of the main attraction, and
Speaker 1: they set up a monopoly system that prevented other European
Speaker 1: ships from even coming into the area. That's how whore
Speaker 1: in the spice trade was to them. And the subject
Speaker 1: of this podcast, Sir Thomas Stanford Bingley Raffles, was one
Speaker 1: of the first to try to change all of that
Speaker 1: and to help the British Empire get more of a
Speaker 1: foothold in the East. Raffles is now best known as
Speaker 1: the founder of Singapore, but years before making a move
Speaker 1: into Singapore even entered his mind, Raffles successfully helped lead
Speaker 1: a mission to ouse the Dutch from Java and ended
Speaker 1: up serving as Lieutenant governor there for five years in
Speaker 1: a time known as the British Interregnum. So today Raffles
Speaker 1: is kind of almost celebrated as a kind of hero,
Speaker 1: someone who is reform minded, who fought against slave trading
Speaker 1: in Southeast Asia. He was also a celebrated naturalist who
Speaker 1: discovered several species of plants and helped found the London zoos.
Speaker 1: So he's got a very respectable resume, But during his
Speaker 1: lifetime he wasn't always so well thought of by everyone.
Speaker 1: In fact, his time in Java basically ruined his reputation
Speaker 1: with the British East India Company because there was one
Speaker 1: important thing that mattered, and that was making money. So
Speaker 1: we're gonna look at what happened there that would have
Speaker 1: such a ruinous result, and how Raffles managed to salvage
Speaker 1: his career actually have a successful career in spite of it.
Speaker 1: But first a little bit on raffles background, just because
Speaker 1: it makes what he did later even more surprising and
Speaker 1: impressive to me at least. Raffles was born into a
Speaker 1: modest middle class family. His father, whose name was Benjamin Raffles,
Speaker 1: was a merchant captain in the West Indies trade, and
Speaker 1: Stanford Raffles was actually born on board his father's ship
Speaker 1: off the coast of Jamaica on July six one, and
Speaker 1: Raffles is known as only having had a couple of
Speaker 1: years of formal schooling. He had to leave boarding school
Speaker 1: at age fourteen because his family was having some serious
Speaker 1: financial trouble, and at that time he got his first
Speaker 1: job with the British East India Company as a clerk,
Speaker 1: which something young, but I think that was kind of
Speaker 1: the norm. You would enter the navy at a young
Speaker 1: age and by extension at to like a trading company
Speaker 1: pretty young. But a couple of years after he did that,
Speaker 1: his father died and that put a lot of extra
Speaker 1: pressure on Raffles for having to support his mother and
Speaker 1: his four sisters completely on his own. But he didn't
Speaker 1: just you know, get down to work and forget about
Speaker 1: everything that he was interested in himself. Even though he
Speaker 1: never resumed formal schooling, Raffles continued to study the sciences
Speaker 1: and several languages on his own, and that's of course
Speaker 1: where his interest in natural history started. It kind of
Speaker 1: reminds you a little bit of James Murray from our
Speaker 1: English Oxford English Dictionary episode, somebody who was really self taught,
Speaker 1: and you remember how impressed we were by him. So
Speaker 1: when you see where Raffles accomplishes, you'll kind of understand
Speaker 1: why we thought he would make a good podcast subject.
Speaker 1: So you'd imagine someone who has thus much initiative would
Speaker 1: be pretty good at his job too, And sure enough,
Speaker 1: by eighteen o five, Raffles had impressed his superiors enough
Speaker 1: that they appointed him to be the assistant secretary for
Speaker 1: the new government of Penang in the East Indies. And
Speaker 1: as we mentioned, the Dutch had a pretty tight grip
Speaker 1: on the East Indies at this time, but the island
Speaker 1: of Penang was sort of on the periphery of their
Speaker 1: sphere of influence, and this was a British attempt to
Speaker 1: make their move, albeit very tentatively, into that region for
Speaker 1: something on the edges. Yes, So before Raffles left for
Speaker 1: the east. He married a widow named Olivia fan Court
Speaker 1: and they set off together on this five month sea
Speaker 1: journey to Penang. And this was no honeymoon cruise either.
