Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Maps
- Introduction: Thinking about Asia, thinking about Australia
- 1 The Idea of ‘Asia’: Australia's ‘Near North’ – East and Southeast Asia
- 2 Tradition and Modernity in East and Southeast Asia: The family
- 3 Tradition and Modernity in East and Southeast Asia: Religion
- 4 Colonialism in East and Southeast Asia: How important was the impact of the West?
- 5 Nationalism and Revolution in East and Southeast Asia
- 6 Nations and Nation-Building in East and Southeast Asia
- 7 International Politics and East and Southeast Asia: The Cold War and the Sino-Soviet Split
- 8 The Rise and Decline of the Japanese Economic ‘Miracle’
- 9 The Newly Industrialising Economies of East and Southeast Asia: Economic growth and economic challenge
- 10 Democracy and Human Rights
- 11 Globalisation and East and Southeast Asia
- 12 Australia and Asia, ‘Asia’ in Australia
- Bibliography
- Index
- Plate section
- References
5 - Nationalism and Revolution in East and Southeast Asia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Maps
- Introduction: Thinking about Asia, thinking about Australia
- 1 The Idea of ‘Asia’: Australia's ‘Near North’ – East and Southeast Asia
- 2 Tradition and Modernity in East and Southeast Asia: The family
- 3 Tradition and Modernity in East and Southeast Asia: Religion
- 4 Colonialism in East and Southeast Asia: How important was the impact of the West?
- 5 Nationalism and Revolution in East and Southeast Asia
- 6 Nations and Nation-Building in East and Southeast Asia
- 7 International Politics and East and Southeast Asia: The Cold War and the Sino-Soviet Split
- 8 The Rise and Decline of the Japanese Economic ‘Miracle’
- 9 The Newly Industrialising Economies of East and Southeast Asia: Economic growth and economic challenge
- 10 Democracy and Human Rights
- 11 Globalisation and East and Southeast Asia
- 12 Australia and Asia, ‘Asia’ in Australia
- Bibliography
- Index
- Plate section
- References
Summary
in the previous chapter we examined the ‘age of colonialism’ and noted that historians are divided about the impact of the West on the histories of East and Southeast Asian societies. Some historians have argued that it is incorrect to interpret the history of East and Southeast Asia, from 1498 to the mid-1950s, as nothing more than the history of European colonialism, with the history of East and Southeast Asia limited to a response to this external influence. This view, they argue, ignores the internal historical forces and social structures that existed in East and Southeast Asia prior to European intervention and which persisted largely untouched throughout the ‘age of colonialism’. Other historians have pointed to the dramatic and long-term consequences of European colonialism in East and Southeast Asia, and argue that it is appropriate both to talk of an ‘age of colonialism’ and to read the history of East and Southeast Asia from this perspective.
Although some historians speak of the ‘age of colonialism’ as though it is an historical period whose dominant characteristic is European colonialism, control of East and Southeast Asia by European colonial powers was in fact sporadic and quite limited during most of this period. European colonial power did not peak until the latter half of the nineteenth century and, even then, some societies in the region managed to avoid direct colonisation.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Understanding Australia's NeighboursAn Introduction to East and Southeast Asia, pp. 76 - 95Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004