European colonisation of Southeast Asia

{{Main|Portuguese Malacca|Portuguese Empire in the Indonesian Archipelago}}

{{See also|Malay-Portuguese conflicts|Acehnese-Portuguese conflicts|Ternatean-Portuguese conflicts}}

File:AMH-6472-KB Battle for Malacca between the VOC fleet and the Portuguese, 1606.jpg, 1606]]

File:Retrato de Afonso de Albuquerque (após 1545) - Autor desconhecido.png, conqueror of Malacca in 1511]]

File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Schoolplaat getiteld de eerste O.I. vaarders op de reede van Bantam TMnr 5976-1.jpg voyage arrival in Bantam (c. 16th century)]]

File:Two Spanish missionaries baptise a Moro convert to Roman Catholic, circa 1890.jpg a Moro convert in the Spanish East Indies, circa 1890.]]

Advances in sciences, cartography, shipbuilding and navigation during the 15th to 17th centuries in Europe and tightening Turkish control and eventual shut down of the Eastern Mediterranean gateways into Asia first prompted Portuguese, and later Spanish and Dutch, sea voyagers to ship around Africa in search of new trading routes and business opportunities. Niccolò de' Conti arrived in Southeast Asia as the earliest documented European in the early 15th century. By 1498 Vasco da Gama, who had sailed round the Cape of Good Hope, established the first direct sea route from Europe to India.{{citation|title=India in the Fifteenth Century|chapter=The travels of Niccolo Conti|page=27|editor=R. H. Major|year=1857|publisher=Hakluyt Society|chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/indiainfifteenth00majorich#page/n181/mode/2up}}

Discussed in Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, [https://books.google.com/books?id=l6TVhvYLaEwC&dq=Conti+ships+larger&pg=RA2-PA452 p. 452]

Central among the various plannings was to establish direct and permanent trade of the highly priced spices native to Southeast Asia, included pepper, cloves, nutmeg, mace and cinnamon. Competition among the various nations was fierce and violence commonplace in order to secure exclusive access to the centers of production. Eventually, the Dutch and the Spanish wrestled control of it from the Portuguese in the 17th century. In the 18th century, the British, who became increasingly engaged in Southeast Asia over their interests in India, gained control of it from the Dutch.{{cite web|url=https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/about-silk-road|title=About the Silk Road|publisher=UNESCO|access-date=6 April 2018|quote=Throughout history, Eurasia was criss-crossed with communication routes and paths of trade, which gradually linked up to form what are known today as the Silk Roads; routes across both land and sea, along which silk and many other goods were exchanged between people from across the world. Maritime routes were an important part of this network, linking East and West by sea, and were used for the trade of spices in particular, thus becoming known as the Spice Routes.}}{{cite book|author=Norman G. Owen|title=The Emergence Of Modern Southeast Asia: A New History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=py5Xh0-pw18C|year=2005|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=978-0-8248-2890-5}}

Portugal was the first European power to establish a bridgehead in maritime Southeast Asia with the conquest of the Sultanate of Malacca in 1511. The Netherlands and Spain followed and soon superseded Portugal as the main European powers in the region. In 1599, Spain began to colonise the Philippines. In 1619, acting through the Dutch East India Company, the Dutch took the city of Sunda Kelapa, renamed it Batavia (now Jakarta) as a base for trading and expansion into the other parts of Java and the surrounding territory. In 1641, the Dutch took Malacca from the Portuguese.For fifty or sixty years, the Portuguese enjoyed the exclusive trade to China and Japan. In 1717, and again in 1732, the Chinese government offered to make Macao the emporium for all foreign trade, and to receive all duties on imports; but, by a strange infatuation, the Portuguese government refused, and its decline is dated from that period. (Roberts, 2007 PDF image 173 p. 166) Economic opportunities attracted Overseas Chinese to the region in great numbers. In 1775, the Lanfang Republic, possibly the first republic in the region, was established in West Kalimantan, present-day Indonesia, as a tributary state of the Qing Empire; the republic lasted until 1884, when it fell under Dutch occupation as Qing influence waned.Other experiments in republicanism in adjacent regions were the Japanese Republic of Ezo (1869) and the Republic of Taiwan (1895).

