Here Is Your Essay on Southeast Asia

The term Southeast Asia gained currency- after the World War II for a vast region situated east of the Indian subcontinent and south of China that includes a sprawl­ing territory of peninsulas, bays and islands, occupying the southeastern corner of the Asiatic continent. Included in it are two dissimilar components: a continental projection on the Asiatic mainland and the insular section that consists of a string of archipelagoes to the south and east of the mainland.

Mainland Southeast Asia con­tains the nations of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, the small city-state of Singapore (these nations are often collectively known as the Indo-Chi­nese Peninsula), and Malaysia which is divided between both the mainland and in­sular sections. The insular section includes eastern Malaysia, the small Sultanate of Brunei, and the archipelagic nations of In­donesia and the Philippines.

Parts of Southeast Asia have been variously known as Further India, Indochina, Little China, Extreme Orient, Far East and Greater In­dia, primarily for the mainland section, and the East Indies, Tropical World, and the Island World for the insular section.

Historically, Southeast Asia is a zone of convergence for Indian and Chinese cul­tures. The two Asian giants, India and China have been indirectly in conflict with each other in this intermediate zone for thousands of years, and many of these lands and their cultures exhibit the cultural impacts of these two large neighbors. Added to these influences was Islamic penetration.

Combining commerce with a fierce determination to spread their faith, Muslim traders from Arabia carried Islam as far east as the Philippines from the 13th to the early 16th centuries. Yet Islam was neither indigenous nor dominant as a cul­tural, economic or political force. The result of these cultural influences, and the physical fragmentation of the vast terri­tory, is a “shatter belt” of incredible diversity, a crossroad between the Asian East and European West, a zone of mixed cultures. Superimposed on the Indo-Chinese imprints and the Islamic incursions was the commercializing influence of the West.

Most of the region’s religions, art forms, languages, and economic and politi­cal systems had their origins elsewhere on the Asian mainland or in Europe. This was also the region of greatest colonial impact in Asia. With the exception of Thailand all of Southeast Asia was part of one or an­other of the European empires of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Physical Characteristics:

Although the physical dimensions are huge—extending longitudinally from 92° to approximately 141° east longitude, a distance of over 3,000 miles (4,800 km) and latitudinally from 11° south in Indonesia to about 28° north in northern Myanmar, a distance of about 2,700 miles (4,320 km), Southeast Asia is approximately the same size as South Asia and only about one-third the size of East Asia.

Its gross area, that of lands and seas put together, roughly equals that of the United States. In total area it comprises 3 percent of the world’s terri­tory and in population it has a little over 8 percent of the world’s total. Southeast Asia’s elongated peninsular projections and the fragmented and extended coast­lines of its archipelagoes accentuate its physical dimensions.

Thus, Indonesia alone extends over a greater longitude than the contiguous states of the United States. The Philippines, on the other hand, have a north-south extent of 1,152 miles (1,843 km). As a result of the fragmented pattern of lands and seas, of peninsulas and archi­pelagoes, combined with the prevailing cultural complexity, political unity for sev­eral of its nations is a major concern.

Physically, Southeast Asia is one of the most complex regions. Broadly speaking, much of the region consists of complicated groups of mountains, islands and seas, the surface features of which have developed from a considerable amount of faulting, folding, uplifting and volcano activity, as three of the earth’s major crustal units the Eurasian, Indo-Australian, and Pacific plates converged on one another. The in­teraction of the plates that gave the present-day landscapes produced strikingly dissimilar physical features in the mainland and archipelagic portions of the region.

On the mainland, the basic pattern is that of a series of mostly north-south-oriented mountains separated by a number of major river valleys and interrupted at places by several old plateaus that have been folded, faulted and dissected over a period of time but now form generally low platforms or massifs.

The mountain ranges fan out southward from the southeastern corner of the Tibetan Plateau resembling the spokes of a wheel where the interstices are deep tentacles carved by rivers. Much of the region’s surface has been produced by the gradual collision of the Indian sub­continent with the Eurasian Plates over the past 50 million years. Comparatively speak­ing, mainland South Asia is geologically a more stable area with little or no volcanic activity, except in the northwest and north, and experiences little seismic activity.

