The Emergence of Modern Southeast Asia: A New History 9971693283, 9789971693282

Citation preview

THE EMERGENCE 01=

Modern Southeast Asia A New History Edited by Noam.-m G. OWEN

DAVID CHANDLER NORMAN G. OWEN

W;L1.m~1u R“ Ron Hiwxia I051. Srzzminnu ’1]_1_z;&‘i~¢i,_(}EL,m1aJ\r Tammi:

'{_ KO§ER_T 1-1. IAYLDR ALEXANDER Wqpnslna DAVID K. WYATT

University -of I-Iawai‘i Press Honolulu

© aooj Urnversity of Hawai‘i Press All rights reserved

to

Printed in the United States of America oo o8 o7 oo o5 s 5 4 3

a

I

LIBRARY or Cor-Icltsss CATALOG!HG-IN-PUBLICATION Dare The emergence of rnodern Southeast Asia ta new history I edited by Norman G. Owen . . . [et a1.].

p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN U-3248-2341-U (hard cover zalk. paper] ISBN O-3248-2890-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Asia. Southeastern—l-listory. I. Owen, Norman G.

DS525.E-44 2005 959—dc22 209400?-E-6C1 Photos credited to I-t1TLv are used with the permission of the Photo and Print Collection of the Koninldijk Institunt voorTaal-.

Land— en Volkenltnnde, Leiden. University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines For permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources. Book design and composition by Diane Gfeba Half Printed by Thomson-Shore, Inc.

.-1.5-

-1.-

I-low to Use This Book Q

ALTHOUGH we would like everyone to read this book from cover to cover, we realize that very few people will actually read it (or any other general history) straight through. We would therefore like to point out some features of its organization that may help readers in approaching it. Those who do read the book from start to finish will find it oscillating

between general thematic chapters. primarily on social, economic, and cultural change, and “country” chapters emphasizing developments, mostly political, within specific areas. The Emergence of Modern Southeast /-lsio is concerned as much with the processes of historical transformation as with the chronological narrative of events. Readers interested in synoptic analyses of developments that do not fit easily into conventional chronology and are not unique to a single country may

wish to focus primarily on the “general” chapters. Part I introduces the eighteentl1—century world, when colonialism was still marginal to most of Southeast hsia, and the first chapter of part a ushers in imperialism. Part 3 €*}{3.lTl.lI1E‘5 change in the era of directwestern domination in the region, roughly from the middle of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth.The first two

chapters of part 5 are about the social and economic tramformation of Southeast Asia over the last half century. Readers primarily interested in a particular society may follow its history in the “country” chapters in parts a, 4, and 5. (Vietnam, for example, is the topic

How to Use This Boole

of chapters 7, 2.3, and 34.) Beyond the facts and interpretations presented, readers might note that the periodiaation of these national histories often diverges from more conventional patterns, even those employed in the predecessor of this hook.They should remember, however, that much information on these countries—particularly on social, economic, and cultural change—can also be found in the “general” chapters and located there through the index. In “Changing Names” (below) we briefly describe how the countries and

peoples of Southeast Asia came to be called what they are today—-which is rarely what they were called in the past.A short list of reconnnended “Further Readings” appears at the end of each chapter; many of the works cited contain substantial l:>ihliographies.The sources of most of the quotations in the text can be found in the notes at the hack of the book.

Preface ‘Q

ON THE tiny island of Mactan in the Philippines, there is a monument erected by the Spanish in the nineteenth century to glorify God, Spain, and Ferdinand Magellan. In 1941 , during the American era, a historical marker inscribed “Ferdinand Magellan’s Death” was erected nearby. It stated:“On this spot Ferdinand Magellan died on April ay, 152.1, wounded in an encounter with the soldiers of Lapulapu, chief of Mactan Island. One of llvlagellanls ships, the Vittorio,

under the command ofJuan Sebastian Elcano, sailed from Cebu on May I , 1521 , and anchored at San Lucar de Barrameda on September 6, I 522, thus completing the first circumnayigation of the earth.” Exactly a decade after the erection of this marker, a new one was attached to the other side of the same stone pedestal.Titled“Lapulapu,” it read:“l-Iere on 2.7 April 152.1, Lapulapu and his men repulsed the Spanish invaders, killing their leader, Ferdinand Magellan. Thus

Lapulapu became the first Filipino to have repelled the European aggression.” As the famous Japanese film Roshomon demonstrates, narrative truth depends on perspective, on who is telling the tale and vvhy.All interpretations of the past are subjective, since every historian must decide where to place the emphasis, how to draw meaning from the “facts” that he or she has selected.