Speaker 1: The conditions of the ship weren't great. They only made
Speaker 1: one stop in five months in the draw, so it's
Speaker 1: not like they were just lounging around getting to stop
Speaker 1: at very sport right. So again, not a good time,
Speaker 1: but Raffles managed to use his time wisely. He spent
Speaker 1: his time aboard the ship studying the Malay language, which
Speaker 1: was the major language of the area to which he
Speaker 1: was traveling. And as peers might have thought that this
Speaker 1: was a little weird, but Raffles seemed to have a
Speaker 1: natural knack for languages, and learning Malay happened to open
Speaker 1: up a whole new world for him. He was able
Speaker 1: to start reading Southeast Asian books, histories, literature, and so forth,
Speaker 1: and this gave him a better understanding of the Southeast
Speaker 1: Asian people. Yeah, so when he got to Penang, his
Speaker 1: knowledge of Malay helped him converse with the locals, and
Speaker 1: they were pretty impressed and happy that he bothered to
Speaker 1: learn the language and that he could converse with them
Speaker 1: in their own language. I'm pretty impressed that he was
Speaker 1: able to self teach himself so much on the ship
Speaker 1: with presumably just the books, I know what I mean,
Speaker 1: five months sounds like converse with them fluently exactly. I mean,
Speaker 1: five months sounds like a long time to be stuck
Speaker 1: on a ship, but it's really not that long to
Speaker 1: learn a language exactly. So this is probably partly though.
Speaker 1: This ability to learn this language and then his ability
Speaker 1: to converse so readily might be partly why Raffles has
Speaker 1: a reputation for having sympathy for the locals, because he
Speaker 1: could talk to them, He could hear their issues and
Speaker 1: get their point of view. Yeah, and he gathered from
Speaker 1: talking to them, Hey, these people are pretty smart. You know.
Speaker 1: They were probably stereotyped at the time by a lot
Speaker 1: of people coming over from other countries, a lot of foreigners,
Speaker 1: and he was able to kind of bridge that gap
Speaker 1: a little bit. And these qualities soon caught the attention
Speaker 1: of a Gilbert Elliott, better known as Lord Minto, the
Speaker 1: Governor General of India at a very crucial time. Okay,
Speaker 1: so we mentioned that the British were already trying to
Speaker 1: get a bit of a foothold in the East Indies
Speaker 1: because of all the lucrative trading going on there, but
Speaker 1: certain events were taking place back in Europe that convinced
Speaker 1: them that this was the time to make a more
Speaker 1: significant move to go for it. So in the mid
Speaker 1: seventeen nineties, Napoleon and his French Republican forces had invaded
Speaker 1: Holland and that meant in the eyes of the British,
Speaker 1: all Dutch controlled areas were now enemy territory. You know,
Speaker 1: they had a French connection. So the British wanted to
Speaker 1: invade Java pretty much right away to keep it from
Speaker 1: becoming a Napoleon power based But for years that was
Speaker 1: just kind of an idea, something that they were sort
Speaker 1: of talking about. And then finally around eighteen ten, Lord
Speaker 1: Minto got the orders from Britain to quote, proceed to
Speaker 1: the conquest of Java at the earliest possible opportunity. Get
Speaker 1: on at Lord Minto. So Minto, who by this time
Speaker 1: had met Raffles and was not only impressed by his abilities.
Speaker 1: I mean, there weren't a lot of foreigners who were
Speaker 1: well versed in Malay at this time, so he was
Speaker 1: pretty well known for the skill, but he also really
Speaker 1: related to him. Lord Minto did. They seem to have
Speaker 1: similar ideas about extending British influence in the East Indies
Speaker 1: and making reforms. So Lord Minto appointed Raffles to his
Speaker 1: staff and recruited him to participate in the attack on Java,
Speaker 1: and that happened August six, eighteen eleven. The British finally
Speaker 1: made their move. They arrived with a fleet of about
Speaker 1: a hundred chefs and twelve thousand men near the Javanese
Speaker 1: city of Batavia, and they took that city without a struggle,
Speaker 1: pretty much no struggle at all, because they had been
Speaker 1: abandoned by the Dutch, and in fact, the British really
Speaker 1: didn't have any opposition at all at first. According to
Speaker 1: an article in History Today by Tim Hannigan, even though
Speaker 1: the Dutch had about eighteen thousand soldiers stationed in the area,
Speaker 1: they decided to just hang back, see what happened, and
Speaker 1: hope that the British would start dying naturally. I mean
Speaker 1: that sounds like they're kind of hoping for a lot there.
