SOUTHEAST ASIA - European Colonialism
Various European powers have colonized Southeast Asia. As you read the following, identify impacts of colonialism on Southeast Asia that can still be seen today
The colonial powers divided their possessions into administrative units as they did in Africa and elsewhere. France includes Tonkin, Cochin China, Annam, Vietnam. Britain - Myanmar (Burma) became independent when India & Pakistan partitioned in 1947. Malaya was a complicated system of colonies and protectorates that eventually gave rise to an equally complex Malaysian federation. Malaya refers to the geographic area of the Malay Peninsula including Singapore. Malaysia is the country of which Kuala Lampar is the capital city.
The Netherlands [secolony]
The Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) were administered by the Dutch East India Company and later the Dutch government. The Netherlands developed its empire without challenge due to winning concessions and political influence from local rulers, placing Chinese in positions of authority and imposing systems of forced labor.
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Portugal [secolony]
From: http://cbs.infoplease.com/ce5/CE051896.html
The Portuguese were the first Europeans to establish themselves in Timor; their claim to the island was disputed by the Dutch, who arrived in 1613. By a treaty of 1859, modified in 1893 and finally made effective in 1914, the border between the Dutch and Portuguese territories was settled. In World War II, Timor was occupied (early 1942) by the Japanese. With the creation of the Republic of Indonesia in 1950, Dutch Timor became Indonesian territory and is now the territory of Nusa Tenggara Timor. Its capital is Kupang. In 1975, Portuguese Timor, which comprised the eastern half of the island and the small enclave of Oé-Cusse (or Okussi), seceded, declaring itself the Democratic Republic of East Timor. Indonesia immediately invaded East Timor and claimed sovereignty over it. In following years its population was decimated by military violence, food shortages, and disease. The annexation is not accepted internationally, and guerrilla warfare continued into the 1990s as the army brutally attempted to crush resistance.
East Timor has recently become an independent state (country).
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Spain [secolony]
Spanish rule began when Islam [nwmslwor] was reaching the Southern Philippines via the island of Borneo, a profitable way station on the route between Southern China and Mexico. Revolution threw off Spanish rule in 1898, but the Philippines were awarded to US at the end of the Spanish-American War. Fighting continued until 1905 when US put down an uprising. Eventually rule over Philippines was more progressive and a ten year transition to independence was granted. Japan interrupted this transition in 1942 and after three repressive years, the US with Filipino help liberated the Philippines with independence granted in 1946.
[The text of the above was written by Scott Girhard, San Antonio College from his online course GEOG 1301 World Geography. Used with permission.]
Thailand [secolony]
Thailand was never colonized, it was a buffer state of convenience, left unconquered by consensus.
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France [secolony]
From: http://cbs.infoplease.com/ce5/CE025548.html
"Indochina" comprised the French colony of Cochin China and the French protectorates of Tonkin, Annam, Laos, and Cambodia (Cochin China, Tonkin, and Annam were later united to form Vietnam). The capital was Hanoi. The federation formed the easternmost region of the Indochinese peninsula (which it shared with Myanmar, Thailand, and Malaya) and faced E on the South China Sea. The cultures of Indochina were influenced by China and India. The centuries before European intervention saw the growth and decline of the Khmer Empire in Cambodia, the rise and fall of Champa, and the steady expansion of Annam. European penetration began in the 16th cent.; in the 19th-century race for a colonial empire, the French took (1862, 1867) Cochin China as a colony and gained protectorates over Cambodia (1863), Annam (1884), and Tonkin (1884). In 1887 they formed those four states into a union of Indochina, with a governor general at its head; Laos was added to the union in 1893. In World War II, France was forced to accept Japanese intervention in N Indochina in 1940; the subsequent Japanese move into S Indochina (July, 1941) was viewed by the United States as a threat to the Philippines; it prompted the freezing of all Japanese assets in the United States and precipitated the diplomatic exchanges cut short by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Even before the end of the war, the French announced plans for a federation of Indochina within the French Union, with greater self-government for the various states. The federation was accepted in Cambodia and Laos. Vietnamese nationalists, however, demanded (1945) the complete independence of Annam, Tonkin, and Cochin China as Vietnam, and after Dec., 1946, these regions were plunged into bitter fighting between the French and the extreme nationalists, oftentimes led by Communists. The war in Vietnam dragged on for years, culminating in the French defeat at Dienbienphu. The Geneva Conference in 1954 effectively ended French control of Indochina.
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Great Britain [secolony]
From: http://cbs.infoplease.com/ce5/CE049753.html
The three British East India Company territories of Pinang, Singapore, and Malacca (were given a unified administration in 1826 and called the Straits Settlements. The company was dissolved in 1858, and the territories were placed under the jurisdiction of the India Office. In 1867 the Straits Settlements became a crown colony administered by the Colonial Office. Labuan, which had been made a dependency of Singapore in 1906, was constituted a fourth Settlement in 1912. (The Cocos or Keeling Islands and Christmas Island had been made dependencies of Singapore in 1883 and 1903, respectively.) The Straits Settlement crown colony was dissolved in 1946; Singapore with its dependencies became a separate crown colony, and Pinang and Malacca were included in the Malayan Union, which became the Federation of Malaya in 1948.
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