On the mainland, prominent moun­tain ranges that are oriented north-south are:

(1) Patkai-Naga-Chin Hills and the Arakan Mountains through the western margin of Myanmar;

(2) A straight north- south axis ranges from eastern Myanmar through northwestern Thailand to south of the Isthmus of Kra on the Malay Penin­sula with altitudes of 8000 feet (2,440 meters) on the Chinese border in the north to below 4,000 feet on the Isthmus of Kra; and

(3) The easternmost major mountain on the mainland is the Anna- mite Cordillera in Laos and Vietnam.

Among the plateaus of old strata that inter­vene the series of mountains mentioned above are:

(a) The Shan Plateau of eastern Myanmar, some 250 miles (400 km) from north to south, and 75 miles east to west and an average elevation of about 3,000 feet; and

(b) Korat Plateau in eastern, Thai­land and west-central Laos which is essentially a low platform only a few hun­dred feet above the flood plains on the surrounding rivers.

Between the alternating highlands and the plateaus are the river valleys and the lowlands, covered generally with alluvial sediments of the rivers.

From the west to the east the major river basins are:

(a) Irrawaddy and Salween in Myanmar,

(b) The Chao Phraya in Thailand,

(c) Mekong in Laos, and Cambodia and

(d) Red River in Vietnam.

The three largest rivers Systems Irrawaddy, Salween, and Mekong— originate in the Plateau of Tibet and make substantial deltas except the Salween which is primarily a highland river in east­ern Myanmar. The Mekong is the longest river basin among the river systems of mainland Southeast Asia, and has an exten­sive lowland that encompasses most of Cambodia and southern Vietnam.

Almost in the middle of Cambodia is a large fresh­water lake, the Tonle Sap. The river has a large delta that occupies the tip of the en­tire southern Vietnam. The Irrawaddy of Myanmar and the Red River of North Vi­etnam also make substantial deltas. Outside the river deltas, the coastal low­lands are generally narrow strips between the mountains and the seas.

The Malay Peninsula pushes the main­land nearly 900 miles into insular Southeast Asia from the Gulf of Thailand to Singapore. The peninsula is primarily a region of north-south trending mountains of altitudes between 5,000 to 7,000 feet, and narrow coastal plains.

The insular Southeast Asia consists of chains of islands—the Malay and Philip­pine archipelagoes—that were formed at the boundaries of the three crustal plates that meet there, and thus given to crustal instability, earthquakes and volcanic activ­ity. Characteristically, the various islands (Java, Sumatra, Bali) have highland cores, short rivers and narrow coastal plains, and were formed where the Eurasian plate overrides the Indo-Australian plate.

Climatically, all of Southeast Asia falls within the warm, humid tropics; the cli­mates can broadly be labeled as hot tropical of the insular section and monsoonal of the mainland, although there is a high degree of climatic diversity within Southeast Asia.

Temperatures generally remain fairly constant near sea level throughout the year, varying somewhat with increasing latitude and altitude. With the exception of northern Vietnam and Laos, annual temperatures average close to SOT (27°C). Higher altitudes act to decrease average temperatures. Precipitation, in general for most of Southeast Asia, is higher than 60 inches (1,500 mins) annually, and several parts re­ceive much more than that. The incidence of rainfall is affected by two seasonal wind systems: the northeast dry monsoon and the southwest wet monsoons.

The north­east monsoon is a winter phenomenon (generally November to March) in the Northern Hemisphere. The southwest air stream passes over the warmer sea from May to September and gradually warms up and picks up moisture. Precipitation is par­ticularly heavy where the air stream is forced to rise over the mountains.

The eastern coast of peninsular Malaysia, the Philippines, and parts of Indonesia receive the highest moisture during this period. Most of mainland receives its rainfall in this period. Rainfall, in general, is more pronounced over much of southern Malay Peninsula and insular Southeast Asia and there are no particular dry seasons. It is particularly marked in much of the equa­torial region and the east coast of the Philippines.

In addition to the monsoonal pattern of rainfall, there are other factors that pro­duce variations over relatively short distances combined with monsoonal af­fects such as relief, land and sea breezes, convectional rainfall and cyclonic distur­bances. Cyclones generally bring moderate rain, but many of the cyclonic distur­bances mature into tropical storms called cyclones in the Indian Ocean and ty­phoons in the Pacific that bring heavy downpours and destruction to areas over which they pass. The Philippines are par­ticularly prone to such storms.