Speaker 1: But but Toby had a really fatal climate and Westerner
Speaker 1: would get sick there, get catch fevers and get thick
Speaker 1: pretty easily, and that's probably one of the reasons why
Speaker 1: there weren't a lot of Dutch in the area in
Speaker 1: the first place. It worked to a certain extent. Some
Speaker 1: of the British did die of fever in the first
Speaker 1: few days, but most of them were able to press
Speaker 1: on further into the island, and by August they were
Speaker 1: finally engaging the Dutch in battle. According to Hannigan's article,
Speaker 1: the Dutch actually had an advantageous defensive position in this battle,
Speaker 1: but their defenses chrome bold rather quickly, mostly because a
Speaker 1: lot of the Dutch troops weren't committed to the Napoleonic
Speaker 1: caused the big problem. Yeah, so when the British were
Speaker 1: rounding a prisoners, several of them even said, you know, quote,
Speaker 1: I am no Frenchman, but a Dutchman, and they'd trample
Speaker 1: on the French emblems on their uniforms. So they really
Speaker 1: did not want to be fighting for the French. By
Speaker 1: September seventeen, the Dutch governor general had surrendered and the
Speaker 1: conquest of Java was complete. They would think the British
Speaker 1: would at this point get to work setting up a
Speaker 1: new colony. You know, they bothered to go fight the
Speaker 1: Dutch in the first place, and they wanted to break
Speaker 1: into this area for so long, right, But the British
Speaker 1: at least initially had no intention of hanging around at all.
Speaker 1: Lord Minto's official orders were to drive out the Dutch
Speaker 1: quote destroy their fortifications, distribute their weapons and other supplies
Speaker 1: to the natives, and then evacuate all the British troops.
Speaker 1: It was basically get in there and then get the
Speaker 1: men out. So both Minto and Raffles had other ideas
Speaker 1: about Java. They didn't want to just immediately give up
Speaker 1: this place they had won. They thought it would be
Speaker 1: a mistake to abandon the area, and they had a
Speaker 1: vision of really turning it into some reformed, lucrative, promised
Speaker 1: land of sorts, so they basically ignored their orders. Minto
Speaker 1: appointed Raffles, who was only thirty years old at this time,
Speaker 1: lieutenant governor of Java, and Colonel ROLLA. Gillespie, who had
Speaker 1: led the invasion, was made commander of Java's military forces.
Speaker 1: So Minto returns to India at this point, and he
Speaker 1: tells the East India Company that he thought there might
Speaker 1: be serious consequences if they abandoned Java, and he promised
Speaker 1: that Java would at least pay for its own expenses.
Speaker 1: It's kind of justification for this move. They've just ye,
Speaker 1: it won't cost you anything, don't worry about it, and
Speaker 1: don't worry the dogs. Right. In reality, though, the Dutch
Speaker 1: had left Java completely bankrupt, so one of Raffles's biggest
Speaker 1: challenges during the British interregnum was to try to battle
Speaker 1: these economic problems, and he was left to do this
Speaker 1: pretty much entirely on his own. So Raffles did a
Speaker 1: lot over the next five years, as we mentioned in
Speaker 1: the intro. Nowadays, he's mostly remembered for his reforms and
Speaker 1: attempted reforms. Most of these reforms were targeted toward changing
Speaker 1: the Dutch colonial system that was currently in place. He
Speaker 1: made reforms in taxation, for example, tried to abolish slavery
Speaker 1: and feudal dues, and we'll come back to those a
Speaker 1: little later and talk about them more. According to a
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty one lecture by Michael Stewart, who's actually a
Speaker 1: descendant of Raffles, which appeared in the journal Asian Affairs,
Speaker 1: Raffles also made some more radical reforms, like introducing trial
Speaker 1: by jury. He also tried to eradicate smallpox by vaccinating
Speaker 1: the entire country, which is a rather modern idea, it is,
Speaker 1: and he worked hard to nobody can deny that much.
