The terms Island Southeast Asia and Insular Southeast Asia are sometimes given the same meaning as Maritime Southeast Asia.[a] Other definitions restrict Island Southeast Asia to just the islands between mainland Southeast Asia and the continental shelf of Australia and New Guinea. There is some variability as to whether Taiwan is included in this. Peter Bellwood includes Taiwan in his definition,[5][b] as does Robert Blust,[c] whilst there are examples that do not.[d]
The 16th-century term "East Indies" and the later 19th-century term "Malay Archipelago" are also used to refer to Maritime Southeast Asia.
Stretching for several thousand kilometres, the area features a very large number of islands and boasts some of the richest marine, flora and fauna biodiversity on Earth.
The main demographic difference that sets Maritime Southeast Asia apart from modern Mainland Southeast Asia is that its population predominantly belongs to Austronesian groups. The region contains some of the world's most highly urbanized areas—the Greater Manila Area, Greater Jakarta, Singapore, and Greater Kuala Lumpur—and yet a majority of islands in this vast region remain uninhabited by humans.
The land and sea area of Maritime Southeast Asia exceeds 2 million km2.[8] These are more than 25,000 islands of the area that comprise many smaller archipelagoes.[9]
In the natural sciences, the region is sometimes known as the Maritime Continent. It also corresponds to the biogeographical region of Malesia (not to be confused with "Malaysia"), with shared tropical flora and fauna.
Geologically, the archipelago is one of the most active volcanic regions in the world, producing many volcanoes, especially in Java, Sumatra, and the Lesser Sunda Islands region, where most volcanoes over 3,000 m (9,800 ft) are situated. Tectonic uplifts also produced large mountains, including the highest in Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysia, with a height of 4,095.2 m (13,436 ft) and Puncak Jaya on Papua, Indonesia at 4,884 m (16,024 ft). Other high mountains in the archipelago include Puncak Mandala, Indonesia at 4,760 m (15,620 ft) and Puncak Trikora, Indonesia, at 4,750 m (15,580 ft).
The climate throughout the archipelago is tropical, owing to its position on the Equator.
Biogeography
One of the majority of uninhabited islands of the Philippines. Maritime Southeast Asia is made up of the world's two largest archipelagos situated between the Indian Ocean, the South China Sea and the Western Pacific.
Island Southeast Asia is crossed by the Wallace Line. This line divides the flora and fauna of Asia from that of Australia and New Guinea with stretches of water that have always been too wide for plant and animal species to cross readily. The gaps are considered to be large enough to make accidental rafting from one side to another to be unlikely events. Apart from birds, species that have managed to cross this line include those that have been moved by humans. There is a transitional zone adjacent to the Wallace Line that is termed Wallacea. This is a zone where examples of animal and plant species from both sides can be found, but, particularly on smaller islands, there may be a greatly reduced number of terrestrial species.[5]: 1–15
The biographical division of the region is important for understanding the spread of both modern and archaic humans into the region. The Wallace Line represents a sea barrier that has persisted, as far as is known, even at the lowest sea levels of glacial maxima of the Pleistocene and the Holocene. Therefore we know when watercraft of some (admittedly unknown) description must have been used by humans to cross the sea.[5]: 15
As of 2017, there were over 540 million people living in the region, with the most populated island being Java. The people living there are predominantly from Austronesian subgroupings and correspondingly speak western Malayo-Polynesian languages. This region of Southeast Asia shares social and cultural ties with both the peoples of mainland Southeast Asia and with other Austronesian peoples in the Pacific. Islam is the predominant religion, with Christianity being the dominant religion in the Philippines and East Timor. Buddhism, Hinduism, and traditional Animism are also practiced among large populations.[citation needed]
Historically, the region has been referred to as part of Greater India, as seen in Coedes' Indianized States of Southeast Asia, which refers to it as "Island Southeast Asia";[11] and within Austronesia or Oceania, due to shared ethnolinguistic and historical origins of the latter groups (Micronesian and Polynesian groups) being from this region.[12]
By around the 2nd century BCE, the Neolithic Austronesian trade networks in Southeast Asia connected with the maritime trade routes of South Asia, the Middle East, eastern Africa, and the Mediterranean, becoming what is now known as the Maritime Silk Route (or Maritime Silk Road). In addition to Austronesian sailors, the route was also heavily used by Tamil, Persian, and Arab sailors.[21][22] It allowed the exchange of goods from East and Southeast Asia on one end, all the way to Europe and eastern Africa on the other.[22]
Although usually spoken of in modern times in the context of Eurocentric and Sinocentric luxury goods, the goods carried by the trading ships varied by which product was in demand by region and port. They included ceramics, glass, beads, gems, ivory, fragrant wood, metals (both raw and finished goods), textiles (including silk), food (including grain, wine, and spices), aromatics, and animals, among others. Ivory, in particular, was a significant export of east Africa, leading some authors to label the western leg of the trade route as the "Maritime Ivory Route".[22]
The Maritime Silk Route flourished until around the 15th century CE. Han and Tang dynasty records mention large Southeast Asian ships (that they called the kunlun po, 崑崙舶, "ships of the kunlun") visiting coastal Chinese cities regularly to trade from as early as 3rd century CE.[23]
