Southeast Asia: Past and Present

Abstract

This new edition of Southeast Asia is divided into four parts. Part one describes the cultural heritage, which covers the land and the people, the early kingdoms of mainland Southeast Asia, the early kingdoms of Sumatra and Java, the rise of new states: Ayutthaya, Majapahit, and Malacca, European inclusion in the Indian Archipelago: the early phase, and mainland Southeast Asia: the consolidations of Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, and Vietnam. It concludes that the history of Southeast Asia up to the end of the eighteenth century may be regarded as premodern, or traditional.