Southeast Asia

Most of Southeast Asia was colonized in the late nineteenth century.

• French Indochina: France conquered Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia by stages from 1858 to 1893. French rule prioritized rice and rubber production for export. Resistance simmered for the entire colonial period and would explode after WWII (see Unit 10.7).

• Dutch East Indies: Modern Indonesia. The Netherlands consolidated control from the seventeenth century through the early twentieth. Dutch rule extracted spices, rubber, and tin while suppressing local industries.

• British Malaya and Burma: Britain controlled the Malay Peninsula (tin and rubber) and Burma (rice and timber).

• Philippines: Spanish colony from the sixteenth century, transferred to the United States in 1898 after the Spanish-American War. Filipino independence fighters under Emilio Aguinaldo, who had been allied with the Americans against Spain, resisted American annexation. The Philippine-American War (1899-1902) killed perhaps 200,000 to 700,000 Filipinos. The Philippines remained an American possession until 1946.

• Siam (Thailand): The only Southeast Asian state to retain independence. Skillful kings (especially Chulalongkorn, r. 1868-1910) modernized cautiously, played the British and French against each other, and ceded peripheral territories to preserve the core. Siam's survival demonstrates that European imperialism was not inevitable when local rulers responded skillfully.