Portuguese Catholic missionaries arrived in the 16th century under royal patronage and founded churches throughout the region. The Dutch first sent Protestant ministers during the 17th century. Their objective was more the spiritual service to the local Dutch people, rather than conversion of native people.{{cite web |url=https://omf.org/blog/2014/07/25/history-of-christianity-in-asia/ | date= 25 July 2014 |title=The History of Christianity in Asia |publisher=OMF International | access-date= 13 December 2018 }} The Spanish mission succeeded with the complete Christianisation of the Philippines.{{cite web |url=http://roxborogh.com/sea/country/RegionalpatternsSEA1995.pdf |title=Regional patterns in the history of Southeast Asian Christianity |publisher=John Roxborogh | access-date= 13 December 2018 }}

People who changed their religions did so for a variety of reasons, including their search for social or personal security and identity in the face of social change, their quest for personal salvation or for a religion that seemed better suited to the modern world they aspired to, or one that appeared to leave room for traditional religious practices. Many times, those who upheld the faith and spread the gospel in succeeding generations did so because they had firsthand knowledge of Southeast Asia's Christian rebirth through time and culture (2018)^30.

File:British forces arrival mandalay1885.jpg in 1885 after the Third Anglo-Burmese War, marking the beginning of British rule in Burma.]]

File:Photographic Views of Singapore Plate 03 Raffles' Square.jpg circa 1900.]]

File:Borneo logging 1926.jpg, 1926]]

During the early 17th century the rivalling Dutch traders joined the Dutch East India Company, as the British founded the British East India Company, followed by France, where in 1664 the French East India Company was authorised by royal funding. These conglomerates of capital, ships, freely transferable shares and state power were characterised by many institutional innovations, significantly decreasing the financial risk of the individual merchants and share holders. An early form of the modern giant global corporations and the introduction of the stock market had trade volumes reach unprecedented levels. Governmental support, military and administrative privileges, coining, legal and real estate rights enabled these enterprises to act as the official representatives of their country of origin in Southeast Asia.{{cite book |url=http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205654.001.0001/acprof-9780198205654-chapter-17 | date= 21 October 1999|title=British Expansion and Rule in South-East Asia |publisher=Oxford scholarship | author=A. J. Stockwell | editor1-first= Andrew| editor1-last= Porter| access-date= 13 December 2018 | doi= 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205654.001.0001| isbn= 9780191676734}}{{cite book| publisher = Springer |author= Oscar Gelderblom, Abe de Jong, Joost Jonker |title = Origins of Shareholder Advocacy| pages = 29–60 | doi =10.1057/9780230116665_2 | year = 2011 | isbn = 978-1-349-29072-7 |chapter= An Admiralty for Asia: Business Organization and the Evolution of Corporate Governance in the Dutch Republic, 1590–1640 }}

Initially, the British East India Company, led by Josiah Child, had little interest in or impact on the region, and were effectively expelled following the Siam–England war (1687). Britain, in the guise of the British East India Company, turned their attention to the Bay of Bengal following the Peace with France and Spain (1783). During the conflicts, Britain had struggled for naval superiority with the French, and the need of good harbours became evident. Penang Island had been brought to the attention of the Government of India by Francis Light. In 1786, the settlement of George Town was founded at the northeastern tip of Penang Island by Captain Francis Light, under the administration of Sir John Macpherson; this marked the beginning of British expansion into the Malay Peninsula.{{cite book|last=Crawfurd |first=John |author-link=John Crawfurd |title=Journal of an Embassy from the Governor–general of India to the Courts of Siam and Cochin China|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PrATTr4zRO0C&q=%22The+history+of+this+little+establishment+is+very+shortly+told.%22&pg=PA22|volume=1|date=August 2006|orig-year=First published 1830|publisher=H. Colburn and R. Bentley|location=London |oclc=03452414|at=image 52, p. 34|chapter=Chapter I — Description of the Settlement.|isbn=9788120612372 |access-date=10 February 2014|edition=2nd}}Company agent John Crawfurd used the census taken in 1824 for a statistical analysis of the relative economic prowess of the peoples there, giving special attention to the Chinese: The Chinese amount to 8595, and are landowners, field-labourers, mechanics of almost every description, shopkeepers, and general merchants. They are all from the two provinces of Canton and Fo-kien, and three-fourths of them from the latter. About five-sixths of the whole number are unmarried men, in the prime of life : so that, in fact, the Chinese population, in point of effective labour, may be estimated as equivalent to an ordinary population of above 37,000, and, as will afterwards be shown, to a numerical Malay population of more than 80,000! (Crawfurd image 48. p.30)

