SOUTHEAST ASIA PA

by HEIDHUES,MARY SOMER

• ISBN13: 9780500283035
• ISBN10: 0500283036
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2001-09-17
• Publisher: THAMES&HUD
• More Book Details
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Summary

Southeast Asia has always been one of the world's major crossroads, a melting pot of cultures, religions, and peoples. The region has seen the rise and fall of mighty empires, whose god-kings built monumental temples and shrines: the Khmer temples of Angkor in Cambodia, the Javanese Buddhist shrine of Borobudur, or the innumerable pagodas of Burma. It has also been home to great trading states such as Srivijaya or the Sultanate of Malacca, that reaped huge profits from control of the seas. The prospect of spices and luxury goods enticed Europeans to this part of the world in the sixteenth century. Their early trading posts eventually expanded into colonial empires that were only finally dismantled in the years after World War II. But liberation brought with it problems as well as promise: Indochina became a major theater of the Cold War and experienced massive devastation from which it is still recovering. Mary Somers Heidhues covers the history of Southeast Asia from the earliest prehistoric peoples to the emergence of high-tech "tiger economies," continuing struggles for democracy, and the environmental threat posed by pollution and deforestation. Filled with maps and illustrations, this lively book will appeal to historians, travelers, students, and everyone who wants to know more about this fascinating part of the world. 142 illustrations.

Author Biography

Educated in the United States and now based at the University of Hamburg in Germany, Mary Somers Heidhues has written extensively on the history and politics of Southeast Asia

Table of Contents

Introduction	7	(8)
Southeast Asia Today
Southeast Asian Histories
Note on Spellings
Waterways	15	(20)
From Early Settlements to the First Maritime Kingdoms
Evidence From Prehistory
Southeast Asians
Farming and Metalworking
Early States and Indian Influences
Funan
Champa
Srivijaya
Waterways, Settlements and Trade
Temples and Rice	35	(30)
Land-Based Kingdoms
Southeast Asian Kingship
Kingship and Display
Angkor and Cambodia
Early Javanese Kingdoms
Borobudur
Prambanan
Eastern Java
Majapahit
Pagan and Burma
A Tai Century
Ayudhya
The Indian Legacy
Multiplicity of Beliefs	65	(22)
The Religions of Southeast Asia
Hinduism
Buddhism
Theravada Buddhism
Confucianism
Taoism
Islam
Christianity
Messianic and Millenarian Beliefs
Southeast Asia as a Crossroads	87	(22)
Relations with China and European Advances
Chinese Influence
China's Special Relationship with Vietnam
European Contacts and Early Colonization
Colonization by Trade: The VOC
Dutch Territorial Conquests in Java
The Expansion of European Control
Britain
French Indochina
USA
Consolidation of Independence in Siam
New Directions, New Elites	109	(54)
The Colonial Map of Southeast Asia
Agricultural Change and Population Growth
Mines, Plantations and Immigrant Labour
Early Resistance
The Beginnings of Nationalism
Social Change: Education, Language and Literacy
International Influences on the Emergence of Nationalism
Reform Movements
Marxism
Religion and Nationalism
Secular Nationalism
Violence and Transition
Occupation, Independence and Cold War	131	(32)
Japanese Occupation
Mobilization
Japanese-Trained Armies
Resistance
Economic and Social Disruption
The End of Japanese Occupation
The Indochina Wars
Cambodia and Laos
Independence in Other Countries
Development and Democracy	163	(22)
Southeast Asia in Recent Decades
Accelerated Growth
Authoritarian Rule and Economic Development
ASEAN
The Environment
Glossary	185	(1)
Short Bibliography	185	(3)
Illustration and Text Credits	188	(1)
Index	189