The natural vegetation types of South­east Asia can also be grouped into two broad categories: the tropical evergreen forests of “equatorial” lowlands and the tropical-deciduous or “monsoon” forests in areas of seasonal drought. The equato­rial evergreen vegetation consists of a multi-layered vegetation of a variety of trees with proliferation of vegetation spe­cies.

The deciduous or “monsoon” forests found in eastern Indonesia and those parts of the mainland where annual rainfall does not exceed 60 inches, and there is a marked seasonal rhythm of precipitation. Like the equatorial types, there is a wide variety of species, of which teak is one of the more valued commercial tree found in parts of Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and Indonesia.

Additionally, mangroves occur along the coast where salt is deposited. Upland for­ests are represented by such trees as maples and oaks.

Cultural Diversity:

Southeast Asia is a plural world. The plural pattern is particu­larly striking on the mainland where each nation contains diverse groups based on language, religion, and culture, although there may be a dominant group in its cen­tral lowlands. Each state has areas of hill and lowland cultures. This interweaving of diverse cultures within the political frame­work of present-day states has resulted, in general, from European colonial rule, which established a single administrative control over the diverse ethnic groups in­cluded within each colonial empire.

Historically, Southeast Asia has been a giant funnel into which peoples from the north and west have migrated. These im­migrations into and through the region left their mark in a variety of ethnic, linguistic and cultural differences, that has resulted
in making the present-day nations compli­cated, plural societies. The initial peoples arrived from the Asian continental inte­rior. Successive movements displaced the initial settlers and created a complex ethnic pattern. The contacts with the region were not entirely through land, however, but also through sea routes. Chinese, Indians, Europeans, and the United States, came over the sea routes.

Centuries before and after the start of the Christian era, both Indian and Chinese cultural agents became active in the region after crossing the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. After establishing them­selves in Southeast Asia, they never collided head-on, or were engaged in strug­gle for territorial gain, but both exerted cultural pressures as early as two thousand years ago that continues to the present time.

In due course, the Chinese greatly in­fluenced architectural forms, social structures, political organizations, local governments, agricultural economies, and handicraft technologies of the region. At times, they assumed lordship over much of the territory and occasionally reaching on to Indonesia as well.

Indian influence was even more direct. The early Indian contacts were in trading goods, technologies, crop plants, religious concepts, and the formation of the relig­ious states. The impact of Indian culture was pervasive and deeper, particularly in religion, architecture, and folklore than that of China.

Indian commerce had started as early as the 6th century B.C., and was followed by the establishment of trading posts and communities; Indian re­ligion, philosophy and colonization took root centuries later. In contrast, the Chi­nese contacts (starting from the 3rd century B.C.) were initially insignificant.

The real push did not come until after the 17th century, when the Chinese were driven by demographic pressures at home.

To the cultural influences of Hinduism and Buddhism brought by the Indians and the secular impact of the Chinese was added another cultural influence provided by Islam. Brought by the Arabs in the late 13th century it was mainly focused in In­donesia and Malaysia, where the previously Indianized landscapes yielded quickly to an overlay of Islamic religion.

The Islamic superimposition was in the form of a thin veneer over the existing dominant cultural mores. Its diffusion was also uneven, for excepting Malaysia, it never completely displaced Buddhism. In the Philippines its advance was checked by the Spanish. The stronghold of Islamic penetration was the coastal areas. Elsewhere, it coexisted with the indigenous Hindu, Buddhist and ani­mistic cultures.

Later, in the 18th century when the European established colonial rule over these diverse cultures, their domination never changed the Hindu or Buddhist cul­tures, but was responsible for shaping these landscapes by such activities as the building of plantations, roads, hospitals, and railroads; and the introduction of European languages, legal systems, educa­tional institutions and systems of government.

The European impact has been most pronounced in cities, although it is increasingly making inroads in rural areas. In remote upland areas, tribal, ani­mistic and indigenous cultures continued largely unaffected by the religions, lan­guages, and cultures of the lowlands.