By the latter half of the 18th century, Europe experienced the full effects of the Industrial Revolution, as rapid advancements in science, industry and technology, had created a tremendous gap in relative power between the Europeans and the rest of the world, including Southeast Asia. Extensive use of machines to manufacture goods would increase European demand for raw materials on the one hand and lead to the accumulation of surplus goods on the other. Mutual economic dependence had become real by the 19th century, as Southeast Asia was now an integral provider of material and resources for the European economies. To keep pace with surplus output, European manufacturers pushed the development of markets in new territories, such as Southeast Asia, which led to the next phase of establishing imperial rule. Transformation of political institutions in the colonies aimed at the full consolidation of the monopoly markets by their European planners.

However, industrialisation took place against increasing competition among the European powers. This was encouraged by changes in the continental balance of power. The Napoleonic Wars unseated French power. The commercial and naval powers of Britain, which were unrivalled for a time, started to erode later on. Competition among European powers led to the practice of carving up the world into spheres of influence. There was also the need to fill ‘vacuums’ of territories that would otherwise fall under the influence of another competing European power.

The British temporarily possessed Dutch territories during the Napoleonic Wars; and Spanish areas in the Seven Years' War. In 1819, Stamford Raffles established Singapore as a key trading post for Britain in their rivalry with the Dutch. However, their rivalry cooled in 1824 when an Anglo-Dutch treaty demarcated their respective interests in Southeast Asia. British rule in Burma began with the first Anglo-Burmese War (1824–1826).

{{Further|East Asia–United States relations}}

Early American entry into what was then called the East Indies (usually in reference to the Malay Archipelago) was subtle. In 1795, a secret voyage for pepper set sail from Salem, Massachusetts on an 18-month voyage that returned with a bulk cargo of pepper, the first to be so imported into the country, which sold at the extraordinary profit of seven hundred per cent.{{cite book |last=Trow |first=Charles Edward |title=The old shipmasters of Salem |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/cu31924028839152/cu31924028839152_djvu.txt |year=1905 |publisher=G.P. Putnam's Sons |location=New York and London |oclc=4669778 |pages=xx–xxiii|chapter=Introduction }} In 1831, the merchantman Friendship of Salem returned to report the ship had been plundered, and the first officer and two crewmen murdered in Sumatra. The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 obligated the Dutch to ensure the safety of shipping and overland trade in and around Aceh, who accordingly sent the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army on the punitive expedition of 1831. President Andrew Jackson also ordered America's first Sumatran punitive expedition of 1832, which was followed by a punitive expedition in 1838. The Friendship incident thus afforded the Dutch a reason to take over Ache; and Jackson, to dispatch diplomatist Edmund Roberts,{{cite book|last=Roberts|first=Edmund (Digitized 12 October 2007)|author-link=Edmund Roberts (diplomat)|title=Embassy to the Eastern Courts of Cochin-China, Siam, and Muscat: In the U.S. Sloop-of-War Peacock During the Years 1832–34 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aSgPAAAAYAAJ|year=1837|publisher=Harper & Brothers|oclc=12212199|chapter=Introduction|isbn=9780608404066 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aSgPAAAAYAAJ&q=%22HAVING+some+years+since+become+acquainted+with+the+commerce+of+Asia+and+Eastern+Africa%22&pg=PA5|access-date=16 February 2014}} who in 1833 secured the Roberts Treaty with Siam. In 1856 negotiations for amendment of this treaty, Townsend Harris stated the position of the United States:

