Southeast Asia History
The history of Southeast Asia can be classified into regional influences and foreign influences. Actually there is no part of Asia that has not come under colonization. Also there are several countries within Southeast Asia, and each country has been influenced by the other. For example, the Malay empire was severely influenced by the Sri Vijaya Empire of India. And, the Malacca civilization influenced Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. The Burmese and Thai people were influenced by the Indo-China region. |
The individual history of many of these countries started developing only after the colonization started. Between the 17th century and 20th century, these countries started developing rapidly with their own culture and traditions. By then Buddhism had a lot of influence on many of these countries.
It is believed that Southeast Asia has been inhabited from the prehistoric times. The ancient kingdoms were divided into the Agrarian Kingdoms and the Ayutthaya kingdom. There were maritime states moreover which were mainly dependent on the sea for their survival. However, even today, very little is known about the religious beliefs of these kingdoms and indigenous people. Only after Buddhism started having its influence did we come to know what kind of role it played on the development of these countries.
The British when they colonized many places of Southeast Asia, people already had an established system of medicine and governments. They had monarchial rule but there was a sense of order. It is when British started slavery that people started migrating to the mountains and a more anarchical rule was being attempted.
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