Britain, for example, was an island nation like Japan and yet was considered to be the most powerful country in the world. Some countries, like the Philippines and Burma, achieved independence through a peaceful turnover of control, while others such as Indonesia won independence only after a violent period of opposition.
The second half of the 20th century was a time of significant political change for East and Southeast Asia. The former colonies of Japan were able to break away from their colonial past and become independent, but as in many other parts of the world, that independence often coincided with political conflict. Westernization refers to the process of adopting Western, particularly European and American, culture and values.
Japan adopted a new constitution and embraced democratic principles. It continued to industrialize and would become a global leader in electronics and automotive production. In other parts of East and Southeast Asia, the political changes to the region following WorldWar II tended toward communism , a social, political, and economic system that seeks communal ownership of the means of production.
Communism is associated with Marxism , an analysis of social class and conflict based on the work of Karl Marx CE. In a typical society, factories are owned by a wealthy few who then pay workers a lower wage to ensure that they make a profit. In a communist society, however, the goal of Marxism would be a classless society where everyone shares the ownership and thus receives equal profits. Marxist ideas spread to China by the early 20th century and found particular support among Chinese intellectuals.
The Communist Revolution in Russia inspired Marxists in China who founded a communist political party that would eventually be led by Mao Zedong. The previous Chinese government fled to the island of Taiwan, which is officially known as the Republic of China and claims control of the entire mainland.
China, however, maintains that Taiwan is part of China. Unfortunately, the changes led to widespread famine and the deaths of tens of millions of Chinese as a direct result. Following the failure of the Great Leap Forward, Mao aimed to eliminate any remaining traditional elements of Chinese culture or capitalist thinking through the Cultural Revolution. Millions were imprisoned, forcibly relocated, or tortured, and historical relics and cultural sites were destroyed. In the Korean peninsula, allied forces divided the former Japanese colony along the 38th parallel.
Russia would control the norther portion, where it helped install a communist government and economic system. The United States occupied the southern portion, where it assisted a pro-Western government in its political and economic development. Tensions between the two territories led to the Korean War in the early s. Technically, the two sides are still at war having never signed a peace agreement and simply agreeing to a cease-fire. The government has been accused of numerous human rights violations and the people of North Korea are severely restricted in terms of their economic, political, and personal freedom.
In South Korea, on the other hand, officially known as the Republic of Korea, a democratic government replaced a series of military dictatorships and the country is considered one of the most developed in the region according to the Human Development Index.
Communist ideals spread to Southeast Asia, as well, where Marxism influenced the governments of newly independent countries. The communist forces were able to defeat the French in a key battle in and established a government in the northern territory.
The country was then divided into a communist north and anti-communist and majority Catholic south. This was a time of high tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, and the US feared that the entire region would eventually come under communist control, essentially creating a Western capitalist hemisphere and an Eastern communist hemisphere. The fear that the fall of one country to communism would lead to the fall of other surrounding countries to communism was known as domino theory , and was originally meant as an anecdote but became the basis for US foreign policy in the region see Figure 9.
Military combat units followed and bombing campaigns began in The terrain of Vietnam was quite different than the geography of other areas where the US had previously fought. Much of Southeast Asia was tropical rainforest, and was ill-suited for the types of tanks and heavy artillery that had been so successful in World War II.
The Viet Cong, referring to the Vietnamese communists, engaged in guerrilla warfare, using the terrain to support small, mobile military units.
In the end, waning support for the Vietnam War led the US to withdraw and in , Vietnam was unified under communist rule. Over 1 million Vietnamese and 58, Americans died in the fighting. Khmer refers to the dominant ethnic group in Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge opposed Westernization and US involvement in the newly independent country and believed in a return to an agrarian society. Urban cities would no longer be the economic and political focus, but rather wealth would be spread out around the countryside.
Large prison camps were set up to house those who were believed to be a threat to communism. Cambodians of other ethnicities or who practiced religion were also executed. In total, more than one million people were killed, often buried in mass graves known as the Killing Fields.
Similarly, many of the region's countries are composed of islands or have built their biggest cities on the coast. The proportion of seafood in the total consumption of animal-based food is higher in this region than in any other. In many instances, they also led the formulation of environmental policies.
