Angeles University Foundation

McArthur Highway, Angeles City, Province Of Pampanga

College Of Allied Medical Professions
A.Y. 2019-2020

The Contemporary World

Written Report on Historical Colonization:

Southeast Asia

BSMT 2-G
August 27, 2019

Members:
Besanez, Fiona
Miranda, Aiko
Punsalan, Lyann
Santos, Krista
Sicat, Trisha
Prehistory

Paleolithic
● Anatomically modern human​ hunter-gatherer migration into Southeast Asia before 50,000
years ago has been confirmed by the combined fossil record of the region.
● Data analysis of stone tool ​assemblages​ and fossil discoveries from Indonesia, Southern
China, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and more recently Cambodia and Malaysia​ ​has established
Homo erectus​ migration routes and episodes of presence as early as 120,000 years ago and
even older isolated finds date back to 1.8 million years ago. ​Java Man​ (​Homo erectus
erectus​) and ​Homo floresiensis​ attest for a sustained regional presence and isolation, long
enough for notable diversification of the species' specifics.
● The oldest habitation discovered in the ​Philippines​ is located at the ​Tabon Caves​ and dates
back to approximately 50,000 years BP. Items there found such as burial jars, earthenware,
jade ornaments and other jewellery, stone tools, animal bones, and human fossils date back
to 47,000 years BP. Unearthed human remains are approximately 24,000 years old.
Neolithic Migrations
● The most widespread migration event, was the ​Austronesian expansion​, which began at
around 5,500 BP (3500 BC) from ​Taiwan​ and coastal southern ​China​. Due to their early
invention of ocean-going ​outrigger boats​ and voyaging ​catamarans​, Austronesians rapidly
colonized ​Island Southeast Asia​, before spreading further into ​Micronesia​, ​Melanesia​,
Polynesia​, ​Madagascar​, and the ​Comoros​. They dominated the lowlands and coasts of
Island Southeast Asia, intermarrying with the indigenous Negrito and Papuan people to
varying degrees, giving rise to modern ​Islander Southeast Asians​, ​Micronesians​,
Polynesians​, ​Melanesians​, and ​Malagasy​.
Early agricultural societies
● Territorial principalities in both Insular and Mainland Southeast Asia, characterised as
Agrarian kingdoms​ had by around 500 BCE developed an economy based on surplus crop
cultivation and moderate coastal trade of domestic natural products.
● Intensive ​wet-rice cultivation​ in an ideal climate enabled the farming communities to
produce a regular crop surplus, that was used by the ruling elite to raise, command and pay
work forces for public construction and maintenance projects such as canals and
fortifications.
● Though millet and rice cultivation was introduced around 2000 BCE, hunting and gathering
remained an important aspect of food provision, in particular in forested and mountainous
inland areas. Many tribal communities of the aboriginal ​Australo-Melanesian​ settlers
continued the lifestyle of mixed sustenance until the modern era.
Two layer hypothesis
● Author and archaeologist ​Charles Higham​ suggests in his work ​"Hunter-Gatherers in
Southeast Asia: From Prehistory to the Present"​ "the indigenous hunter-gatherers
integrated with intrusive Neolithic communities and, while losing their cultural identity,
contributed their genes to the present population of Southeast Asia." or alternatively the
"hunter-gatherers withdrew to rainforest refugia and, through selective pressures inherent in
 such an environment, survived as the small-bodied, dark-skinned humans found to this day
in the Philippines, Peninsular Malaysia and Thailand, and the Andaman Islands."
Bronze Age Southeast Asia
● Earliest known copper and bronze production in Southeast Asia has been found at the site of
Ban Chiang​ in North-east Thailand and among the ​Phung Nguyen culture​ of northern
Vietnam around 2000 BCE.​[47]
● The ​Dong Son culture​ established a tradition of bronze production and the manufacture of
ever more refined bronze and iron objects, such as plows, axes and sickles with shaft holes,
socketed arrow and spearheads and small ornamented items.
Pottery Culture
● Between 1,000 BCE and 100 CE the S ​ a Huỳnh culture flourished along the south-central
coast of ​Vietnam​.Ceramic jar burial sites, that included grave goods have been discovered at
various sites along the entire territory. Among large, thin-walled, terracotta jars, ornamented
and colourised cooking pots, glass items, ​jade​ earrings and metal objects had been
deposited near the rivers and at the coast.
● The ​Buni culture​ is the name given to another early independent centre of refined ​pottery
production that has been well documented on the basis of excavated burial gifts, deposited
between 400 BCE and 100 CE in coastal north-western ​Java​. The objects and artefacts of
the Buni tradition are known for their originality and remarkable quality of incised and
geometric decors. Its resemblance to the S ​ a Huỳnh culture and the fact that it represents the
earliest ​Indian Rouletted Ware​ recorded in Southeast Asia are subject of ongoing research.