Speaker 1: His hours were from four am to eleven pm, and
Speaker 1: not all of that time was spent with these grand
Speaker 1: social plans like eradicating smallpox. Part of the time was
Speaker 1: spent cataloging Javas history and its natural landscape, and with
Speaker 1: the help of engineers and surveyors, Raffles really explored the
Speaker 1: island's Indian and Islamic influences and relics, and was planning
Speaker 1: on when he came home or just at some point
Speaker 1: writing a history of Java. But he also just really
Speaker 1: believed it was important for the British cause to examine
Speaker 1: all of this, to inquire into these areas. Uh. He
Speaker 1: was known to have said knowledge is power. Strangely enough,
Speaker 1: it reminds me a little bit of Napoleon in his
Speaker 1: invasion in Egypt. You know, part of it was military,
Speaker 1: part of it was government base, but there was also
Speaker 1: this huge scientific expedition going on because he really believed
Speaker 1: that was important. Yeah. I mean, maybe that's not so
Speaker 1: much of a coincidence, because, as we'll find out a
Speaker 1: little later, Raffles actually admired Napoleon so all that stuff
Speaker 1: that we just mentioned that was kind of the good stuff,
Speaker 1: the reform minded stuff, the positive part of fuls experience
Speaker 1: in Java. But there were alo a lot of controversial
Speaker 1: aspects of raffles time and Java, some of which seem
Speaker 1: to have been kind of glossed over throughout the years,
Speaker 1: probably because many of his other achievements were so laudable
Speaker 1: in hindsight. One questionable line you might see in brief
Speaker 1: biographies about him is that during his time in Java
Speaker 1: he quote reduced the power of native princes. But what
Speaker 1: does that really mean. I had to wonder about that
Speaker 1: and like dig around a little bit to learn a
Speaker 1: little bit more about it. And Hannigan goes into it
Speaker 1: in a lot more detail in his History Today article. Apparently,
Speaker 1: the British had only been in Java about a year
Speaker 1: when Raffles decided they needed to teach the locals a
Speaker 1: little something about the power of the British government. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you want your reforms to take I guess you
Speaker 1: have to make sure that right you establish yourself this
Speaker 1: one exactly, you have to make sure that the people
Speaker 1: you are reforming are paying attention. So part of this
Speaker 1: lesson was just delivered through raffles demeanor. Java was broke
Speaker 1: up into several native kingdoms, and the courts of these
Speaker 1: kingdoms were running in a very formal way. For example,
Speaker 1: they spoke a very formal high form of Japanese, which
Speaker 1: was considered the only language appropriate for conversing with kings.
Speaker 1: But on his first visit to Joe Jakarta, which was
Speaker 1: one of the most significant native kingdoms, Raffles spoke Malay,
Speaker 1: which really offended the court because it was considered very uncultured.
Speaker 1: He also did something that reminded me of a recent episode.
Speaker 1: He demanded to sit on the same level with the sultan,
Speaker 1: which was unheard of. Reminds me, of course, of Queen
Speaker 1: and Jinga me too. But even the Dutch had followed
Speaker 1: that standard protocol of of sitting on different levels in
Speaker 1: the sultan. But Raffles was trying to make a point
Speaker 1: when he came in about the British position there that
Speaker 1: they were in charge, that his reforms were worth making.
