Well I suppose it depends on your definition of a country stagnating. I guess by your definition Indonesia and The Philippines where doing great as Dutch and S

Well I suppose it depends on your definition of a country stagnating. I guess by your definition Indonesia and The Philippines where doing great as Dutch and Spanish colonies as well? Sure, Singapore was doing great during that time (for the British), but if you look at measures such as % of the population living in extreme poverty, education, housing, healthcare, GDP, slavery, serfdom, etc it must be quite hard to deny that Singapore hasn't stagnated for centuries only to explode (positively) within decades.