The United States does not hold any possessions in the East, nor does it desire any. The form of government forbids the holding of colonies. The United States therefore cannot be an object of jealousy to any Eastern Power. Peaceful commercial relations, which give as well as receive benefits, is what the President wishes to establish with Siam, and such is the object of my mission.{{cite web|date=14 March 2013|title=1b. Harris Treaty of 1856|url=http://www.mnh.si.edu/treasures/frame_exhibit_gallery1b_main.htm|access-date=9 February 2014|work=Royal Gifts from Thailand|publisher=National Museum of Natural History|format=exhibition|quote=|orig-year=speech delivered 1856}}

File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Interieur van de smederij van de Sabang Maatschappij TMnr 10020864.jpg off Sumatra, Dutch East Indies, image taken before 1927]]

File:Gia Lam Workshop 1905.jpg, French Indochina circa 1935]]

File:Da Lat train station 37.jpg, Lâm Đồng Province, French Indochina]]

The phenomenon denoted New Imperialism, saw the conquest of nearly all Southeast Asian territories by the colonial powers. The Dutch East India Company and British East India Company were dissolved by their respective governments, who took over direct administration of the colonies. Only Siam managed to avoid direct foreign rule, although was compelled to political reforms and make generous concessions in order to appease the Western powers. The Monthon reforms of the late 19th century continuing up till around 1910, imposed a Westernised form of government on the country's partially independent cities called Mueang, such that the country could be said to have successfully colonised itself.{{cite journal | last = Murdoch | first = John B. |year= 1974 |title= The 1901–1902 Holy Man's Rebellion |journal= Journal of the Siam Society |volume= JSS Vol.62.1e |issue= digital |page= 38 |url= http://www.siamese-heritage.org/jsspdf/1971/JSS_062_1e_Murdoch_1901to1902HolyMansRebellion.pdf |access-date= 2 April 2013 }} Western powers did, however, continue to interfere in both internal and external affairs.{{cite journal|last=de Mendonha e Cunha |first=Helder|year=1971|title=The 1820 Land Concession to the Portuguese |journal=Journal of the Siam Society|volume=JSS Vol. 059.2g|issue=digital|url=http://www.siamese-heritage.org/jsspdf/1971/JSS_059_2g_Cunha_1820LandConcessionToPortuguese.pdf|access-date=6 February 2014}}{{cite journal|first=Peter B. |last=Oblas |year=1965 |title=A Very Small Part of World Affairs |journal=Journal of the Siam Society |volume=JSS Vol.53.1e |issue=digital |url=http://www.siamese-heritage.org/jsspdf/1971/JSS_059_2e_Oblas_VerySmallPartOfWorldAffairsSiamAndParisPeaceConference.pdf|access-date=7 September 2013}}

By 1913, the British crown had occupied Burma, Malaya and the northern Borneo territories, the French controlled Indochina, the Dutch ruled the Netherlands East Indies while Portugal managed to hold on to Portuguese Timor. In the Philippines, the 1872 Cavite Mutiny was a precursor to the Philippine Revolution (1896–1898). When the Spanish–American War began in Cuba in 1898, Filipino revolutionaries declared Philippine independence and established the First Philippine Republic the following year. In the Treaty of Paris of 1898 that ended the war with Spain, the United States gained the Philippines and other territories. No country recognised the self-proclaimed republic. Washington sent in the military to control the islands, in the Philippine–American War, which ended when the rebel leadership was captured. Conflicts followed with the self-proclaimed Republic of Zamboanga, the Republic of Negros and the Republic of Katagalugan, all of which were also defeated.{{cite book|author=Norman G. Owen|title=The Emergence Of Modern Southeast Asia: A New History - The Philippines 1896 - 1972 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=py5Xh0-pw18C&pg=PA283|year=2005|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=978-0-8248-2890-5|pages=283–}}

