Southeast Asia is a region geographically located between India and China, stretching from Myanmar to the Philippines and Indonesia. It has a population of over 500 million people and has long been an important crossroads for trade routes between Asia, Europe and the Middle East. The region experienced influence from Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity due to its position along major trading networks. It was referred to as Southeast Asia during World War 2 when Japan occupied the area, and the term became widely used during the Vietnam War in the 1960s-1970s.

1. Southeast Asia?

2. What is Southeast Asia?
• A History of South-East Asia (1955)
by D.G.E. Hall
• In Search of Southeast Asia (1971)
ed. David Joel Steinberg
• Early South East Asia: Essays in
Archaeology History and Historical
Geography (1979) ed. R.B. Smith and
W. Watson

3. What is Southeast Asia?
• During the WWII, the term was used to
designate the area south of China
occupied by the Japanese. The term
gained wide currency during the
Vietnam War of the 1960s and 1970s.

4. What is Southeast Asia?

5. Geographical
considerations
• Southeast Asia covers 3 percent of the
world land area and has 8 percent of its
people. The region situates in the
middle of the two great oriental civilized
zone, the Indian Subcontinent and
China.

7. Crossroads
• Southeast Asia is the central
intersection of the sea routes. The
lands bounded by the Indian
subcontinent on the west, China on the
north, Australia on the south, and the
Pacific to the east

10. Western
Travellers/Administrators
• East India Island: (1812)
• Further India
• British India 19th
century
• Indochina/French Indochina :19th
century
• Asia of the Monsoons prior ww2

11. SEA as an organization
the American era
• SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, 1954)
Members – Thailand, the Philippines, Britain, New
Zealand, Australia, France, Pakistan, United States
• ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations,
1967)
Members – Non-socialist countries; Thailand,
Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia
(1967), Brunei (1984), Vietnam (1995), Myanmar
(1997), Cambodia (1999)

12. Emergence and Development of
Early States
• The Arakan Mountains/ArakanYoma
• The Tenasserim Range
• The Annam Range
• The Irrawaddy and the Chindwin
• The Saween
• The Chao Phraya
• The Red River and the Mekong
Mainland Southeast Asia

14. Geographical Setting
• Insular Southeast Asia, comprising
Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei,
Indonesia, and the Philippines.
• The Malay Peninsula’s greater
exposure to the sea and its ethnic,
cultural, religious, and geographical
affinities with Sumatra and Java

16. In conclude
Southeast Asia is part of the world
trading system that linked China to the
middle East and Europe, and as a
crossroads in this system, experienced
various forms of cultural/religious
penetration from Hinduism, Buddhism,
Islam, and Christianity