Southeast Asia’s population now in­cludes a wide variety of ethnic groups and cultures. On the mainland the Khmer peo­ples of Cambodia remain as the ancestors of the earlier groups. Although the rem­nants of the Mon group are distributed in parts of Myanmar and Thailand, the ethnic mixture resulted from the overlay of Tibeto-Burman, and Tai, Lao and Shan peoples.

The Vietnamese population most likely originated in the Red River area (in the present-day northern Vietnam) and may be a mixture of the Tai, and Malays. In addition to these major groups are the various minorities of tribal peoples such as the Karens, Chins, Shans, and Nagas in Myanmar, who have affinities with other Asiatic peoples. Insular Southeast Asia contains a mixture of Proto-Malayo and Malayo-Polynesian groups. Indian, Chi­nese and Arabic influences have also affected the ethnic pattern in the insular re­gions of Southeast Asia.

The Burmans account for more than two-thirds of the ethnic stock of Myan­mar; while ethnic Thais and Vietnamese form four-fifths of the respective popula­tions of their nations. Indonesia is clearly dominated by Javanese and Sundanese eth­nic groups while Malaysia claims two-thirds of the population to Malays and less than a third to the Chinese, and less than one- tenth to the Indian groups. The Philippines are divided between a numbers of groups, among them the Tagalogs, Cebuano, Ilocano and Bicol are more prominent.

Nearly 15 million Chinese who inhabit Southeast Asia have been traditionally a source of special problems for almost all the nations except Thailand and Singapore. In Thailand one out of every five persons is said to have Chinese blood; in Singapore the Chinese are in absolute majority. Some of the Chinese are the descendants of those who migrated to the region centuries ago, although most have arrived within the last century seeking economic opportunity.

Relatively unassimilated, except for Thai­land, they form an alien element in every nation, but exercise significant economic and cultural dominance much beyond their numbers. Many of the Chinese have been middlemen in commerce and busi­ness, except for Singapore where they retain key political position as well as eco­nomic power. Resentful of their overwhelming numerical superiority and economic power at local levels, non-Chinese nationals in several Southeast Asian nations have often expressed bitterness to­wards the Chinese.

Anti-Chinese animosity has often taken the form of both official and unoffi­cial persecution. This arises from the fact that many of the Chinese periodically re­mit large amounts of money to China, their ancestral homeland, and occasionally view sympathetically the policies of the present Communist regime in China. As a result of this, Chinese frequently have been restricted by legal restraints or have been the victims of local violence where they are a small minority as in Indonesia or the Philippines.

The language patterns in Southeast Asia are more complex since not only does each ethnic group have its own tongue, but also local or regional dialects that may be mutually incomprehensible. Broadly speaking, these belong to four major lan­guage families: the Sino-Tibetan, Tai, Austroasiatic, and Austronesian.

The lin­guistic diversity is especially noticeable in fragmented areas such as the Philippines and Indonesia, and in highland and remote areas on the mainland. Thus, linguistic complexity has been an inhibiting factor in national unity and development in South­east Asia. But dominant languages do exist in most of these nations. Burmese and Thai are spoken by an overwhelmingly large number in Myanmar and Thailand respectively.

Khmer is the principal lan­guage in Cambodia, as is Vietnamese in Vietnam. Pilipino and English are the offi­cial languages in the Philippines and spoken by a large majority of the popula­tion, but Tagalog and Visayan are also important. Malay and Bahasa-Indonesia are the official languages of Malaysia and Indonesia respectively; these are related to one another and are mutually intelligible.

Bahasa-Indonesia is a good example of a truly national language, used all over Indo­nesia and unlike in Myanmar, has been a unifying element in the country. Through­out Indonesia and Malaysia bazaar Malay has been used as a commercial lingua franca, while European languages, espe­cially English, Dutch and French, have been in use on a wide scale.

The Indian and Chinese immigrants in modern times have introduced into the re­gion numerous other languages. The most significant are a number of dialects spoken by the Chinese communities such as Can­tonese, Hokkien, and Hakka in Singapore where they constitute the majority popula­tion and in most of the larger urban areas of the region. Tamil and Hindi speakers form significant minorities in Malaysia, where Indian immigrants constitute 7.4 percent of the population. Indian commu­nities are scattered throughout the Southeast Asia, and are especially con­spicuous in Singapore and Myanmar.