During the mid-19th century, the Europeans had certain goals which they regarded as important in the humanitarian sense. One of these goals was expressed in the slogan, ‘The White Man's Burden’ (taken from a line in a poem by Rudyard Kipling), which was the mission to ‘civilise’ (uplift, advance) the ‘less fortunate’ and ‘less gifted’ people of Southeast Asia. Towards this end, they implemented policies providing educational and healthcare services.Kenton J. Clymer, "Humanitarian imperialism: David Prescott Barrows and the white man's burden in the Philippines." Pacific Historical Review 45.4 (1976): 495-517. Christian missionaries often took leadership roles in education and medical care, and in opposing the slave trade.Bronwen Everill, "Bridgeheads of Empire? Liberated African Missionaries in West Africa." Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 40.5 (2012): 789-805.E. A. Ayandele, "The coming of Western education to Africa." West African Journal of Education 15.1 (1971): 21-33.

Sometimes, the acquisition of colonies was an attempt to revive declining prestige rather than a show of power. France was preoccupied with expanding her colonial empire to recover from her humiliating defeat in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. It expanded into Indochina in response to its need for international prestige to improve the government's image at home, and to keep abreast of other important European powers in terms of colonial acquisitions. David Dorman, "Genesis of a Nightmare." Social Studies 63.6 (1972): 259-262.Charles M. Andrew, "The French colonialist movement during the Third Republic: the unofficial mind of imperialism." Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 26 (1976): 143-166.

File:Ölgemälde von Andries Beeckman- Die Festung von Batavia, gesehen vom Westen Kali Besar, c. 1656.jpg built in what is now Jakarta, by Andries Beeckman c. 1656]]

In the early phase, European control in Southeast Asia was largely confined to the establishment of trading posts. These trading posts were used to store the oriental products obtained from the local traders before they were exported to the European markets. Such trading posts had to be located along major shipping routes and their establishments had to be approved by the local ruler so that peace would prevail for trade to take place. Malacca, Penang, Batavia and Singapore were all early trading posts.

The role of the Europeans changed, however, in the industrialised phase as their control expanded beyond their trading posts. As the trading posts grew due to an increase in the volume of trade, demand for food supplies and timber (to build and repair ships) also increased. To ensure a reliable supply of food and timber, the Europeans were forced to deal with the local communities nearby. These marked the beginnings of territorial control. A good example is the case of Batavia. There, the Dutch extended control over parts of western Java and later to central Java and the east where rice was grown and timber found.

To ensure that trade flourished, the Europeans had to maintain political stability. Sometimes, they interfered with the internal affairs of the natives to maintain peace. The Europeans also tried to impose their culture on their colonies.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jul/27/ruins-of-empire-pankaj-mishra | date= 27 July 2012 |title=The ruins of empire: Asia's emergence from western imperialism |publisher=Guardian News | author=Pankaj Mishra | access-date= 13 December 2018 | newspaper= The Guardian }}

European interference has affected Southeast Asians in all aspects of life. Colonial economic exploitation, the mass theft of regional resources, and racial and ethnic discrimination all occurred alongside Europe's rapid scientific and technological progress, as well as its import of new political and education systems into the region. Perceptions of the political reality differed widely among the Southeast Asian countries. The early 20th century popular communist movement leaders of Vietnam were notably optimistic and “predicted a blessed future in which automobiles and trains would no longer be uniquely Western”, while Dutch author J.H. Boeke observed, that “societies like Indonesia were incurably dual”.{{cite book|author=Norman G. Owen|title=The Emergence Of Modern Southeast Asia: A New History - Industrialization and Its Implications |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=py5Xh0-pw18C&pg=PA379|year=2005|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=978-0-8248-2890-5|pages=379–}}

Increased labour demand resulted in mass immigration, especially from British India and China, which brought about massive demographic change. The study of institutions for a modern democratic nation state with a state bureaucracy, courts of law, print media and modern education, sowed the seeds of the fledgling nationalist and independence movements among the colonial subjects. During the inter-war years, these nationalist movements grew and often clashed with the colonial authorities when they demanded self-determination.

