January 17 2018, Dr.

Chong Wu Ling

SEA and Its People

 There are eleven countries in SEA. East Timor had its independent on 2002. Thailand is
the only country that never been colonized.
 Size: 4,5 millio km2
 SEA is a major source of tropical raw materials, not only food stuffs but also industrial
crops such as rubber and fibers. That is why western world colonized SEA.
 The SEA countries are the creation of European colonialism rather than a reflection of
natural geographical, cultural, or linguistic boundaries.
 SEA can be seen as two geographical regions: mainland and archipelagic.
 In Thailand the biggest ethnic is Thai, but they also have Malay and small amount of India
etchnic
 Mainland SEA and the People in Early Era: Lowland and Highland People
o Lowland people/lowlanders
 Mostly cultivators of wet rice
 Live in more permanent towns and villages
 Have state political organizations
 Adhere to Buddhism or Islam
o Highland people/highlanders
 Mainly practice shifting or swidden cultivation of dry rice (another kind
of rice  you don’t really need a lot of water like wet rice)
 Live in more scattered and less permanent settlements
 Have local or “tribal” political organizations
 Generally, adhere to animistic religious practices or, more recently to
Christianity. Coming from missionaries from Europe that come to
mountain and make people in Myanmar (Karen) convert from animistic
to Christian
o The lowland groups include the dominant, majority peoples of mainland SEA
o E.g. the Vietnamese of Vietnam people, the Lao of Laos.
 Insular SEA and the people in Early Era: Coastal and Interior People
o Coastal people: have the similar characteristics attributed to the lowlanders of
Mainland SEA  easily interacted with foreigners, easy to access food
o Interior people: have the similar characteristics attributed to the highlanders
of mainland SEA  very tribal and traditional culture and social organizations
Referring to people who live in remote area.
o The interior regions of most of the islands and the Malay peninsula are
mountainous and mainly covered by dense forests.
o Such conditions made overland travel and communication difficult
o This lead to the creation and perpetuation of linguistic and ethnic
differentiation
o By contrast, movement by sea relatively easy for people long ago developed
to use of boats
 o This in turn made for the often-striking spread of language and culture
between distant points and over large areas.
o This also made for maritime trade and economic integration and lesser
amounts of political integrations based on trade, alliance and conquest
o The main exception is the island of Java and the smaller islands of Bali because
the interior in Java and Bali is formed by volcanic mountains with extremely
rich soils. Therefore, these areas have much denser interior population.
o There is also much greater traditional political and economic integration as
well as cultural similarity in Java and Bali.
o Hence, the human ecology and cultural development of Java and Bali is more
similar to those interior in SEA.
 Early cultural influences
o Mainland SEA was dominated by Austro-Asiatic languages (Mon-Khmer) and
Sino Se-Tibetan languages (Burmese, Thai, and Vietnamese) whereas insular
SEA was dominated by Malayo-Polynesian languages.
o The influences of Indian culture:
 Aryanized Indians (coming from northern India) migrated to SEA in the
first century A.D. for trading purposes.
 The Indian migrants introduced Hinduism and Theravada Buddhism to
the local communities of SEA. Southern India  Tamil, Northern 
Urdu
 Indian scripts were introduced and formed the basis of Cambodian,
Burman, Shan, Thai and Laotian scripts as well as more of the regional
languages of Indonesia (Sanskrit)
 Balinese scripts are hard to learn, because there are three classes, like
in Java. Malay language is more ‘egaliter’
o Influences of Chines culture:
 Chinese merchants came to SeA around the first century A.D. for
trading purposes.
 Chines goods (especially jars and other ceramics) have been imported
and traded throughout much of SEA
 However, beyond trade goods, Chinese influences has been limited to
geographical terms.
 Chinese influence was stronger among the Vietnamese.
 In the second century B.C. Vietnam became a province of China and
remained so for the next 1000 years  Mahayana Buddhism, coming
from China, not Teravana Buddhism.
 The govt, class system, religion, and culture of Vietnam became Sinitic
(relating to the Chinese) - Sinicisation.
 Early scripts Vietnam language came from Chinese, and then after
being Romanized by France it became different
o The impact of Islam:
 Islam was introduced by Indian and Arab traders around the 11 th
century.
 Islamized states began to appear in Sumatera in the middle of the 13 th
century: expansion continued during the next 200 years and in 1450
reached Malacca and became major port.
 Intermarriage played an important role in the extension of Islam.
 The marriage of Muslims into the princely families of the region was an
important factor in establishing Islam among the upper classes.
 Islam was dominant in Malaya, Sumatera, Java, southern Sulawesi,
southern Thailand, and southern Philippines.
 Throughout their long trade and cultural relations, China has always
regarded SEA as inferior in status.
 Objects from the outside world could therefore be regarded only as
tribute
 Chinese imperial governments actively discouraged the movement of
their traders to foreign lands.
 All overseas trade was banned in 1433-1567 and 1717-1727
 The Chinese govt decided to lift the ban because places in Southern
China like Fujian wee dependent of international trade for their
livelihood
 The Chinese migrated to SEA were mostly from Fujian and Guangdong