Early Historical Era

Indianised kingdoms
● Asia's expanding land and maritime trade had led to socio-economic interaction and
cultural stimulation and diffusion of mainly ​Hindu beliefs​ into the regional cosmology of
Southeast Asia.
● The concept of the ​Indianised kingdoms​, a term coined by George Coedès, describes
Southeast Asian principalities (can either be a ​monarchical feudatory​ or a sovereign
state, ruled or reigned over by a monarch with the title of prince or by a monarch with
another title considered to fall under the generic meaning of the term prince) that since
the early common era as a result of prolonged interaction had incorporated central
aspects of Indian institutions, religion, statecraft, administration, culture, epigraphy,
writing and architecture.
○ Selective adoption of Indian civilisation elements and individual suitable adoption
stimulated the emergence of ​centralised states​ and development of highly
organised societies.
Early relations with China
 ● Occurred during the Shang dynasty (around 1600 BCE to around 1046 BCE), when
cowry shells served as currency.
● Military conquests​ during the short lived Han dynasty brought a number of foreign
peoples within the Chinese empire when the ​Imperial Chinese tributary system​ (belief
that China is deemed the center and apogee of culture and civilization) began to evolve
under Han rule.
Spread of Buddhism
● Hinduism preceded Buddhism. Hindu religious diffusion must be attributed to the
initiative of the local chieftains.
● Buddhist teachings, that almost simultaneously arrived in Southeast Asia developed
during the subsequent centuries an exalted distinction and eventually came to be
perceived as more appealing to the demands of the general population, a belief system
and philosophy that addresses concrete human affairs. It eventually flourished between
the 5th and the 13th century and became a major trading power in central Maritime
Southeast Asia.
● Several ​royal dynasties​ established themselves (some Hindu, some Buddhist) in the
region over the next few centuries.

Medieval History
Angkor, Pagan and changing fortunes: 10th - 15th c.

In Cambodia the Khmer dynasty makes its capital, from the 9th century, in the city of Angkor. A
series of huge Hindu temples culminates in the great 12th-century Angkor Wat. The temples are
engulfed by the jungle, after the fall of the city first to Chams from the east (in 1177) and then to
Thais from the west (in 1431). Angkor is rediscovered in the 1860s, to become one of the
wonders of the world.

To the west, the new Burmese dynasty has its capital from the 11th century at Pagan on the
Irrawaddy. Thousands of elaborate shrines survive there - some in the tradition of Buddhist
stupas, others in the style of Hindu temples.

Warfare between the dynasties of southeast Asia is an almost continuous process, bringing
gradual changes in the size and shape of rival kingdoms. An example is the shrinking of the
Khmer territory under pressure from Thais in the 15th century, when Angkor is abandoned in
favour of a new capital further south at Phnom Penh.

But by this time there is a new and powerful force in the region. As with the arrival of Hinduism
and Buddhism more than 1000 years previously, a religion from elsewhere is involved. Once
again its immediate source is India.

Muslim Malaya and Indonesia: from the 13th century

Islam's final push to the east derives from the strength of Muslim India. By the end of the 13th
century Indian merchants from Gujarat, trading through the Straits of Malacca, have established
Muslim settlements in northern Sumatra; they are noted by Marco Polo.

The wealth and sophistication of these traders brings converts to Islam, and the influence of the
religion becomes rapidly stronger after a Muslim sultanate is established in Malacca from 1445.
The threat of conquest and the benefits of trade now provide two good reasons for the
neighbouring communities to embrace the Muslim faith.

During the 15th and 16th centuries Islam spreads through the Malay peninsula and the islands
of Sumatra and Java. By the 17th century the Hindus, with their warrior princes, brahmin priests
and caste system, are confined to the eastern tip of Java. Soon they are ousted even from
there.