The expansion of European dominance through colonialism was considered extraordinary as it affected the entirety of Southeast Asia significantly. Later on, more common features would emerge, such as the rise of nationalist movements, the Japanese occupation of Southeast Asia, and later the Cold War that engulfed many parts of the region. Taken altogether, it can be said that a common core of historical experiences existed, and that this core defined the region, thus justifying the use of the term ‘Southeast Asia’ to describe the region as a single entity.{{cite web |url=https://www.ukessays.com/essays/history/political-impact-of-colonial-powers-upon-southeast-asia-history-essay.php |title=Impact of colonial powers on Southeast Asia - Political Impact |publisher= UKEssays | access-date= 13 December 2018 }}

Southeast Asia's social structure has changed as a result of colonialism, which also introduced contemporary western concepts. Some of these concepts were influenced by western culture, including human rights, religion, and education. The region's population has increased as a result of the presence of European powers. First of all, the region's economic activity throughout the colonial period was expanding quickly. Populations were then on the rise in order to meet demands for things like labor forces to create raw materials and industrial plants. In the meantime, some of the region's nations underwent transformation as a result of immigration. For instance, due to the poor conditions in China and the economic prospects in Malaysia, Chinese immigrants migrated to the peninsula. The British also used Indian workers. Then, Malaysia became a multicultural state as a result of the massive immigration of Chinese and Indian people into the Malay Peninsula. In Malay society, there were also differences between Malays, Chinese, and Indians.{{cite journal|url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/46721879.pdf|title=Malaysia as a Multicultural Society|last=Embong|first=Abdul Rahman|journal=Malaysia: Crossroads of Diversity in Southeast Asia of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia|via=Macalester College through CORE|volume=12|year=2002|access-date=26 January 2025|page=44 [10/24]|format=PDF}}

• British Burma (1824–1948) – Merged with British India by the British from 1886 to 1937 (now part of Myanmar)
• British Malaya (now part of Malaysia and Singapore):

:* Straits Settlements (1826–1946)

::* Penang – British colony (1786–1957)

::* Singapore – British colony (1819–1963)

::* Malacca – British colony (1825–1957), formerly Dutch Malacca (1641–1825) and Portuguese Malacca (1511–1641)

:* Federated Malay States (1895–1946)

::* Perak – British protectorate (1874–1957)

::* Selangor – British protectorate (1874–1957)

::* Negeri Sembilan – British protectorate (1874–1957)

::* Pahang – British protectorate (1888–1957)

:* Unfederated Malay States (1885–1946)

::* Perlis – British protectorate (1909–1946)

::* Kedah – British protectorate (1909–1946)

::* Kelantan – British protectorate (1909–1946)

::* Terengganu – British protectorate (1909–1946)

::* Johor – British protectorate (1914–1946)

• British Borneo (now part of Malaysia and Brunei):

:* Crown Colony of North Borneo – British colony (1946–1963)

::* Labuan – British colony (1848–1946)

::* North Borneo – British protectorate (1888–1946)

:* Crown Colony of Sarawak – British colony (1946–1963)

::* Raj of Sarawak – British protectorate (1888–1946)

:* Brunei – British protectorate (1888–1984)

• Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) – Dutch colony from 1602 to 1949 (included Netherlands New Guinea until 1962)
• Dutch Malacca – Former Dutch colony/possessions from 1641 to 1825 until being transferred to the British and became part of the Straits Settlements.

• French Indochina (1887–1953; now the countries of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos):

:* Cochinchine – French colony (1862–1949)

:* Annam – French protectorate (1883–1948)

:* Tonkin – French protectorate (1883–1948)

:* Cambodia – French protectorate (1863–1953)

:* Laos – French protectorate (1893–1953)

• Portuguese Malacca – Former Portuguese colony/possessions from 1511 to 1641 until Dutch East India Company takeover.
• Portuguese Timor (1702–1975; now East Timor)

:* Portuguese Insulíndia – Former Portuguese colony/possessions from 1522 to 1605 until Dutch East India Company takeover.

• Spanish East Indies (now the Philippines) – Spanish colony from 1565 to 1898

• Siam (now Thailand) – was the only independent state in Southeast Asia, but had Britain sphere of influence in the north and south and France in the Northeast and East which were merely brief proposals that amounted to nothing, much like the planned partition of the Qing and Ottoman Empires.

