Southeast Asia is the region separating the Pacific and the Indian Ocean. The MALACCA STRAITS and the SUNDA STRAITS have always been
of strategic importance. Culturally the region has been strongly influenced by it's neighbour China, and even stronger by another neighbour,
India. Hence parts of the region are also referred to as FURTHER INDIA or INDOCHINA. Australia and New Guinea have historically been of very
little importance. Trade and cultural transfer affected the western islands of Indonesia and mainland Southeast Asia, hardly the eastern islands
of Indonesia.
JAVA is one of the most fertile regions of this planet, producing 4 rice harvests per year, due to volcanic soil.
B.) Early Empires
Centered on Java and Sumatra, the Kingdom of SRIVIJAYA, capital Palembang, dominated the Malay sphere for several centuries. Malays from
Srivijaya were expert navigators; Srivijaya dominated the maritime China-India trade; Srivijayans sailed to ports on Africa's east coast. A
contemporary kingdom on the mainland was the KHMER EMPIRE, centered in ANGKOR, a Cambodian Buddhist state flourishing in the 8th
century A.D.
Srivijaya was succeeded by the Kingdom of MAJAPAHIT, centered on Java, which was Hinduist. It's major cultural center was the temple of
BOROBUDUR, a world heritage site. In mainland southeast Asia, Buddhist CHAMPA (in the Mekong Delta area, South Vietnam), VIETNAM (northern
central Vietnam, Buddhist, later Confucianist). Thailand (Buddhist) and Burma (Buddhist) emerged.
Vietnam defeated a Mongol attempt to conquer the country. Champa was swallowed up by Vietnam; the Khmer Empire became a Thai satellite.
On Java, Hinduist Majapahit was succeeded by Muslim MATARAM; Hinduism survived on BALI.
C.) Arrival of the Europeans; Colonial Era
In 1541 the Portuguese took MALACCA, the leading market along the Malacca Straits. The Portuguese also were interested in the MOLUCCAS
(SPICE ISLANDS), where the best quality pepper was grown.
The Spanish, coming from the Americas, settled on the PHILIPPINES, the population of which they converted to Catholicism. In the TREATY OF
ZARAGOZA, the eastern hemisphere was also partitioned between the two powers.
In 1600 the Dutch appeared on the Indian Ocean, taking many of the core trade centers from the Portuguese. The Dutch became the dominant
colonial power in Southeast Asia; the island region was to be referred to as the DUTCH EAST INDIES. The V.O.C. (= Dutch East India Company)
established its headquarters at BATAVIA in 1619 (modern Jakarta); the Moluccas were the most prized possession.
French, British, Scandinavian traders passed through, the French also sending missionaries to various southeast Asian countries.
During the Napoleonic wars, a British expedition occupied Java. After the British returned Java to the Dutch, expedition leader SIR STAMFORD
RAFFLES founded SINGAPORE which was to become the major trade hub of the region. The British also took Malacca and Penang, which were
administrated as the STRAITS SETTLEMENTS. Later Britain would acquire BURMA and NORTH BORNEO (with Sarawak) and establish a
protectorate over Brunei and the Malay principalities. France would establish itself in FRENCH INDOCHINA (acquired 1859-1885). The Dutch
expanded claiming all of modern Indonesia. Thailand had to cede several border provinces, but held on to its independence - a fact which
partially is to be explained that neither the British nor the French were prepared to concede the country to the other.
The Philippines, Spanish since the 16th century, in 1898 changed masters, from then on a US colony.
In the 19th century South East Asia's economy diversified. Tobacco, sugar, coffee and RUBBER were grown on plantations; Sumatra and the
Malay peninsula would produce some 70 % of the world's natural rubber. The Dutch East Indies and the Malay peninsula also accounted for
a large part of the world's TIN production. OIL was found on Sumatra and in BRUNEI. As the local population was regarded as lazy by the
plantation and mine owners, INDENTED WORKERS were brought in from China and India - the beginning of Southeast Asia's large Chinese
community.
D.) World War II and Decolonization
In 1940 French Indochina and the Dutch East Indies found themselves exposed to the Japanese without protection - the respective motherland
was occupied by the Germans. The French allowed the Japanese to station troops in Indochina by treaty (1940) putting another strain on
Nationalist China.
On Dec. 7th 1941 the Japanese attack on Southeast Asia began. Singapore fell after little resistance, on the Philippines Bataan and Corregidor
held out until May/June 1942. The rest fell with little or no resistance to the Japanese; Thailand signed an alliance with Japan and permitted
Japanese troops to cross the country on their way to Burma. SE Asia was important for the Japanese as a supplier of raw material (oil, rubber
etc.) and rice, as a supply of forced labor and for strategic reasons; the Japanese cut the BURMA ROAD to interrupt British supplies for Chiang
Kai Shek's Nationalist China.
There was some fighting in the Burmese jungles; otherwise SE Asia was quiet during most of the war, guerilla activity not regarded (strong in
Burma, on the Philippines). The Japanese told the peoples of SE Asia that they had come to liberate them from colonial rule. In the later phase of
the war, they installed puppet regimes.
In 1944/1945 the British liberated Burma, the Americans the Philippines; a few coastal places in the eastern archipelago were also liberated. The
remainder was still occupied by the Japanese when Japan surrendered.
When the Dutch and French colonial masters returned, they found resistance movements heavily armed with leftover Japanese weapons. The
Dutch granted independence to INDONESIA in 1949, the French, after having been defeated by HO CHI MINH's Viet Cong in the BATTLE OF DIEN
BIEN PHU in 1954, also withdrew, Indochina being partitioned in Cambodia, Laos, South and North Vietnam. The British had granted independence
to Burma in 1947, the US to the Philippines in 1946. Malaysia, with Singapore, gained independence in 1963; Singapore was excluded from the
Malaysian Federation in 1965.
E.) Post-War History
Ho Chi Minh and the Vietcong felt betrayed by the 1954 peace conference partition of Vietnam. They worked for the unification of Vietnam under a
communist government; South Vietnam faced communist insurgents. The United States, believing in the DOMINO THEORY, provided military
support to South Vietnam, which escalated into active military intervention. North Vietnam was supported by the communist countries, especially
by the USSR and China. In 1970 the war was escalated, now also being fought in Cambodia and Laos; in 1973 the US withdrew, in 1975 all
Indochina was communist. Yet independence and unification had cost the Vietnamese dear in men and in pollution; the defoliant AGENT ORANGE
sprayed by US helicopters over Vietnam's jungles still causes birth defects, food poisoning etc.
In Cambodia, the KHMER ROUGE under POL POT attempted to establish a nationalist-communist agrarian utopia; those who were suspected to
have collaborated with the 'imperialists', down to anybody speaking a foreign language, were killed - the number of victims is estimated at 1
million out of a population of 7 million (KILLING FIELDS). In 1979 the Vietnamese ended the tragedy by invading the country. The Chinese, allied
with Cambodia (Vietnam was a Soviet ally) responded by attacking Vietnam in a border conflict which was supposed to punish the Vietnamese.
The Vietnamese responded by expelling their Chinese minority (BOAT PEOPLE).
The other South East Asian countries chose the path of peaceful economic cooperation; ASEAN was founded. Singapore was most successful in
it's policy of promoting economic development, regarded one of Asia's TIGER ECONOMIES.
This page is part of World History at KMLA Last revised on September 18th 2001