They cross to Bali, where they and their traditions manage to survive. By this time the mainland
regions from Burma to Cambodia have resolved centuries of indecision between Hinduism and
Buddhism. They have chosen Buddha. The small island of Bali becomes, as it remains to this
day, the only Hindu outpost in a southeast Asia otherwise divided between Buddhism and Islam.

Early Modern Era

European colonisation

The first phase of ​European colonisation of Southeast Asia​ took place after the arrival of
Dutch​, ​Portuguese​, ​Spanish​ and later ​French​ and ​British​ marine spice traders. Fiercely
competitive, the Europeans eliminate each other by forcibly taking control of the production
centers, trade hubs, and significant locations, beginning with ​Malacca​ in 1511. Conquests
focused on ports along the maritime routes, that provided a secure passage of maritime trade. It
also allowed foreign rulers to levy taxes and control the prices of the highly desired Southeast
Asian commodities.
Siam​, which had served as a convenient buffer state, sandwiched between British Burma and
French Indochina was the only country to avoid direct foreign rule. However, its kings had to
contend with repeated humiliations, accept ​unequal treaties​ among massive British and French
political interference and territorial losses after the ​Franco-Siamese War​ in 1893 and the
Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909​.
The second phase of ​European colonisation of Southeast Asia​ is related to the ​Industrial
Revolution​ and the rise of powerful nation states in Europe. As the primary motivation for the
first phase was the mere accumulation of wealth, the reasons for and degree of European
interference during the second phase are dictated by geo-strategic rivalries, the need to ​defend
and grow​ spheres of interest, competition for commercial outlets, long term control of resources
and the Southeast Asian economies becoming more closely tied to European industrial and
financial affairs by the late 19th century.

20th Century
Japanese invasion and occupations
● Japanese Imperial Army ​invaded Vichy French Indochina, which ended in the abortive
Japanese coup de main in French Indochina of 9 March 1945.
● On 5 January 1941, Thailand launched the ​Franco-Thai War​, ended on 9 May 1941 by
a Japanese-imposed treaty signed in Tokyo.
● On 7/8 December, Japan's entry into ​World War II b ​ egan with the ​invasion of Thailand​,
the only invaded country to maintain nominal independence, due to her political and
military alliance with the Japanese—on 10 May 1942, her northwestern Payap Army
invaded Burma during the Burma Campaign.
● From 1941 until war's end, ​Japanese occupied Cambodia, Malaya, and the
Philippines, ​which ended in independence movements.
● Japanese occupation of the Philippines led to the forming of the Second Philippine
Republic, formally dissolved in Tokyo on 17 August 1945.

Post-war decolonisation
● Indonesia declared independence on 17 August 1945 and subsequently fought a bitter
war against the returning Dutch; the Philippines was granted independence by the
United States in 1946; Burma secured their independence from Britain in 1948, and the
French were driven from Indochina in 1954 after a bitterly fought war (the Indochina
War) against the Vietnamese nationalists.
● Britain granted independence to Malaya and later, Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak in
1957 and 1963 respectively within the framework of the Federation of Malaysia.
● North Vietnamese attempts to conquer South Vietnam​ resulted in the Vietnam War.
The conflict spread to Laos and Cambodia and heavy intervention from the United
States. By the war's end in 1975, all these countries were controlled by communist
parties. After the communist victory, two wars between communist states—the
Cambodian–Vietnamese War of 1975–89 and the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979—were
fought in the region. The victory of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia resulted in the
Cambodian genocide.
● After more than 20 years of fighting Indonesia, East Timor won its independence and
was recognised by the UN in 2002. Finally, Britain ended its protectorate of the Sultanate
of Brunei in 1984, marking the ​end of European rule in Southeast Asia.
Contemporary Period

● Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand​ have traditionally

experienced high growth and are commonly recognised as the more developed
countries of the region.
● Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos​ and the newly independent East Timor are still lagging
economically.
● On 8 August 1967, the ​Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)​ was
founded by Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines. Since
Cambodian admission into the union in 1999, East Timor is the only Southeast Asian
country that is not part of ASEAN

References:
https://www.timemaps.com/history/south-east-asia-1648ad/
https://www.adventure-life.com/cambodia/articles/a-brief-history-of-southeast-asia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Southeast_Asia