Speaker 1: So Raffles waited a while to take military action, but
Speaker 1: by June twe eighteen twelve, the British did attack Joe Jakarta,
Speaker 1: and even though the natives outnumbered them, the British overcame
Speaker 1: them and destroyed much of their kingdom. According to Hannigan's article,
Speaker 1: the Japanese were very superstitious. Their thoughts about power were
Speaker 1: very closely tied to the supernatural, and in this battle
Speaker 1: it almost seemed to them like the British had some
Speaker 1: sort of divine influence behind them or helping them. So
Speaker 1: maybe this is part of why they were so caught
Speaker 1: off guard by the attack. Well, and what happened next
Speaker 1: surely emphasized that belief. Raffles exiled the sultan and took
Speaker 1: the court archives, and his men looted the court, and
Speaker 1: when the new sultan was crowned, courtiers were made to
Speaker 1: kneel and kiss Raffles me, which doesn't really seem to
Speaker 1: fit that humanitarian image that he has now and that
Speaker 1: we just helped support to with some of his accomplishments, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's the flip side of imperialism, right. We
Speaker 1: always sort of admire these adventures they go on and
Speaker 1: the wondrous things they do and they find out, and
Speaker 1: all the learnings that they bring back, but there's also
Speaker 1: this really good unsavory the side of it that unique rather,
Speaker 1: that's also something that needs to get out there. But
Speaker 1: so once Raffles had established British dominance, the British managed
Speaker 1: to set up a relatively functioning colonial society, but it
Speaker 1: wasn't exactly what he had wanted it to be. A
Speaker 1: lot of his reforms, for example, didn't exactly take In particular,
Speaker 1: his efforts to abolish slavery, which we mentioned before, were
Speaker 1: pretty much unsuccessful. They did ban the import of slaves
Speaker 1: and shut down the slave trading outpost at Batavia, but
Speaker 1: feudal bondage was so ingrained in the economy and society
Speaker 1: there Raffles couldn't get rid of it entirely. And as
Speaker 1: hillen Wood writes in an article for the Journal of
Speaker 1: Early Modern Cultural Studies regarding raffles intentions to get rid
Speaker 1: of the custom of bondage, quote, his grand schemes remained
Speaker 1: mostly on the page. So he wrote of this a
Speaker 1: lot he wanted to do it, but in practice, at
Speaker 1: least in Java, and it wasn't happening. So we alluded
Speaker 1: to a problem back home though with Britain when we
Speaker 1: were introducing this subject. The most controversial aspect of Raffle's
Speaker 1: time in Java, at least from the British perspective was
Speaker 1: his failure to get it out of financial trouble and
Speaker 1: make it profitable. Remember that was one of the things
Speaker 1: that was promised initially. At least Java will pay for itself,
Speaker 1: don't worry about that part. So Raffles tried to reform
Speaker 1: the land revenue system and replace it with a system
Speaker 1: similar to that used in India, in which farmers would
Speaker 1: pay rents based on the value of their land instead
Speaker 1: of their crops. He was hoping that this would finally
Speaker 1: get some cash flowing through the country, but it wasn't executed.
Speaker 1: The plan wasn't executed properly, and it failed, which was
Speaker 1: pretty bad news for Raffle. It was sort of his
Speaker 1: lasco at trying to make the island economically stable, and
Speaker 1: after it failed, he really had to face the music. Yeah,
Speaker 1: to make matters worse. In eighteen thirteen, Gillespie, who as
Speaker 1: you'll remember, was his military commander, had returned to England
Speaker 1: and filed formal charges sub team charges in fact of
Speaker 1: corruption and incompetence against Raffles. They had never gotten along,
Speaker 1: Gillespie and Raffles, that is, and we're apparently always at
Speaker 1: each other's throat. So that might have fueled Gillespie's actions
Speaker 1: a little bit and the sting a bit though to
Speaker 1: hear that you had all these charges filed again feedback
Speaker 1: in England. Yes, but Raffles also didn't really have a
Speaker 1: lot of positive financial results with which to defend himself,
Speaker 1: and Lord Minto had been replaced by a new Governor
Speaker 1: general in India, so he didn't have his buddy anymore.
