Southeast Asia and Summary
Overview
Statewide Dual Credit Modern World History: Unit 4, Lesson 4
Summary of the political and religious landscape of Southeast Asia from 1600-1700.
In 1600, the Portuguese lost control of the spice islands in Southeast Asia. To maintain their influence in the spice trade, Dutch merchants and officials built relationships with the Muslim Sultanates of Java and Sumatra. The Dutch East India Company put their headquarters on the Island of Java, from which they oversaw the regional trade. The British East India Company left the region. The only country where Europeans wielded influence was the Spanish Philippines. Malacca became an important trading crossroads in the Indian
Ocean and Southeast Asia from which the Portuguese controlled the spice islands. The region was dominated by Hinduism and Islam, except for the Philippines, where Catholicism was practiced. In 1700, Thailand, Burma and Vietnam dominated parts of Southeast Asia. Theravada Buddhism ruled supreme in Thailand and Burma, while the Vietnamese practiced Mahayana Buddhism. Cambodia had been divided between Thailand and Vietnam.
SUMMARY
The period 1500-1700 witnessed a consolidation of power in Russia, China, Japan and parts of Southeast Asia. In each of these areas, local rulers effectively checked or at least reduced Western encroachment. The Russian Empire vastly expanded its borders, and this would bring it into conflict with other expanding powers including the Ottoman Empire. The Ming dynasty also centralized power and embarked on ambitious building projects, including the construction of a new imperial capital and an expansion of the Great Wall of China. The Qing dynasty, which overthrew the Mings in 1644, increasingly faced the challenges of Western encroachment. The establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate ushered in a period of relative stability in Japan. The shogunate introduced a policy of strict isolation as it banned Christianity and severely restricted trade and interaction with Western nations. This isolation would last until the 1850s. During this period, European influence in Southeast Asia remained relatively limited. The Spanish Philippines was the only real and significant area where Europeans wielded any meaningful authority. Over the next two centuries (18th and 19th), each of the powers/regions covered in this chapter would have to wrestle with Western ideas and the threat of foreign intrusion.