Religious differences have added fur­ther variety to the cultural scene. Islam, Buddhism and Christianity are the major faiths, but Buddhism, particularly its more orthodox form, Theravada Buddhism, is practiced in most of the mainland; only in northern Vietnam the more liberal Mahayana Buddhism is common.

Islam is predominant in the southern half of Malay Peninsula, East Malaysia, southern Philip­pines, and Indonesia. In total count it is the religion of two-fifths of the population of Southeast Asia, accounting for 250 million people (21 million in Indonesia alone). The diffusion of Islam began in early 14th cen­tury through contacts with Muslim traders in Sumatra.

Perhaps more than any other religion, it has been a strong unifying ele­ment among its adherents. Christianity arrived in the region with the Europeans. The Spanish and Portuguese brought Ro­man Catholicism in the 16th century to the Philippines, and somewhat later by the French to southern Vietnam. But Protes­tantism is also locally important in Sumatra, and among a growing number of people in Singapore.

Hinduism, once much more widespread, now is practiced by many people among Indian communi­ties. In addition, various forms of animism are practiced among tribal groups in more remote areas, particularly in central Ka­limantan (Borneo), northern Laos, and north Myanmar.

Political Geography: A Historical Perspective:

The basic structures of Southeast Asian societies have been shaped by the civilizing influences of India and China even though the predominant relig­ion of Indonesia and Malaysia is Islam. But the present political and economic geogra­phy of this vast area is a product of the European colonial rule of the 19th and 20th centuries.

The complex problems of international boundaries and the existence of ethnic minorities within the states have resulted largely from the way Southeast Asia was divided by the Europeans during the era of colonization. As in Africa, the international boundaries that resulted from the European occupation lumped to­gether ethnically diverse peoples.

The major colonial powers in South­east Asia were Spain which occupied the Philippines (the U.S. occupation was a brief spell of 50 years); the Netherlands, which controlled the vast archipelago of Indonesia; France, which took possession of the eastern flank of the mainland known as Indochina; and Britain, which took over the Malaya Peninsula along with the northern part of the island of Borneo, and Myanmar. Among the other Euro­pean powers, Portugal had a minor role, for it controlled a small portion of the is­land of Timor.

The first Europeans came in search of trade, particularly in spices which were much in demand in Europe. Commerce changed later into conquest. The Portu­guese were the first to arrive on the scene in the 16th century. The Malay communi­ties scattered along the shores in Malacca were taken over in 1511, but Portuguese rule did not survive the pressures of other European rivals, and in the end the only area that remained under control was a part of the island of Timor.

Spain was next to gain control. In 1565 it began its occupation of the Philip­pine Islands, not by way of the Indian Ocean but across the Pacific. In addition to the establishment of flourishing trade rela­tions between the Philippines, Spain, Mexico, and China, Spain systematically converted most Filipinos to Roman Catholicism. As a result, the Philippines are the only predominantly Christian country in Southeast Asia. The United States gained control of the Philippines in 1898 and administered it until 1948.

Next in line was the Netherlands which gained control of the lucrative spice and pepper trade in the region, particularly focused on Java, and made large invest­ments in sugar and coffee plantations there. Plantations thus introduced an alien form of economic organization to the ex­isting trade in indigenous commodities.

Subsequent European intervention in Southeast Asia followed the Dutch exam­ple. Plantations were built, port facilities developed, mines opened, and native rule replaced by foreign control. In short Southeast Asian countries became an ex­tension of European economic interest.

Eventually the Dutch-British rivalry for commerce, and occupation in the re­gion ended in an agreement in 1824, when the island of Singapore went to Britain and the Dutch took possession of Indone­sia. Singapore was developed by Britain as Asia’s largest trading center. After the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, British interest in the region intensified, culminat­ing in the eventual occupation of the Malay Peninsula.

Following the Dutch practice, the British established plantations of oil palm, rubber, and coconut as the Dutch had done with sugar and coffee in Indonesia. In addition, the British enlarged tin mines. The Malays were, in general, averse to these commercial enterprises in­volving organized labor, and the British recruited laborers from India and China.

By 1939 the proportion of Chinese had risen to 40 percent of the population, and that of Indians to nearly 15 percent of the population of Malaya (the present-day West Malaysia). Britain also assumed con­trol of Burma (Myanmar), and administered it as if it were a part of India until 1935. After that it became a separate country within the British Empire.

