The states generally thought to be most successful—Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and especially Singapore—followed policies generally regarded as moderate and pragmatic. All were regarded as fundamentally stable and for that reason attracted foreign aid and investment; all achieved high rates of growth since the mid-1970s and enjoyed the highest standards of living in the region. Their very success, however, created unexpected social and cultural changes. Prosperity, education, and increasing access to world media and popular culture all gave rise, for example, to various degrees of dissatisfaction with government-imposed limitations on freedom and to social and environmental criticism. Particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia, there was a noticeable trend toward introspection and discussion of national character, as well as a religious revival in the form of renewed interest in Islam. It appeared that the comparatively small and unified middle class, including a generally bureaucratized military, was becoming larger, more complex, and less easily satisfied. That was undoubtedly not the intent of those who framed governmental policy, but it was a reality with which they had to deal. Reappearance of regional interests
After the end of the 17th century, the long-developed polities of Southeast Asia were pulled into a Western-dominated world economy, weakening regional trade networks and strengthening ties with distant colonial powers. In the early years of independence these ties often remained strong enough to be called neocolonial by critics, but after the mid-1960s these partnerships could no longer be controlled by former colonial masters, and the new Southeast Asian states sought to industrialize and diversify their markets. On the one hand, this meant a far greater role for Japan in Southeast Asia; that country is by far the most important trading partner of most Southeast Asian nations. On the other, it meant that many countries began to rediscover commonalities and to examine the possibilities within the region for support and markets.
In 1967 the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was formed by Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Singapore (Brunei joined in 1985). This group’s initial interest was in security, but it moved cautiously into other fields. It played an important role, for example, in seeking an end to the Vietnam-Cambodia conflict and sought a solution to the civil strife in Cambodia. In economic affairs it worked quietly to discuss such matters as duplication of large industrial projects. Only since the mid-1980s has ASEAN been taken seriously by major powers or even sometimes by Southeast Asians themselves. The formerly Soviet-dominated states of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia became part of ASEAN during the 1990s, as did Myanmar. Such circumstances opened up greater regional markets and gave the region as a whole a more imposing world profile. In July 1994 the inaugural ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) was convened to facilitate talks between ASEAN and its “dialogue partners” across the globe.
At the turn of the 21st century, ASEAN was a major force for promoting regional trade and resolving security issues. In 2015 the ASEAN Economic Community was established to encourage economic integration and liberalization of economic policy among member states. ASEAN worked to end violence in East Timor and advocated on behalf of its members in the dispute with China over the Spratly Islands. It also took a leading role in the response to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed at least 225,000 people throughout South and Southeast Asia. In 2017 ASEAN members and China formally endorsed a framework agreement that would govern the conduct of all signatories in the South China Sea. William H. Frederick The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Citation Information
Article Title: History of Southeast Asia
Website Name: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Publisher: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Date Published: 20 July 2018
URL: https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Southeast-Asia
Access Date: August 27, 2019
Additional Reading General
A comprehensive historical overview is Nicholas Tarling (ed.), The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia, 2 vol. (1992); while Milton Osborne, Southeast Asia, 5th ed. (1990), is a brief survey. John Frank Cady, Southeast Asia (1964), though older and marred by some factual errors, is well-organized. D.G.E. Hall, A History of South-East Asia, 4th ed. (1981), while thorough, is heavily slanted toward colonial topics and views. Southeast Asia to c. 1750
Peter Bellwood, Prehistory of the Indo-Malaysian Archipelago (1985), is detailed and thought-provoking. Charles Higham, The Archaeology of Mainland Southeast Asia: From 10,000 bc to the Fall of Angkor (1989), complements Bellwood, with more focus on archaeology. Collections of essays include David G. Marr and A.C. Milner (eds.), Southeast Asia in the 9th to 14th Centuries (1986); and R.B. Smith and W. Watson (eds.), Early South East Asia (1979). Anthony Reid, Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1450–1680, 2 vol. (1988–93), provides a broad-based glimpse of the region that previously had not been available. Donald F. Lach, Southeast Asia in the Eyes of Europe: The Sixteenth Century (1968), contains a selection of travel accounts by Europeans. Anthony Reid and Lance Castles (eds.), Pre-colonial State Systems in Southeast Asia (1975), includes several specific treatments. The classic by M.A.P. Meilink-Roelofsz, Asian Trade and European Influence in the Indonesian Archipelago Between 1500 and About 1630 (1962), is still useful. Lorraine Gesick (ed.), Centers, Symbols, and Hierarchies (1983), is a collection of essays on the region’s classical states. Southeast Asia since c. 1750
David Joel Steinberg et al., In Search of Southeast Asia: A Modern History, rev. ed. (1987), is a sophisticated treatment, but its focus shifts from era to era. John Bastin and Harry J. Benda, A History of Modern Southeast Asia: Colonialism, Nationalism, and Decolonization (1968), although dated, is still worthy of careful attention. Syed Hussein Alatas, The Myth of the Lazy Native: A Study of the Image of the Malays, Filipinos, and Javanese From the 16th to the 20th Century and Its Function in the Ideology of Colonial Capitalism (1977), is a convincing attack by a Southeast Asian intellectual on colonialism and colonial scholarship in the region. D.J.M. Tate, The Making of Modern South-East Asia, 2 vol. (1971–79), treats the middle portion of the colonial age in detail. David K. Wyatt and Alexander Woodside (eds.), Moral Order and the Question of Change (1982), explores social and intellectual history. Fred R. von der Mehden, South-East Asia, 1930–1970: The Legacy of Colonialism and Nationalism