Siam was able to successfully resist colonisation by European powers. Siam's location on the map made it the perfect buffer zone between the French colony of Indochina and the British possessions on the Malay Peninsula. The Siamese rulers, particularly Chulalongkorn, understood that they needed to modernise their political system in order to prevent colonialism. This developed into a significant effort at nation-building that helped Thailand become more advanced. Making maps was a key component of this effort. The Siamese were aware of how highly valued education, particularly geographical knowledge, was among Europeans. The French and the British used maps to identify the areas they controlled, and when borders were unclear, they took advantage of the situation to lay claim to the region. The concentration of power was another interesting factor.{{cite web|url=https://www.newhistorian.com/2019/01/08/how-did-siam-thailand-avoid-european-colonization/|title=How did Siam (Thailand) avoid European colonization?|author=EllesH|work=The New Historian|date=8 January 2019|access-date=26 January 2025}} {{better source needed|date=January 2025}}{{unreliable source?|date=January 2025}}{{cite web|url=https://www.theglobalist.com/thailand-southeast-asias-buffer-country/|title=Thailand: Southeast Asia’s Buffer Country|work=The Globalist|date=18 November 2017|access-date=26 January 2025}}

• East Asia–United States relations

{{reflist|group=note}}

{{Reflist|2}}

• Andaya, Barbara Watson, and Leonard Y. Andaya. A history of early modern Southeast Asia, 1400-1830 (Cambridge UP, 2015).
• Bayly, Christopher Alan. Imperial Meridian: The British Empire and the World 1780-1830 (Routledge, 2016).
• Christensen, Thomas J. In the eyes of the dragon: China views the world (Rowman & Littlefield, 1999).
• Chung, Jae Ho. "The Rise of China and East Asia: A New Regional Order on the Horizon?." Chinese Political Science Review 1.1 (2016): 47-59. [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41111-016-0006-2 online]
• Church, Peter. A short history of South-East Asia (John Wiley & Sons, 2017).
• Clyde, Paul H., and Burton F. Beers. The Far East: A History of Western Impacts and Eastern Responses, 1830-1975 (1975) [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.283180 online 3rd edition 1958]
• Cohen, Warren I. America's Response to China: A History of Sino-American Relations (5th ed. 2010)
• Cooper, Timothy S. "Anglo-Saxons and Orientals: British-American interaction over East Asia, 1898-1914." (PhD dissertation, U of Edinburgh, 2017). [https://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1842/22979/CooperT2017.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y online]
• Dennett, Tyler. Americans in Eastern Asia (1922) [https://archive.org/details/americansineast01denngoog/page/n644 online free]
• Ebrey, Patricia Buckley, and Anne Walthall. East Asia: A cultural, social, and political history (Cengage Learning, 2013).
• Elson, Robert Edward. The end of the peasantry in Southeast Asia: A social and economic history of peasant livelihood, 1800-1990s (Springer, 2016).
• Feis, Herbert. The China Tangle (1967), diplomacy during World War I. [https://archive.org/details/chinatangleameri0000feis online free to read]
• Flynn, Matthew J. China Contested: Western Powers in East Asia (2006), for secondary schools
• Green, Michael J. By more than providence: grand strategy and American power in the Asia Pacific since 1783 (2017) a major scholarly survey [https://www.amazon.com/More-Than-Providence-American-East-Relations/dp/0231180438/ excerpt]
• Hall, D.G.E. History of South East Asia (Macmillan International Higher Education, 1981).
• Hibbert, Christopher. The dragon wakes : China and the West, 1793-1911 (1970) [https://archive.org/details/dragonwakeschina0000hibb online free to read]
• Hodge, Carl Cavanagh, ed. Encyclopedia of the Age of Imperialism, 1800-1914 (2 vol 2007)