Speaker 1: He didn't have anyone in the East to lobby for
Speaker 1: his cause, and by the end of eighteen fifteen, Britain
Speaker 1: had even less reason to try to hang onto Java
Speaker 1: than Napoleonic Wars had ended, and Britain decided to return
Speaker 1: Holland's territories. But before they could even do that, before
Speaker 1: they could even make the handoff, Raffles was fired from
Speaker 1: his post. They didn't even keep him around for for
Speaker 1: that short amount. I think it was a difference of
Speaker 1: like eight months or something, all right, So Raffles, after
Speaker 1: this disgrace, left for England on March eighteen sixteen, with
Speaker 1: his reputation and just completely tarnished. And on top of that,
Speaker 1: his wife Olivia had died in eighteen fourteen, which had
Speaker 1: really devastated him. And his health had begun to go
Speaker 1: south too, so at that point it seems like, you know,
Speaker 1: this would be the sad end of the podcast. He
Speaker 1: seems pretty down on his luck, but things turn around
Speaker 1: for him in a remarkable way once he gets back
Speaker 1: to England. Although we before he gets back to England,
Speaker 1: we should know de Lana did mention Napoleon. On the
Speaker 1: way back to England, Raffles actually got to meet Napoleon,
Speaker 1: who he had previously admired. It's been kind of a
Speaker 1: famous military leader to look up to, but when he
Speaker 1: actually met the man, he didn't really like Napoleon very much.
Speaker 1: According to that lecture in Asian Affairs that we mentioned,
Speaker 1: Raffles wrote to a friend, quote, believe me, this man
Speaker 1: is a monster. I saw in him, a man determined
Speaker 1: and vindictive, without one spark of soul, but possessing capabilities
Speaker 1: to and talents too in slave mankind harsh words. Yes. Indeed,
Speaker 1: he published his History of Java in eighteen seventeen, which
Speaker 1: became a standard work on the subject, and the Prince
Speaker 1: Regent liked it so much he summoned Raffles to be
Speaker 1: knighted after he finished reading it, which is how he
Speaker 1: became of course, Sir Stanford Raffles, so all of that
Speaker 1: work he was doing on history and natural science really
Speaker 1: paid off. This book seems like it was his his
Speaker 1: inn back into favor. It was. And after that he
Speaker 1: got married again to a woman named Sophia, and they
Speaker 1: soon set sail again for the East, this time to
Speaker 1: ben cool In on the west coast of Sumatra. And
Speaker 1: this was the one post that Britain had retained throughout
Speaker 1: the years when the Dutch dominated the East Indies, and
Speaker 1: he served there as Lieutenant Governor for about eight or
Speaker 1: nine years. So we don't want to go too much
Speaker 1: into his work after that, since the focus of this
Speaker 1: was really Java. But essentially after returning to the East,
Speaker 1: it wasn't long before Raffles started looking for another port
Speaker 1: that would put the British in a position to rival
Speaker 1: the Dutch. So he still kind of focused on this
Speaker 1: idea and on his mind. So he set his sights
Speaker 1: on Singapore, of course, and realized that it was in
Speaker 1: the ideal position to create a successful trade rivalry, and
Speaker 1: he got permission from the then Governor General of India,
Speaker 1: Lord Hastings, to to do so, to try to set
Speaker 1: something up on Singapore. But when Raffles got to Singapore,
Speaker 1: he found that the sultan there had already signed a
Speaker 1: treaty with the Dutch. It seemed like, oh, he got
Speaker 1: there too late. But with a little bit of investigation,
Speaker 1: Raffles also found that the sultan the Dutch had signed
Speaker 1: a treaty with was the younger of two sons of
Speaker 1: the previous sultan who had basically surped the throne when
Speaker 1: his big brother was out of town. So what did
Speaker 1: Raffles do with this little family situation going on? He
Speaker 1: went and found the big brother, brought him back to
Speaker 1: the island, and helped him take back his rightful position.