France’s:

France’s involvement in Indochina had started as early as the 17th century, but remained minimal until 1933. Gradu­ally, its administrative grip was tightened through the use of the French navy, which controlled the coastal areas. The French Empire included Vietnam, Cambodia and eventually the landlocked territory of Laos which had been under the control of Thai­land.

Though it lost the territory of Laos, Thailand managed to remain independent as a buffer state. Like the other colonial powers, the French ignored native agricul­ture and industry and concentrated their efforts on the development of plantations of tea, rubber, coffee and sugar cane, lucra­tive commodities in European trade. The French also imported workers from China to develop commercial plantations of rice.

The Mekong delta was cleared for the rice plantations. The Chinese immigrants, as elsewhere in Southeast Asia, not only worked hard on plantations and mines but also gained, control over retail trade and banking. However, the Chinese in Viet­nam did not arouse antagonism among the native peoples as did the Indians in Burma and the Chinese in Malaya. The Chinese now form the leading minorities in several of these countries.

During the course of the Second World War Japan’s conquest of the coun­tries of Southeast Asia complicated the colonial picture. Japan emphasized the slo­gan “Asia for the Asians,” and stressed its religious and cultural ties with these na­tions. However, its insensitive controlled to regional disenchantment with Japan which began to loosen its control.

After the Japanese defeat in World War II, the colonial administration crumbled and the nations of Southeast Asia emerged as inde­pendent countries, but the international boundaries had already been determined during the colonial times. This led to seri­ous problems relating to ethnic splintering among several states. The French had still held onto Indochina during the early 1950s.

Meanwhile, the nationalist movements were crystallizing, in these nations. But even as the states of Indonesia, Burma and the Philippines emerged as independent nations, the French were still fighting to retain their foothold in Indochina. Finally, recognizing the futility of a protracted war, they departed in 1954, giving rise to the new states of North and South Viet­nam, Cambodia and Laos.

When the nationalist forces of North Vietnam were still struggling for a reunited Vietnam un­der the communist rule during the 1960s and 1970s, the United States was helping South Vietnam to maintain an inde­pendent status. A long, brutal Vietnam War eventually was brought to close, when like the French, the United States had to negotiate for peace that led to the emergence of a united Vietnam in 1976.

British holdings in Malaya evolved into Malaysia in 1963, with Singapore separat­ing from it as an independent state in 1965. The coastal areas of western Borneo re­mained an integral part of Malaysia as East Malaysia, whereas the tiny state of Brunei remained a separate entity, initially as a British protectorate, but gained inde­pendence in 1984. Throughout all these changes only Thailand had retained its in­dependence as a buffer state between the competing interests of Britain and France in Indochina.

Economic Patterns: An Overview:

Agriculture has for a long time been a ma­jor economic activity in Southeast Asia; only during the last few decades agricul­tural employment has been showing a declining trend. With the exception of Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines and Singa­pore a majority of the work force in Southeast Asia is engaged in agriculture. In Cambodia and Laos more than two-thirds of the labor force is engaged in agricultural activities.

Only recently the economies of Southeast Asian nations have begun reor­ganizing toward industrial growth and registering declines in the proportion of the gross domestic product derived from agriculture; this trend is especially note­worthy in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

Agricultural output has made consid­erable gains since 1970; and while there are wide variations in the growth within the region, greatest gains have been reported in Malaysia and Thailand, and little or no increase in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos. In Cambodia internal strife, and crop fail­ures have seriously affected agricultural output during the last two decades. In the Philippines landlessness among the peas­antry has seriously retarded the growth of agricultural production.

Wet rice cultivation is the most domi­nant agricultural activity. Two crops a year are usually planted everywhere if physical conditions are suitable. In drier areas, instead of a second planting of rice, such food crops as corn (maize), cassava, and pulses are frequently planted. As rice cultivation requires a dependable supply of water, Thailand and the Philippines rely on a rain-fed system, whereas Indonesia mostly utilizes irrigation systems.

Since the introduction of high-yielding varieties (HYV) of rice in the region, the role of water-control, along with the use of chemi­cal fertilizers and pesticides, has been a critical element in the diffusion of the so- called Green Revolution. The results have been mixed because the new, hybrid strains of the high yielding varieties have benefited the larger farmers, who can af­ford these strains and the additional cost of chemical fertilizers and pesticides more than the poorer farmers.

