Southeast Asia before the European arrival

1. Southeast Asia Had Been More Inclined to Live in Mountainous Area

Reflecting the natural conditions of the tropics, the Southeast Asian economy
experienced a path of economic development that is different from those in the
temperate zone. Due to the high temperature and humidity in Southeast Asia, people
were initially inclined to live in mountainous areas because of the humidity and the high
possibility of floods and the outbreak of infectious diSoutheast Asiases such as malaria
and dysentery. The difficulty of controlling large volumes of water was another reason
for people’s unwillingness to live in the delta. Thus most people lived in the cool and dry
mountainous areas, and therefore did not utilize the delta areas by the Southeast
Asiaside, an environment potentially richly endowed. For these reasons, Southeast Asia
was comparatively sparsely populated during the pre-early modern period.
2. Southeast Asia Had Engaged in Maritime Trades
Also, historically, Southeast Asia engaged in two types of maritime trade. The first was
intra-Asian trade. This type of trade has a very long history, spanning more than two
thousand years. Geographically, it was of a very large scale. Since Southeast Asia is
located between China and India, both of which had been powerful economic forces,
Southeast Asia’s trade developed along with the development of maritime trade of these
Asian economic powers. 
Not only coastal trade such as that in Java and Vietnam, but also a fairly long-distance
trade was developed within Southeast Asia. The combination of intra-Asian trade with
India and China and regional trade created a path of economic development based on
international maritime trade. The proto-type of this path is evidenced through the
records of Srivijaya from the seventh to the tenth century. Srivijaya was a federation of
Malay cities among the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra Island, and Java Island. Each port
city reaped profits and benefits from maritime trade and, in return, the unified kingdom
was a recipient of Buddhism from the Indian subcontinent.

3. Hinduism Has Been More Prevalent In The Countries of Southeast Asia

Local rulers have most benefited from the introduction of Hinduism during the early
common era as it greatly enhanced the legitimacy of their reign. 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. 

Between the 5th and the 13th century Buddhism flourished in Southeast Asia. By the
8th century the Buddhist Srivijaya kingdom emerged as a major trading power in central
Maritime Southeast Asia and around the same period the Shailendra dynasty of Java
extensively promoted Buddhist art that found its strongest expression in the vast
Borobudur monument.

Southeast during the Era of Colonialism

The major colonizers of Southeast Asia were Europeans, Japanese and the U.S. All in
all, there were seven colonial powers in Southeast Asia: Portugal, Spain, the
Netherlands, Great Britain, France, the United States, and Japan.  From the 1500s to
the mid-1940s, colonialism was imposed over Southeast Asia. For hundreds of years,
Southeast Asian kingdoms had been engaged in international commercial relations with
traders from East Asia (China), South Asia (India), and West Asia (the “Middle East”). 
Asian sojourners also brought religion, customs, traditions, and court practices to the
region. Hence, their relationship was economic and cultural at the same time. Moreover,
local Southeast Asian rulers used and indigenized practices of kingship institutions from
South Asia (rajadharma) and West Asia (sultanate).

European travelers did not only have economic relations with Southeast Asians but also
imposed their political, and in some cases, cultural, domination over Southeast Asian
peoples and territories. Hence, European colonialism covered a large chunk of
Southeast Asian history. Southeast Asian response to colonialism was both
collaboration and nationalism in all its forms.

1. Southeast Asia’s Agriculture and Economy Improved Drastically

Southeast Asia economy stepped into a new age of modernization at the beginning of
the sixteenth century, when European traders began participating in economic activities.
It was the beginning of the age of economic globalization when the Europeans began to
connect Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas. Colonialism opened up Southeast Asian
agriculture to the world market and new kinds of economic instability linked to world
market forces. In the traditional local market, when there was a bad harvest, prices
tended to rise, because there was a shortage of grain for sale. So peasant cash income
from a bad harvest could be more or less the same as from a good harvest, because
the price was much lower in a good year. But once local prices were set at levels
determined by the world market, this stabilizing effect ceased to operate: prices could
remain low locally when the harvest was bad.