Speaker 1: After that, of course, the new sultan, probably pretty grateful
Speaker 1: to Raffles for helping restore him, entered into a treaty
Speaker 1: with the British, and Raffles founded and established a settlement
Speaker 1: at Singapore. Raffles didn't stay long though. He knew with
Speaker 1: his reputation and failure at Java, that the East India
Speaker 1: Company officials wouldn't trust anything that he was too involved with,
Speaker 1: and he didn't want to damage the chances that Singapore
Speaker 1: would get to be an established colony, so he left
Speaker 1: destructions on how it should be set up and then
Speaker 1: returned to ben Coolon. In the intervening years, he had
Speaker 1: four kids, and he made several botanical discoveries, continuing that
Speaker 1: focus of his on natural history. Among the most famous
Speaker 1: of these discoveries he made was the largest flower in
Speaker 1: the world, at least it was at the time. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure if it still is. And it was named
Speaker 1: appropriately the Rafflesia Arnaldi, and it measured a yard across
Speaker 1: from pedal to pedal, but probably isn't something that you'd
Speaker 1: want to have in your house. It supposedly smells like
Speaker 1: rotten meat to attract the carrying flies that allow it
Speaker 1: to propagate. I'm wondering if a few years ago be
Speaker 1: it Atlanta Botanical Gardens had one of these. I know
Speaker 1: they were advertising some sort of stinky rotten meat flower. Really,
Speaker 1: I don't know how many how many there are in
Speaker 1: the world, but just brings little shop horrors to mind
Speaker 1: from Audrey too. Yes, but in addition to plants, he
Speaker 1: also had a love for exotic animals, which we also
Speaker 1: cover these exotic pet owners from time to time with
Speaker 1: our Historical Pets podcasts. And he kept pets like an elephant, monkeys,
Speaker 1: and tiger cubs. His kids supposedly had a real life
Speaker 1: Winnie the Pooh in their nursery. But the end of
Speaker 1: raffles life was marked by tragedy. Um you thought you
Speaker 1: were going to get away from that. Earlier in the episode,
Speaker 1: in the early eighteen twenties, three of his four children
Speaker 1: fell ill and died. Raffles and his wife were in
Speaker 1: pretty ill health too, and so they started to prepare
Speaker 1: to return to England. Before coming back, though, Raffles spent
Speaker 1: a few more months in Singapore doing city planning, preparing laws,
Speaker 1: the constitution and esta publishing a Malay school, among other things.
Speaker 1: They're really trying to set things um in order the
Speaker 1: way he liked him before he left. But on his
Speaker 1: journey back to England in eight four, he brought, of course,
Speaker 1: all of his life's work with him, all of the records,
Speaker 1: the papers, manuscript the books he was working on, dictionaries
Speaker 1: he had written of several languages, and all of these
Speaker 1: natural history collections. But there was a fire on board
Speaker 1: the ship and a lot of these collections and records
Speaker 1: were lost. And when Raffles got back, he went to
Speaker 1: the East India Company and he asked them for a
Speaker 1: pension to offset his losses from the fire, but they
Speaker 1: sort of turned the tables on him and said that
Speaker 1: he owed them money to repay salaries and expenses that
Speaker 1: he had incurred back East twenty two tho pounds to
Speaker 1: be exact. He didn't live long after this, though, so
Speaker 1: even though he was going to have to try to
Speaker 1: come up with a plan to pay it back, I
Speaker 1: don't think he ever actually had to. His health was
Speaker 1: getting much worse. He had been suffering headaches ever since,
Speaker 1: he had been for years now since he was been
Speaker 1: cool and and he died July five, eighteen twenty six,
Speaker 1: at the age of forty four. The autopsy showed that
Speaker 1: he had had a brain tumor, so that's why he
Speaker 1: had been having those headaches, even though at the time
Speaker 1: the doctors thought it was something to do with his liver.
Speaker 1: I think he was denied a plaque on his tomb
Speaker 1: because he had opposed slavery, and the vicar of the
Speaker 1: Hendon parish where he was buried owned an interest in
Speaker 1: a West Indian plantation. There is one good thing though,
Speaker 1: Right before he died, he helped establish the London Zoological
Speaker 1: Society and the London Zoo and was the zoo's first president.
