Aklan State University

College of Teacher Education

Banga,Aklan

World History and Civilization 2

Reporter: Angela Clarisse M. Begaso Professor: Mr. Sergio Tolentino

Changing Asia: Conflicts Disrupts Southeast Asia

The region known today as Southeast Asia includes the mainland nations of Burma, Thailand,
Kampuchea (Cambodia), Laos, and Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Singapore.

Ancient kingdoms become colonial possessions. Southeast Asia has been an important
crossroads for world trade. Great kingdoms, such as those of the Khmer and Thai peoples,
developed as early as the sixth to tenth centuries. Siam (modern Thailand), once the most
powerful kingdom in Southeast Asia; signed trade treaties with Britain and France in 1855 to
keep them from taking over the country. Four years later the French began to expand into what
is now Vietnam and created a federation of states called Indochina. Earlier in the century,
Britain had bought the island of Singapore, and by 1886 Burma came under British rule. In 1898
the United States acquired the Philippines in the Spanish-American War. The colonial powers
developed Southeast Asias natural resources, establishing prosperous plantations that grew
rubber, rice, sugar, and coffee. As in other colonies, little