However, many environmental problems are local in nature and implementation of legislation and policy tools have met many constraints. Stronger local initiatives in the environment are being observed in various parts of the region, because many environmental problems are immediately felt by local communities and solving them often requires local solutions. As a result, the need for greater autonomy of local authorities and participation of local people in efforts of tackling problems is increasingly important.
Some countries are promoting measures to enhance local government capability for environmental management. It is mainly private energies that are behind its economic strides.
Private sector activities are therefore likely to hold the key in future approaches to environmental problems, too. In many countries, there is a trend for governments to promote privatization of functions and services traditionally associated with the public sector.
All parties, from governments and political groups to business and NGOs, have the potential to become important actors in the arena of the environment and development. Above all, however, hopes are pinned on NGOs to assume an even larger role. Since the late s, the region's NGOs have, while cooperating with governments, played a supplemental part in fields that are difficult for governments to address. More specifically, they have come to play a vital role in tackling poverty and environmental problems.
The oceans that connected coasts and neighboring islands created smaller zones where people shared similar languages and were exposed to the same religious and cultural influences. The modern borders created by colonial powers—for instance, between Malaysia and Indonesia—do not reflect logical cultural divisions.
A second feature of maritime Southeast Asia is the seas themselves. Apart from a few deep underwater trenches, the oceans are shallow, which means they are rather warm and not very saline. This is an ideal environment for fish, coral, seaweeds, and other products. Though the seas in some areas are rough, the region as a whole, except for the Philippines, is generally free of hurricanes and typhoons. However, there are many active volcanoes and the island world is very vulnerable to earthquake activity.
A distinctive feature of Southeast Asia is its cultural diversity. Of the six thousand languages spoken in the world today, an estimated thousand are found in Southeast Asia. Archeological evidence dates human habitation of Southeast Asia to around a million years ago, but migration into the region also has a long history. In early times tribal groups from southern China moved into the interior areas of the mainland via the long river systems. Linguistically, the mainland is divided into three important families, the Austro-Asiatic like Cambodian and Vietnamese , Tai like Thai and Lao , and the Tibeto-Burmese including highland languages as well as Burmese.
Languages belonging to these families can also be found in northeastern India and southwestern China. Around four thousand years ago people speaking languages belonging to the Austronesian family originating in southern China and Taiwan began to trickle into island Southeast Asia. In the Philippines and the Malay-Indonesian archipelago this migration displaced or absorbed the original inhabitants, who may have been related to groups in Australia and New Guinea.
Almost all the languages spoken in insular Southeast Asia today belong to the Austronesian family. A remarkable feature of Southeast Asia is the different ways people have adapted to local environments. In premodern times many nomadic groups lived permanently in small boats and were known as orang laut, or sea people. The deep jungles were home to numerous small wandering groups, and interior tribes also included fierce headhunters.
In some of the islands of eastern Indonesia, where there is a long dry season, the fruit of the lontar palm was a staple food; in other areas, it was sago. On the fertile plans of Java and mainland Southeast Asia sedentary communities grew irrigated rice; along the coasts, which were less suitable for agriculture because of mangrove swamps, fishing and trade were the principal occupations.
Due to a number of factors—low populations, the late arrival of the world religions, a lack of urbanization, descent through both male and female lines—women in Southeast Asia are generally seen as more equal to men that in neighboring areas like China and India.
Cultural changes began to affect Southeast Asia around two thousand years ago with influences coming from two directions. Chinese expansion south of the Yangtze River eventually led to the colonization of Vietnam. Chinese control was permanently ended in , but Confucian philosophy had a lasting influence when Vietnam became independent. Buddhism and Taoism also reached Vietnam via China. In the rest of mainland Southeast Asia, and in the western areas of the Malay-Indonesian archipelago, expanding trade across the Bay of Bengal meant Indian influences were more pronounced.
These influences were most obvious when large sedentary populations were engaged in growing irrigated rice, like northern Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, Java, and Bali. Rulers and courts in these areas who adopted Hinduism or forms of Buddhism promoted a culture which combined imported ideas with aspects of local society. Differences in the physical environment affected the political structures that developed in Southeast Asia.
During the past several years, the Asia Society Policy Institute ASPI has organized policy dialogues and working groups focused on finding solutions to pressing challenges for particular countries and subregions in Asia. While ASPI is active in all of these subregions and is engaged with countries across the wider Asia-Pacific, it does have larger bodies of work on a few particular countries.
These are also highlighted below through discrete country pages. Unsupported Browser Detected. East Asia.
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