Speaker 1: So if you've ever visited that zoo, you can think
Speaker 1: of Raffles a bit. Yeah, So with all that he
Speaker 1: did in Singapore and his accomplishments in natural history, it's
Speaker 1: clear to see why Raffles is mostly remembered for his
Speaker 1: positive accomplishments. He did a lot, and he did do
Speaker 1: a lot to sort of further the British Empire in
Speaker 1: the East. But Java wasn't a total loss either. After
Speaker 1: the Dutch took over again in eighteen sixteen, they actually
Speaker 1: ended up adopting a lot of Raffles reforms, including his
Speaker 1: basic idea about land rents, which had been such a
Speaker 1: disaster when Raffles tried it, so for better for worse,
Speaker 1: who really did sort of lay the groundwork for colonial
Speaker 1: culture there. So, like a lot of characters in these
Speaker 1: episodes that we do about imperialist topics, he's a very
Speaker 1: gray sort of character. Although he is celebrated as a hero,
Speaker 1: he definitely has some things in his past that weren't
Speaker 1: necessarily that glowing. But just so we don't have to
Speaker 1: end this episode on kind of a down note, let's
Speaker 1: go to listener mail. So we mentioned our WC Minor
Speaker 1: podcast a little earlier in this episode, and we have
Speaker 1: a letter from Sally here and she has a little
Speaker 1: personal dictionary drama to share with us. She says, Hey,
Speaker 1: Sarah Dublina, Uh usually listen to your podcast while writing
Speaker 1: the tube into school. I'm an American studying in London,
Speaker 1: but I had returned to the States for Christmas and
Speaker 1: my parents anniversary. I was grateful that I am quick
Speaker 1: on downloading your podcast, because your WC Minor podcast kept
Speaker 1: me highly entertained in the emergency room and even distracted
Speaker 1: me from the pain. The reason I was in the
Speaker 1: are was because while helping my brother put some books away,
Speaker 1: he knocked a copy of the Greater Oxford English Dictionary
Speaker 1: onto my foot. It fell from the top of a
Speaker 1: fairly tall bookshelf, so we thought that it might have
Speaker 1: broken my foot. Thankfully it didn't, but I was enjoying
Speaker 1: the irony of the situation so much that the nurses
Speaker 1: kept checking if I was on morphine. I wasn't. When
Speaker 1: I got home and my parents asked what happened, I
Speaker 1: told them that that crazy WC minor came and pushed
Speaker 1: his work onto my foot while I am known in
Speaker 1: my family for quirky remarks like that, my parents insisted
Speaker 1: I go up to bed. I guess if you're talking
Speaker 1: up victims of WC Minor, you can count the poor
Speaker 1: brewery worker and one foot. Oh dear, that is the
Speaker 1: last book that you want to fall on your foot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's pretty unlucky. Yeah, Sally, you're lucky that it just
Speaker 1: didn't hit your head. Yeah, I'm glad we were able
Speaker 1: to keep you entertained while you're in the e er
Speaker 1: perfect timing. Thanks for sharing your story. If you have
Speaker 1: any personal stories, hopefully not that tragic, to share with us.
Speaker 1: Regarding podcasts, please write us. We're now at History podcast
Speaker 1: at Discovery dot com, not the old how Stuff Works
Speaker 1: dot com addressed anymore. We have switched over, we have migrated.
Speaker 1: We are however, still at missed in History on Twitter
Speaker 1: and we are on Facebook, which are both classic ways
Speaker 1: to contact that and if you're interested as we are
Speaker 1: and learning a little bit more about the phenomenon of
Speaker 1: people being able to learn languages very easily. We have
Speaker 1: a lot of articles about language learning in the culture
Speaker 1: section of our website, including articles that address whether young
Speaker 1: folks learn language is more easily than older ones, and
Speaker 1: um and so forth. So if you want to look
Speaker 1: up a little more about that, you can do that
Speaker 1: by visiting our homepage where at www dot how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com. Be sure to check out our new
Speaker 1: video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how Stuff Work
Speaker 1: staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities
Speaker 1: of tomorrow. The How Stuff Works iPhone app has a ride.
Speaker 1: Download it today on iTunes.