SE Asia
Bennett G9
Pagan Civilization
Pagan Location: along the Irrwaddy
River, Myanmar.
Pagan Achievements
 Controlled fertile rice growing lands.
 Rulers rich and powerful
 Buddhist missionaries.
Vietnam: Eastern part of mainland
peninsula, South of China, along the Red
River Delta
Vietnam Location
Vietnamese Achievements
 Freed 65 towns from the Chinese
 Chinese culture influenced art, poetry, and customs and
language.
 Confucian philosophy.
 Independence in 939 AD from China.
Khmer Kingdom
Cambodia, Mekong River
Delta
Khmer Achievements
 One of the most powerful kingdoms of SE Asia.
 Created a writing system.
 Lived in large cities because of successful farming
 Golden Age
 Contact through Indian trade (cultural diffusion).
 Built temples
 Engineers built water systems, canals, and reservoirs.
Tai Kingdoms- Thailand
Tai Kingdom Achievements
 Expanded through fighting the Mongols.
 Created a capital.
 New dynasty with Bangkok as their capital
 People still recognize the royal family.
 Never imperialized by European power.
Island Empires
Island Empires Achievements
 Profited from the Spice trade
 Controlled the Strait of Malaca.
 Worshipped Hindi gods.
Patterns of Life in SE Asia and Imperialism
 Religions/Belief Systems
 Animism- all things on Earth have spirits
 Hinduism- from India
 Buddhism- From India and China
 Islam
 Majority religion in Malaysia and Indonesia
 Christianity
 Majority of Filipinos are Catholic- brought by the Spanish.
Economics
 Rice major food.
 Wet rice farming
 Dry rice farming
 Fishing very important
Most villages are located along or
next to rivers
Social life
 Men superior to women.
 In Vietnam, women could choose who they married.
European Influence- Imperialism in
Southeast Asia
 What is imperialism?
 1500’s- Portuguese were the first to explore SE Asia.
 Began trading for spices.
 SPICE ISLANDS
 Europeans were jealous of the Arab traders getting rich off of
these islands.
 1700’s-1800’s: More European countries show interest in SE
Asia.
 Wanted tea, sugar, coffee, raw materials for industrial
revolution
The Dutch in Java
 Effects
British in Malaya
 Effects
Vietnam
 Effects
Cambodia
Laos
 Effects
Philippines
 Effects
A New Political Map
 Growing Nationalism
 Nationalism=
 Japan took over most of SE Asia during WWII.
 At first, people were happy to be rid of European powers.
 Then, Japanese turned on the people of SE Asia.
 Tortured and killed civilians, exploited their resources for the war
and burned down Buddhist monasteries.
 SE Asian Nationalists fought back.
 By 1945, many were well-armed, experienced guerilla fighters.
After Japan’s Defeat in WWII
 Peaceful Transitions
 U.S. gives the Philippines independence in 1946.
 Britain gives up Burma.
 Malaya
 Took the name Malaysia in 1963.
 Indonesia
 Dutch fought to regain control of Indonesia.
 Indochina
 French fight to regain control
Challenges for New Nations
 Little experience with self-rule because of colonization.
 Unifying diverse populations was a challenge.
 Economic problems
Philippines
 Income inequality from
Spanish rule.
 Encomienda system:
 Huk rebellion.
 Huks=communists. Fought
the government
 U.S. helped squash the
rebellion.
Huk Rebellion
Cold War
 Following WWI, Vietnamese nationalists pushed for more
independence from France.
 Ho Chi Minh emerged as the leader of the independence
movement in Vietnam.
 Goals: build a communist government and win
independence.
 Ho and the nationalists fought against the Japanese in WWII.
 After WWII, tried to expel the French from Vietnam.
 For 8 years, they fought the French.
Ho Chi Minh
Vietnam
 Soviet Union and China supported Ho and his nationalists
because he was a communist.
 United States supported the French because they did not
want Vietnam to fall to communism= domino theory.
 France withdrew from Indochina in 1954.
 Communists now controlled North Vietnam.
 A non-communist government was set up in South
Vietnam led by Ngo Dinh Diem
Vietnam War
 Diem was supported by the
U.S.
 Underground group of
communists in the South called
the Viet Cong or “VC” tried to
overthrow Diem.
 Diem assassinated in 1963…
Vietnam War
 US starts sending special military advisers into Vietnam in
1963.
 Ho responds by secretly sending North Vietnamese troops
into the south through Laos and Cambodia.
 1964- two American patrol ships are “attacked” in the Gulf
of Tonkin.
 Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution- gave
President LBJ the power to use force in Vietnam.
Vietnam War
 US sends 500,00 troops.
 Viet Cong continue to fight effectively- backed by USSR and
China.
 War spread to Laos and Cambodia along the Ho Chi Minh
Trail.
 Americans leave Vietnam in 1975 and the south fell to the
Viet Cong.
 U.S. cut off supply and trade and Vietnam’s economy
suffered for decades.
Tragedy in Cambodia
 After fall of Saigon, Cambodia
falls to the Khmer Rogue and Pol
Pot.
 Khmer Rouge= communists.
 Pol Pot sets out to expel all
foreigners from Cambodia.
 Forced people out of the cities
and into the countryside
 Many died of starvation.
Khmer Rouge
Genocide in Cambodia
 Pol Pot sought to kill anyone who did not agree with his
communist party.
 During his reign, 2 out of 7 million Cambodians were
systematically murdered= genocide.
 Pol Pot was overthrown by Vietnamese and Cambodian
forces in 1979.
The Killing Fields
Pol Pot Video
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1_foA2mvTw
Aftereffects of the War (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos)
 Killed millions of SE Asians
 Destroyed roads, bridges, and irrigation systems.
 Chemicals used by the U.S. destroyed trees and plants.
 Many refugees left Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia to settle in
Thailand and Hong Kong.
Agent Orange
Before and After Exposure to Agent
Orange