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he diversity of Asia is most evident in Southeast Asia. No empire ever
united or even pretended to unite all its peoples, its peaks and valleys, or
its vast island chains, though plenty of rulers claimed to be god-kings of
the whole world (chakravartin). The 11 nations of modern Southeast Asia—
Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Burma (Myanmar), Malaysia, Singa-
pore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei, and Timor (see map 10.1)—have
come to think of themselves as a geopolitical region with important interests in
common, but this is a phenomenon of the twentieth century. The mainland
region, excluding northern Vietnam, together with Java and Bali, came early
under Indian cultural influence, with god-kings whose palaces were models of
the Himalayan abode of Hindu gods—an influence that lasted over a millen-
nium and is still clearly visible today. Northern Vietnam for many centuries
was China’s southernmost province, with the first written forms of its language
in Chinese characters and with an elite who quoted Confucius and ran its
bureaucracy in the Mandarin manner. Southeast Asia includes two great archi-
pelagoes, themselves collections of hundreds of islands of tremendous diversity,
both of which had political unity forced on them by colonialism. The Dutch
created “Indonesia” out of several western islands where states had existed in
the past, especially Java and Bali; a number of central islands that are home to
tribal folk who never formed states and never wished to join the states of oth-
ers; and an easternmost province, Irian Jaya, which belongs culturally though
not politically to New Guinea. The second archipelago, the Philippines—“300
years in a Catholic convent and 50 years in Hollywood”—was longest colo-
nized of all, first by the Spanish who sailed in from the east across the Pacific
with shiploads of gold dollars from their Mexican colony, and then in the twen-
tieth century by the United States.Four Stages of Southeast Asian History
Although Southeast Asia’s history and prehistory are not yet well known,
certain broad phases can be identified: the prehistoric period, from 2500 to 150
B.C.E; a period of Indian cultural influence, beginning about 100 C.E. and last-
ing until 1300 C.E.; a period of Chinese and Islamic influence, from roughly
1300 to 1750; and the period of Western colonial intervention, from 1750 until
the fairly rapid extinguishing of colonial control in the decades following
World War II. Although there has been a great deal of archaeological research
in recent years, there is no site or region where there is a single comprehensiveT
Chapter opener photo: Young Buddhist monks praying at a temple in northern Thailand.