In addition to subsistence crops, a large variety of cash crops is also grown for the local and export markets, both on large plantations and by individual, small-hold­ers. Tree crops such as rubber, coconuts, and oil palms are also important commer­cially although land devoted to them is restricted to areas closer to the equatorial regions of Malaysia, Indonesia and south­ern Thailand. Coconuts and sugar are important in the Philippines.

Other major commercial crops are cacao, coffee and spices which are mostly exported, while crops such as sweet potatoes, peanuts and tobacco are consumed domestically. The cultivation of opium poppies has lately be­come fairly substantial for illegal export in parts of Myanmar, and Thailand in the so- called “Golden Triangle” area.

Since the colonial period rubber and oil palms had commanded a considerable importance in agriculture arising primarily from the worldwide demand, and on ac­count of a nearly continuous harvest period that provides year-round employment. Foreign corporations once dominated pro­duction, but as the nations gained independence since World War I, much of the production was nationalized. Although government ownership now continues to predominate, private ownership has been on the increase.

Fishing is a significant source of diet and livelihood, although it contributes only a small proportion of the gross domestic production. The production of fish catch has lately increased with newer technol­ogy. The maritime nations of Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia have global fishing industries. Shrimp catches are in consider­able demand in the world market. Agriculture is on the increase in the re­gion; such varieties as shrimp and carp are being raised in ponds.

Industrialization in Southeast Asia is a relatively recent phenomenon. Most of the development in manufacturing has oc­curred only since the early 1960s. In all these countries, except Brunei, industry’s share in GDP is small but has substantially increased during the last three-four dec­ades. The greatest growth has been registered by Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, although the substantial gains in manufacturing were recorded by Indo­nesia, Thailand and Malaysia as well during the 1980s.

With the notable exception of Singa­pore agricultural processing is the most important manufacturing activity in prac­tically all Southeast Asian nations. In Singapore electrical, electronic and trans­port equipment and a variety of products are the main products. Textiles and cloth­ing are major products of Thailand, the Philippines and Myanmar.

Chemical in­dustry has lately become important in Thailand and Indonesia. Generally speak­ing, industrial units are small in terms of number of workers employed and goods produced. Light, labor-intensive goods, such as electrical and electronic products, are becoming increasingly important.

Southeast Asia has modest reserves of oil and natural gas (4 to 5 percent of the world), most of the fields are located in In­donesia, Malaysia, and Brunei. Mineral exploitation of other minerals is limited in terms of world production, although nickel, copper, and chromite are mined in some quantities.

Tin is the most important mineral in the region in terms of value; Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia account for more than half of the world’s produc­tion. In Malaysia, most mines are getting depleted, and the remaining ones are less economical to mine. Fluctuating world prices have occasionally depressed the pro­duction of tin.

Given Southeast Asia’s strategic loca­tion at the main trade routes between the West and the Far East. Trade and com­merce are of special significance to all nations in this region, although the re­gion’s entire trade is about one-third that of the United States. Exports of such na­tions as Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and Myanmar are very small, and of Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia are moder­ate, whereas Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei have a large proportion of trade in exports.

Noteworthy is the dominant role of oil in the export trade of Indonesia, Ma­laysia and Brunei. Indonesia has, however, been able to diversify its exports to include plywood, rattan, coffee, rubber, and tex­tiles during the last decade or so. Though Malaya’s exports include a variety of com­modities such as palm oil, tropical hardwoods, and tin, it earns most of its ex­port revenue from petroleum products.

Thailand’s export base is less diversified; as food and manufactured goods account for nearly all of its total trade. Brunei relies al­most entirely on its oil exports. Singapore has utilized its unique geographic location and highly educated labor-force to attract multinational corporations which have been responsible for its highly developed manufacturing and service sectors. Interre­gional trade among Southeast Asian nations is small particularly that of Philip­pines, amounting to one-fifth of the region’s total trade.

Philippines’ trade re­flects its long-term orientation toward the United States. The trade of the region, in general, is with the nations outside the re­gion, dominated by Japan, Europe, and the United States, but is becoming increasingly oriented to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Korea.