Milton Osborne - Southeast Asia: An Introductory History

An overview of Southeast Asia by one of our most distinguished historiansthis ninth edition takes in the Asian Economic Crisis and the terrorism which dominates the media right now. A book for those curious about Angkor or the ancient Malay world, Milton Osborne also employs his cool judgement to examine the way the past influences border relations, separatist movements, the quest for identity and other key issues challenging the region today. While deepening our understanding of Southeast Asia, this fine introduction reminds us also of the importance of history itself.

Anthony Milner, Basham Professor of Asian History, Australian National University

Students of Southeast Asian history will be grateful to Milton Osborne for writing this appealing and intelligent tour de force, the book is a triumph of organisation.

David Chandler, Australian Outlook

Milton Osborne has given an admirable introductory history.

Hugh Tinker, History Today

Above all because it tells a single, comprehensive, and integrated story, this is clearly the textbook of choice for students encountering Southeast Asia for the first time.

Arthur Waldron, Lauder Professor of International Relations, Department of History, University of Pennsylvania

... He writes books on the region which have two qualities rarely found in combination: impeccable and authoritative scholarship and the vividness and lightness of touch of first-rate travel writing.

Christopher Koch on Milton Osbornes book The Mekong: turbulent past, uncertain future

Also by Milton Osborne

BOOKS

The French Presence in Cochinchina and Cambodia: Rule and Response (18591905), 1969; reprinted with introduction 1997 Region of Revolt: Focus on Southeast Asia, 1970, revised and expanded edition 1971

Politics and Power in Cambodia: The Sihanouk Years, 1973

River Road to China: The Mekong River Expedition, 18661973, 1975; new edition 1996

Before Kampuchea: Preludes to Tragedy, 1979, 1984; reprinted with Postscript, 1984

Sihanouk: Prince of Light, Prince of Darkness, 1994; Japanese edition 1996; Czech edition 2003

The Mekong: Turbulent Past, Uncertain Future, 2000; updated edition 2006

Exploring Southeast Asia: A Travellers History of the Region, 2002

Phnom Penh: A Cultural and Literary History, 2008

RESEARCH MONOGRAPHS

Singapore and Malaysia, 1964

Strategic Hamlets in South Viet-Nam: A Survey and a Comparison, 1965

River at Risk: The Mekong and the Water Politics of China and Southeast Asia, 2004

The Paramount Power: China and the Countries of Southeast Asia, 2006

The Mekong: River Under Threat, 2009

This twelfth edition published in 2016

First edition published in 1979

Earlier editions translated into Japanese, Khmer, Korean and Thai

Copyright Milton Osborne 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act.

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National Library of Australia

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ISBN 9781760291686
eISBN 9781952534294.

Typeset by Midland Typesetters, Australia
Cover design: Julia Eim
Cover photo: U Bein Bridge in Amarapura, Myanmar (Burma) (Jordan Banks/Getty Images)

CONTENTS

(Unless otherwise noted, photographs in the text are the authors)

Maps

Graphs

Diagrams

This map shows, in a very generalised fashion, claimed European presence in Southeast Asia in the late 18th century. Points to be noted are: no European power held colonial positions on mainland Southeast Asia (the Malay Peninsula is considered part of maritime Southeast Asia); with the exception of Dutch Batavia (modern Jakarta) and Spanish Manila, European settlement in the maritime Southeast Asian world was very small in both numbers and power; the shading used should not be regarded as a reflection of regions, rather it should be taken as indicating a combination of claimed power and commercial political activity; boundaries and names shown are generally those used in the 20th century.

With thirty elephants bearing members of the royal dance troupe, this image is a reminder of the importance of tradition within a modern state.

When introducing the eleventh edition of this book I drew attention to the rapidity of the changes taking place in contemporary Southeast Asia, changes that reflected both the regions dynamism and the extent to which recent events could often only be fully understood in terms of past history. Political change in Burma (Myanmar) is one obvious example of a new and dynamic element in that countrys recent history, marking a striking departure from the firmly implanted policies followed by the dominant military leadership over many decades. The economic resilience of the countries of Southeast Asia, despite the ravages of the Asian Financial Crisis at the end of the twentieth century, is another index of the regions dynamism, as is the entrenchment of democracy in Indonesia, the largest country in the region. And, as an example of the relevance of the past to the present, I pointed to the civil unrest in Thailand in the first decade of the twenty-first century involving the Red and Yellow Shirt factions in Bangkok. This unrest, which has continued into the present decade, can only be properly understood if account is taken of political and demographic developments in Thailand in the early nineteenth century, and even the early decades of the twentieth. The same can be said about the separatist movements found in the south of both the Philippines and Thailand. Even with their very different histories there is a common thread in these movements, a deep sense of a differing identity on the part of the separatists because of their embrace of Islam in contrast to the Catholic faith of the majority of the Philippines population and the Buddhist faith of the majority in Thailand. And, additionally in both cases, a sense exists on the part of the separatists that their history is different from that of the majority of the population in both states.

Much of Southeast Asias history may be viewed in terms of a pattern of challenge and response, and no more striking example of this pattern is the history of the regions experience of colonialism. But there were challenges of a different kind that faced the rulers and communities before the onset of European colonial expansion: the shaping of societies in the face of environmental and physical challenge, as was the case with the development of a complex hydraulic-based society at Angkor, or the mastery of long-haul voyaging by the sailors and traders of Srivijaya as they steered their frail craft from Sumatra to China. What is striking is the extent to which the modern states of Southeast Asia now must confront new challenges in societies that have been radically transformed over the past sixty years. This edition, with its updated statistics, underlines the extent to which Southeast Asian populations are now larger in size than they were a decade ago, and dramatically larger than was the case at the end of the Second World War: the population of Jakarta in 1945 was less than a million; today Greater Jakarta has a population of about sixteen million. This growth in urban population, which is reflected through much of Southeast Asia, alerts us to the fact that images of the region as predominantly rural in character with a small number of primate cities is badly out of date. As more Southeast Asian live in cities and towns their life expectancy has increased and they are gaining greater opportunities for education, a development with strong political overtones.