• Holcombe, Charles. A History of East Asia (2d ed. Cambridge UP, 2017). [https://www.amazon.com/History-East-Asia-Civilization-Twenty-First/dp/1107544890/ excerpt]
• Jensen, Richard, Jon Davidann, and Yoneyuki Sugita, eds. Trans-Pacific Relations: America, Europe, and Asia in the Twentieth Century (Praeger, 2003), 304 pp [https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-asian-studies/article/trans-pacific-relations-america-europe-and-asia-in-the-twentieth-century-edited-by-jensenrichard-and-davidannjonsugitayoneyuki-westport-conn-praeger-2003-xvi-304-pp-6995-cloth/22A4DB3E0B917B3AE00A780351F3B775 online review]
• McCloud, Donald G. Southeast Asia: Tradition and modernity in the contemporary world (Routledge, 2018).
• Mackerras, Colin. Eastern Asia: an introductory history (Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 1992).
• Macnair, Harley F. & Donald Lach. Modern Far Eastern International Relations. (2nd ed 1955) [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.125746 1950 edition online free], 780pp; focus on 1900-1950
• Matray, James I, ed. East Asia and the United States: An Encyclopedia of Relations Since 1784 (2 vol 2002)
• May, Ernest R.; Thomson, James C., Jr., eds. American-East Asian Relations: A Survey (Harvard UP, 1972)
• Miller, David Y. Modern East Asia: An Introductory History (Routledge, 2007)
• Neher, Clark. Democracy and development in Southeast Asia: the winds of change (Routledge, 2018)
• Ness, Immanuel, and Zak Cope, eds. The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism (2 vol. 2016) [https://www.amazon.com/Palgrave-Encyclopedia-Imperialism-Anti-Imperialism/dp/0230392776/ excerpt]
• Nimmo, William F. Stars and Stripes Across the Pacific: The United States, Japan, and Asia/Pacific Region, 1895-1945 (Greenwood, 2001). [https://www.amazon.com/Stars-Stripes-Across-Pacific-1895-1945/dp/0275964531/ excerpt]
• Norman, Henry. The peoples and politics of the Far East: travels and studies in the British, French, Spanish and Portuguese colonies, Siberia, China, Japan, Korea, Siam and Malaya. (Scribner, 1904); primary source; [https://books.google.com/books?id=ck0QAAAAYAAJ&dq=%27%27The+British+in+the+Far+East%27%27&pg=PR7 online].
• Ownby, David, and Mary F. Somers Heidhues, eds. Secret Societies Reconsidered: Perspectives on the Social History of Early Modern South China and Southeast Asia (Routledge, 2016).
• Platt, Desmond. "Economic Factors in British Policy during the" New Imperialism"." Past & Present 39 (1968): 120-138.
• Price, Rohan B.E. Violence and Emancipation in Colonial Ideology: Hong Kong and British Malaya (City University Press HK, 2020)
• Reid, Anthony. A history of Southeast Asia: Critical crossroads (John Wiley & Sons, 2015).
• Reischauer, Edwin O.; John K. Fairbank; Albert M. Craig. A History of East Asian Civilizations, Volume II East Asia The Modern transformation (1965) [https://archive.org/details/eastasiamoderntr00fair online free to read]
• Ricklefs, Merle C. A History of Modern Indonesia: c. 1300 to the Present (Macmillan, 1981).
• Raghavan, Srinath. Fierce Enigmas: A History of the United States in South Asia (2018) [https://www.amazon.com/Fierce-Enigmas-History-United-States/dp/046503019X/ excerpt]
• Thomson, James et al. Sentimental Imperialists - The American Experience in East Asia (1981) scholarly history over 200 years.
• Wesseling, Hendrik L. The European Colonial Empires: 1815-1919 (Routledge, 2015).
• Woodcock, George, The British in the Far East (1969) [https://archive.org/details/britishinfareast0000wood/page/n1 online free to read]
• Wunderlich, Jens-Uwe. Regionalism, globalisation and international order: Europe and Southeast Asia (Routledge, 2016) [https://publications.aston.ac.uk/id/eprint/13200/1/Regionalism_Globalisation_and_International_Order_Intro.pdf excerpt].

• [http://images.library.wisc.edu/FRUS/EFacs/1909/reference/frus.frus1909.i0040.pdf Anglo-Siamese Treaty - May 13, 1909 ]

{{Colonization}}

Category:History of European colonialism

Category:Christianization

Category:History of Southeast Asia