Southeast Asian History

We have been thinking about Southeast Asia and how the history of Asia would look from a perspective centered on that region. In order to supplement the scraps we can recall from D.G.E. Hall, we decided to read a newer survey of the region's history, this one focusing on maritime trade. Kenneth Hall's A History of Early Southeast Asia: Maritime Trade and Social Development, 100-1500 is a good start. Unlike the earlier Hall, this work reflects the advances in archaeology in the region. That, and the generations of postcolonial scholarship on the area leads to different emphases and historical preoccupations. D.G.E. Hall was a pioneer for many reasons, but it is interesting to see how the younger generation of scholars have sought to define the region and its hugely important role in exchange networks, maritime trade, and world history.

For Hall, the history of Southeast Asia is one defined by networked relations of downstream polities connected to upriver and hinterland populations providing the desired export goods. In addition to this type of early polity, one can also find mainland and Javanese states which engaged in agricultural innovation and irrigation projects like canals and hydraulic networks. Indian and Chinese influences, particularly the concept of the mandala and Hindu, Buddhist, and Confucian religious and political models, were adopted through local agency and adapted to suit local needs. Instead of viewing early Southeast Asian civilizations like Funan as products of Indian merchants or migrants, local elites took the initiative to adapt ideas and concepts from other lands into their own political systems. According to this study, most Southeast Asian states were not highly centralized, and they placed more emphasis on manpower or access to labor than land. Hindu and Buddhist (and later Islamic) notions of sovereignty, ritual authority, and temple networks linked to the royal court allowed for rulers to assert their legitimacy through religious ideology that was built on local traditions. 

Some states, like Pagan, in Burma, relied heavily on the temples in their kingdom but learned how to limit monks from becoming too powerful through accumulation of land and allied artisans. Ingeniously, Pagan sent wealthy monks for reordination in Sri Lanka, thereby stripping them of their authority. In other parts of Southeast Asia, like Champa, which never developed into a centralized polity, or even Srivijaya, a state ruled its hinterland through provincial aristocrats, chiefs or "big men" who had to be incorporated into the state through ritual and redistribution of treasured imports. Over time, some Southeast Asian states also made inroads in terms of incorporating artisans and other non-royal locals in the administration of the state, as in Majahapit. The process appears to have been uneven, as Cebu in the Philippines was still ruled by chiefs with limited authority or in Banda, where a group of merchant origin handled trade between the more communal hinterland society and the outside world. 

In spite of the differences in scale and degree of centralization, Southeast Asian states were undoubtedly centers of commerce. As the source of some of the most prized goods in both China, India and areas to the west, it was additionally a focus of interest for its role in the movement of goods between western lands and East Asia. In this respect, Southeast Asia by 1500 was, as noted by Hall, shaped by forces of capitalism and global exchange long before European colonialism or imperialism. Southeast Asians were also pioneers in this process, too, as Malay sailors navigated across the Indian Ocean and to Chinese ports. Their vast sailing and maritime exchange networks helped lay the foundations for this Afro-Eurasian (and even into Australia and New Guinea, if one considers Sulawesi traders, for instance) network of cultural, economic, and religious exchange. We are starting to wonder if it perhaps useful to consider Bengal and southern China as part of Southeast Asia to reorient our understanding of the region's role in Asian history. Now we need some decent books covering the specifics of Pagan-era Burma, Ayutthaya, Srivijaya and Angkor.