 In SEA the Chinese were descendent from Guangdong and Fujian
 Korea also has its own Chinese community, most of them are from
Shandong
 Chinese trade and migration led to the opening of Batavia’s
Ommelanden where Chinese became involved in agriculture, especially
in the opening of sugar plantations.
 There were also Chinese who established gambir plantations in Riau,
and other who openend tin mines on Bangka and the Malay peninsula
and gold mines in Borneo.
 After the establishment of Spanish Manila in 1571, it became one of
the main destinations for Chinese migrants, with about 630 junks
arriving from southern China in the first 30 years.
 Siam was another major area of Chinese concentration, especially in
the royal capitals of Ayutthaya, then Thonburi, and finally Bangkok.
 In addition to being traders and merchants, the Chinese in Siam were
pig-breeders, artisans, physicians, and actor. A few Chinese even
became Siam court officials.
 Mass Chinese immigrations to SEA took place at the 2nd half of the 19th
century as a result of civil wars and political instability in China
 In Malay peninsula, some Chinese men were recruited by the Malay
sultan as tin miners.
 Some were recruited by western colonial regimes as indentured
workers (coolies) to work in plantations of SEA
o Japanese impact
  The Japanese began to come to SEA in mid-sixteenth century for
trading purposes
 Between 1600-1635 more than 350 japanese ships came to SEA
 Between 1615 and 1625, Japan sold about 130K-160K kg of silver,
amointing to 30-40% of the total world output outside Japan.
 The Japanese were especially prominent in Ayutthaya. By the late
1620s the trade between Siam and Japan was larger.
o Like the Chinese, the Indian had been trading to SEA since the first century A.D.
and had left a lasting impact on local culture.
 Most of indian traders came from: Gujerat, the south (Malabar), and
the northeast
 The Bengal traders were active in Aceh, the Malay peninsula, and the
Burmese and Thai coasts
 The Indian traders consisted of Hindus and Musloms.
 The numbers of Indian immigrats were greatest in Burma, Malaya and
Singapore.
 In the 19th century, some Indian men were recruited by the British as
indentured workers (coolies) to work in plantations of Malaya.
 There were also many Indians who worked as moneylanders in Burma,
Malaya, and Singapore.
o European
 The European traders came to SEA between 1500 and 1800
 They enjoyed support from their govt
 The earliest European ventures were those initiated and funded by
Portuguese and Spanish royal houses
 The European traders to SEA to get spices pepper, cinnamon, clove,
nutmeg, and mace
 Alfonso de Alberqueque
 Malacca was the principal collecting por t of cloves, nutmeg, mace and
SEA pepper
 The earliest Spanish contact with Asia was in March 1521 when
Magellan’s expedition reached the Philippines
 The Chirstianization of the indigenous people was regardesd as one of
the most important priorites of the Spaniards.
 The Spanish govt moved from Cebu to Manila in 1571 because it is near
to China
 Merchants from Macao brought canton silk, cotton cloths anad other
wares to waiting merchants form Acapulco, who offered their silver
from the American colonies in exchange.
 Trade – macao-manila0acapulco
 Galleion trade
 In 17th century, the English and Dutch came to SEA with a highly
motivate trading idea: the joint-stock company
  The English East India Company (EIC) was formed in 1600 while the
Inited Dutch East India Company (VOC) was formed in 1602.
 EIC and VOC competed for the control over the spice trade in SEA
 In 1623
o R. L. Winzeler (2011)
o The Malays were thought to be contended with their traditional village way of life
based on rice cultivation, orchards, and fishing and therefore had little interest in
becoming paid laborers
o Some Malays were employed in the colonial administration, involved in trade but their
numbers are not much
o Much Chinese lives in urban areas
o The largest populations of ethnic Chinese formed in the coastal regions and especially
in the major cities of these…
o Chinese new villages in Malaysia are villages created by the British colonial govt in the
mid1950s
o The original purpose of the Chinese New Villages was to segregate the Chinese
villagers from the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) insurgents, the military
arm of the Malayan Communist Party (MCP), during the Malayan Emergency.
o The Malayan Emergency was a guerrilla war fought between British armed forces in
Malaya and the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) the military arm of the
Malayan Communist Party (MCP), 1948-1960.
o Most of the MNLA insurgents were ethnic Chinese
o The insurgents were dependent upon rural villages for food and other support.
o British colonial govt created the Chinese New Villages and forced many Chinese
villagers to move there.
o 780k people had been relocated to 574 Chinese New Villages
o The Strategy therefore was to cut off supplies
Orang Asli in Peninsular Malaysia Senoi  residing in central part of
- Peninsular Malaysia (Semai, temir jahut, che wong, mah meri, sema beri)
- Proto-Malay or Aboriginal Malay (coastal)
- Negrito or Semang  resideing in the northern and central regions of Peninsular
Malaysia
Orang Asli originally animist, however many of them have embraced Islam or Christianity
following some active state-sponsored proselytizing by Muslims, and evangelism by Christian
missionaries.
Main ethnic groups in Sabah:
- Kadazan-dusun
- Bajau
- Murut
- Malay
- Suluk
 - Chinese
Main ethnic groups in Sarawak
- Iban  their ancestors live in jungle and mountainous area.
- Malay
- Chinese
- Bidayuh
- Orang Ulu  live In remote area
- Melanau  Muslims