By around 900 to 1000 CE, the Song dynasty passed decrees enabling private trade fleets. Demand for Southeast Asian products and trade was partially driven by the increase in China's population in this era, whereby it doubled from 75 to 150 million,[24] as well as the loss of access to the northern Silk Road.[23] The first record of Chinese trading ships venturing to Southeast Asia (which they called Nan Hai) appear by the 11th century, though the trade routes during this period remained dominated by Srivijaya.[23] The Chinese development of their own maritime technologies led to the establishment of Chinese trading colonies in Southeast Asia, a boom in the maritime trade, and the emergence of the ports of "Chinchew" (Quanzhou) and "Canton" (Guangzhou) as regional trade centers in China.[21] Chinese trade was strictly controlled by the Imperial Court, but the Hokkien diaspora facilitated informal trade and cultural exchange with Southeast Asia, settling among Southeast Asian polities during this time period. Despite not having the official sanction of the Chinese government these communities formed business and trade networks between cities such as Melaka, Hội An and Ayutthaya.[25][26] Many of these Chinese businesspeople integrated into their new countries, becoming political officials and diplomats.[27]
Trade with China ceased after the collapse of the Song dynasty due to invasions and famine. It was restored during the Ming dynasty from the 14th to 16th centuries.[28] The naval expeditions of Zheng He between 1405 and 1431 also played a critical role in opening up of China to increased trade with Southeast Asian polities.[29]
The Maritime Silk Route was disrupted by the colonial era in the 15th century, essentially being replaced with European trade routes.[22] Shipbuilding of the formerly dominant Southeast Asian trading ships (jong, the source of the English term "junk") declined until it ceased entirely by the 17th century. Although Chinese-built chuán survived until modern times.[30][31] There was new demand for spices from Southeast Asia and textiles from India and China, but these were now linked with direct trade routes to the European market, instead of passing through regional ports of the Indian Ocean Maritime Silk Road.[22][21]
^For instance Tom Hoogervorst's chapter in The Routledge Handbook of Archeaology and Globalization: "I use Island Southeast Asia and Maritime Southeast Asia interchangeably."[4]
^Bellwood's definition: "Island Southeast Asia includes Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei and the Sarawak and Sabah provinces of East Malaysia (northern Borneo), and all of the islands of Indonesia to the west of New Guinea."
^Robert Blust: "The major western island groups include the great Indonesian, or Malay Archipelago, to its north the smaller and more compact Philippine Archipelago, and still further north at 22 to 25 degrees north latitude and some 150 kilometres from the coast of China, the island of Taiwan (Formosa). Together these island groups constitute insular (or island) Southeast Asia."
^"Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) comprises the tropical islands lying in between mainland East Asia and Taiwan to the northwest and Australia and New Guinea to the southeast."[6]
^Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division (2006). "World Population Prospects, Table A.2"(PDF). 2006 revision. United Nations. pp. 37–42. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2017-10-31. Retrieved 2007-06-30.
^Hoorgervorst, Tom (2017). "8.4". In Hodos, Tamar (ed.). The Routledge handbook of archaeology and globalization. London New York: Routledge. p. 751. ISBN9781315449005.
^ abcBellwood, Peter S. (2017). First islanders: prehistory and human migration in Island Southeast Asia (First ed.). Hoboken: Wiley Blackwell. ISBN9781119251552.
^Evers, Hans-Dieter (2016). "Nusantara: History of a Concept". Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 89 (1): 3–14. doi:10.1353/ras.2016.0004. S2CID163375995.
^Coedes, G. (1968) The Indianized States of Southeast Asia Edited by Walter F. Vella. Translated by Susan Brown Cowing. Canberra: Australian National University Press. Introduction... The geographic area here called Farther India consists of Indonesia, or island Southeast Asia....
^See the cultural macroregions of the world table below.
^Brides of the sea: port cities of Asia from the 16th-20th centuries. Broeze, Frank. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. 1989. ISBN978-0824812669. OCLC19554419.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
^ abMahdi, Waruno (1999). "The Dispersal of Austronesian boat forms in the Indian Ocean". In Blench, Roger; Spriggs, Matthew (eds.). Archaeology and Language III: Artefacts languages, and texts. One World Archaeology. Vol. 34. Routledge. pp. 144–179. ISBN0415100542.
^Sen, Tansen (January 2014). "Maritime Southeast Asia Between South Asia and China to the Sixteenth Century". TRaNS: Trans-Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia. 2 (1): 31–59. doi:10.1017/trn.2013.15.
^Doran, Edwin Jr. (1974). "Outrigger Ages". The Journal of the Polynesian Society. 83 (2): 130–140. Archived from the original on 2019-06-08. Retrieved 2019-07-14.
^Doran, Edwin B. (1981). Wangka: Austronesian Canoe Origins. Texas A&M University Press. ISBN9780890961070.
^ abcFlecker, Michael (August 2015). "Early Voyaging in the South China Sea: Implications on Territorial Claims". Nalanda-Sriwijaya Center Working Paper Series. 19: 1–53.
^Lieberman, Victor B. (2003–2009). Strange parallels: Southeast Asia in global context, c 800-1830. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN978-0521800860. OCLC49820972.
^Lockard, Craig A. (2010-08-01). ""The Sea Common to All": Maritime Frontiers, Port Cities, and Chinese Traders in the Southeast Asian Age of Commerce, ca. 1400–1750". Journal of World History. 21 (2): 219–247. doi:10.1353/jwh.0.0127. ISSN1527-8050. S2CID162282960.
^Sojourners and settlers: histories of Southeast Asia and the Chinese. Reid, Anthony, 1939-, Alilunas-Rodgers, Kristine. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. 2001. ISBN978-0824824464. OCLC45791365.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
^Sen, Tansen (2006). "The Formation of Chinese Maritime Networks to Southern Asia, 1200-1450". Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient. 49 (4): 421–453. doi:10.1163/156852006779048372. JSTOR25165168.
^Reid, Anthony (1988–1993). Southeast Asia in the age of commerce, 1450-1680. Rogers D. Spotswood Collection. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN978-0300039214. OCLC16646158.
^Manguin, Pierre-Yves (September 1980). "The Southeast Asian Ship: An Historical Approach". Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. 11 (2): 266–276. doi:10.1017/S002246340000446X.
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