Trade has always accompanied the spread of knowledge throughout Southeast Asia. From ancient times, exchange networks linked the mainland's coast with the Red, Mekong, and Chao Phraya Rivers, while by the second half of the first millennium B.C.E. Indian traders had arrived with goods and religiously based concepts of government.
The Lao-Thai culture area, encompassing modern Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Burma (present-day Myanmar), has a common history of Hinduized states and Theravada Buddhism. Pali (the language of early Buddhist texts) and Sanskrit (the language of early Hinduism) are also Indian in origin. Vietnam, while sharing aspects of mainland Southeast Asian culture and society, represents the cultural influenc…
With the advent of Muslim traders in the thirteenth century and Europeans in the sixteenth, Southeast Asia encountered a new set of cultures and languages as Islam and Christianity exerted their influence. Europeans came seeking Asia's fabled wealth, particularly spices essential for preserving meat, but later trade gave way to conquest and settlement. By 1900 Europeans had divided the regi…
By the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, colonial rulers in Malaya, Burma, Indochina, and the Dutch East Indies were introducing formal Western education. Colonial governments established schools, teacher-training institutions, medical colleges, and universities. Where colonizers wanted to develop a class of indigenous civil servants, instruction was given in European languages.…
The introduction of secular education and a Western curriculum in the twentieth century had profound effects on Southeast Asian language and culture. Necessary skills for preserving and transcribing old texts have been lost, while Western cultural traits have become a source of status. After publishing houses were established Mainland Southeast Asia consists of the presentday states of Myanmar (Bu…
Mainland Southeast Asia consists of the presentday states of Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. Maritime or island Southeast Asia includes the Malay part of the peninsula and a large archipelago divided between Indonesia and the Philippines. 14th–18th centuries. Vietnamese push south, dominating Chams and taking the Mekong Delta from the Khmers. 16th century. Spain anne…
Bellwood, Peter. "The Prehistory of Island Southeast Asia: A Multidisciplinary Review of Recent Research." Journal of World History 1 (1987): 171–224. Useful background on prehistory of region. Chandler, David P. A History of Cambodia. 2nd ed. Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1992. Christie, Clive J. A Modern History of Southeast Asia: Decolonization, Nationalism, and Separatism. Lon…
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