o Most malaysian people don’t know about orang aseli

Maritime History of SEA
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hanizah Idris
- Maritime History of SEA
- Maritime Contemporary of SEA
More than 70% of SEA is sea, approx 4 million km2. Maritime-littoral environment to much
greater degree than any part of the world. Mainland SEA and Islands/Insular SEA.
There is a rich maritime tradition which dates before the era of western influence in the rgion,
the early Maritime empires in the region is Srivijaya.
The strait of Malacca has played a vital role in connecting Malacca to the rest of the world
including to the Middle East and also the Far East and the Western world.
Suez canal (19 century) and Panama canal (20 century)
China traditional ship  Junk and Tongkang
Singapore founded by birish in 1819, founded ealier in 14th century as Temasik.
Several factors contributed to dev of Singapore as a centre of sae communication in the region
between 19th-20th century:
1. strategic location being located at the centre of the region where goods were brought from
other parts of the region where gods were broight from other parts of the region like the
Malay Peninsular, Makassar, Java
2. Singapore port possessed a deep water port that suitable for ships to berth at at the port
as to compare to other regional port.
3. The British had built port facilities like docks and wharves to facilitate shipping activities at
the port. Example – Victoria Dock and King’s Dock
4. Singapore also had provided shipping facilities like watering, bunkering, and ship’s repairing
at the port.

BRI – Belt Route Initiatives

If it happened it will affect the Singapore port and Malaysia port
Kra Canal only planned to get used for cruising activity
The largest ocean water carriers are Maersk, Hapag-Llyod and Ecergreen, APL Limited,
Mediterranean Shipping, and OOCL CGM. Malaysia and other SEAo