Before colonialism, as small-holder and tenant agriculture became more

commercialized, more and more of the costs of production had to be met in cash. Even
small-holders had to rent draft animals and hire labour, and they also had to pay money
taxes to the State and repay interest on money loans. In some regions, landlords were
able to take control of more and more land, as small-holders had to become tenants
and tenants became labourers because they couldn't pay their debts. In general,
balancing the peasant budget became more and more difficult.
Colonial governments wanted to promote the growth of commercial production: they
saw traditional systems of land tenure as a barrier to what they conceived as
'agricultural modernization', or a more 'rational' exploitation of resources in pursuit of
profit. So they supported the development of private property relations of the kind found
in 'developed' western economies. It's vital to see that the state's intervention in the
economy was as important a cause of this kind of social change as 'market forces'. 

In general terms, in many regions landlord-tenant relations disappeared. It was replaced

by a more impersonal and contractual, less flexible, sort of relationship. Under a
sharecropping system based on 50-50 shares, both the cultivator and the landlord
shared the risk. Under a fixed rent system, the landlord's return was guaranteed: the
tenant could do better if it was a good year than under sharecropping, but might be left
with no subsistence income in a very bad year. 
2. Southeast Asia Was Forced To Unify Under a Single Identify on the Hand of
Colonials
Western colonial expansion began during the 15th century when Spanish and
Portuguese explorers conquered "new" lands in the West Indies and the Americas.
During these periods of expansion, Western European and Soviet powers formed new
colonial multiethnic provinces in Southeast Asia and satellite states. They did so with
little regard for the people living in the newly controlled areas, or for existing geographic
or cultural boundaries. Populations that had previously identified themselves as distinct,
based on their cultural, ethnic, and/or religious heritage, were forced to unify under a
single national identity. 
The new multiethnic colonial territories and Soviet states were maintained, upheld, and
controlled through the use of violence, and through the implementation of imperialist
policies. Certain populations were denied their political, economic, social, and human
rights. Imperialist policies promoted ethnic rivalry by favoring one group above the
others, distributed resources in an unequal manner, disallowed democratic
governments, and prohibited local participation in governmental decisions and actions.
3. Colonials Promoted Ethnic Rivalries

Colonial and Soviet powers often created situations that encouraged ethnic rivalry. For
example, when the Soviets took control of the Ferghana Valley in Asia, they created
boundaries that separated members of the same ethnic group (i.e. the Tajiks) into
different multiethnic regions. This enabled the Soviet authorities to continuously be
called upon by the people of the region to help them manage conflicts that were bound
to emerge as a result of these artificial divisions. European and Soviet imperialists also
sometimes favored one ethnic or religious group over other groups in the region. This
practice of favoring one group, or of giving one group a higher status in colonial society,
created and promoted inter-group rivalries that is still seen even in today’s time.

4. Favoritism When Distributing Resources

The practice of favoring one ethnic, religious, racial, or other cultural group over others
in colonial society, or of giving them a higher status, helped to promote inter-group
rivalries, and often contributed to the unequal distribution of resources. Favored or
privileged groups had access to, or control of, important resources that allowed them to
enrich their members, at the expense of nonmembers. Today, many post-colonial and
post-Soviet states continue the practice of favoring one group over others, whether it be
a minority European settler population, a minority European alliance group or an internal
ethnic group. As a result, we see numerous conflicts being caused in part, by dominant
groups enacting and enforcing governmental, economic, political, and other social
policies that distribute resources unequally among their nation's members.

5. Colonialism Had Shown New Religion and Beliefs for The People in Southeast Asia
From the colonial's perspective, colonization was also about converting the “heathen”
to, first, Catholicism, and then, with the Reformation and the rise of different varieties of
Protestantism, to other denominations as well. Colonization in the early modern period
was as much about religious missions, about “the harvest of souls,” as it was about
expanding territorial boundaries and economic resources. For colonials, this an
important feature in the conquest and colonization of Southeast Asia. While Catholic
and Protestant institutions supported the imperial powers’ colonization schemes, the
former had agendas of their own, which at times clashed with more worldly colonization
schemes. Among the most powerful of these religious enterprises, we find next to the
Jesuits, Franciscans, Dominicans, and Capuchins a number of Protestant churches and
communities.