The challenge facing anyone writing a history of Southeast Asia is compounded by its myriad peoples, each with its own past, sense of cultural and social iden-

tity, and shaping geographic reality.

xiii

Preface This book rests on the belief that the interaction and expertise of joint authorship maximizes the possibility of achieving a more rounded account of the collective Southeast Asian experience. Its predecessor, In Search of Southeast Asia, was written in I969, when five of us came together in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for a sununerlong effort in communal authorship, with funding generously

provided by the Ford and Rockefeller foundations. Also in that original group was the late john R.W Smail, to whom the present volume is dedicated. In I969 we lacked a Burma specialist-—David Viyatt courageously stepped in to fill the gap—but Robert H.Taylor took that role when In Search of Southeast Asia was revised at Cornell in 1987 and has carried on since.

The seeming triumph of secular nationalism in Southeast Asia and the ongoing war in Vietnam had shaped the first book in ways that have become

increasingly apparent in retrospect. In Search ofSoutl1eastAsia became dated.We therefore decided that it would be worth the elfort to regroup in order to rewrite the history of the region. Norman G. Owen, who as a graduate student in Ann Arbor had compiled the index for the first edition, was welcomed in, this time as the book's editor as well as a full contributor, and ]ohn Smail was

succeeded as the Indonesia specialist by his former student jean Gelman Taylor (unrelated to Robert).

To fund the new project, David Steinberg approached the Henry Luce Foundation through its vice president,Terry Laura, who knew well the earlier

book’s strengths and weaknesses. With a measure of rare faith, he urged us to add an additional year to the project by meeting first with a number of younger

scholars who would critique the 1987 edition and help us identify what still worked and what needed to be changed or added. So under the auspices of the Luce Foundation, we were joined by Barbara Watson Andaya, Robert Elson, Eva-Lotta Hedman, Paul Kratoska, john Sidel, and Eric Tagliocoaao. This expanded group met on the C.'W. Post campus of Long Island University duringjuly aoot in what proved to be vital, lively, and collegial discussions of every aspect of In Search of Southeast Asia.

The younger scholars advised us to break the original book completely open, take a fresh look at modern Southeast Asian history, and draft a shorter, more accessible text for the twenty-first century.‘We are deeply gratefisl to these

men and women, who came from all over the world to participate, and we thank profoundly the Trustees of the Henry Luce Foundation, and, in particular, Dr. Lautz, for making their sojourn possible.We also wish to make it clear that any factual errors or conceptual shortcomings that remain are our responsibility alone. Chagrinecl but enthusiastic, we set off for our homes on four continents, and over the next twelve months drafted or revised chapters based on our new

outline. Thanks to the wonders of technology that did not exist in I969, we could exchange these chapters and comment on them electronically. In the xiv

Preface summer of aooa, we reassembled at Long Island University for a second seminar. As young scholars, each of us had focused on a specific country; we had quibbled and occasionally argued over interpretations of Southeast Asian history. Thirty-three years later the arguments occasionally still flickered, since perception depends always on perspective, and each of us has a predilection--—

which we try, not always successfully, to keep in checl-;—to see regional events from the vantage point of “our” country of specialization. But in time, we think, we reached an acceptable consensus (a thoroughly Southeast Asian process), and The Emergence of Modern Southeast Asia:A New History is the result.

The list of people to whom we are indebted is eight times longer than would be the case if only one author had written this book.To begin with, we recognize and apologize for the inconvenience this project has caused our fam-

ilies.We remain grateful for their support and good cheer.We are also very grateful to Pamela Kelley and her colleagues at the University of Hawai‘i Press, the 1987 publisher of In Search ofSoutheast Asia. It was Ms. Kelley who first pushed us to “think outside the box” by writing a new text.We wish to thank publicly

Gail Allan and her colleagues at Long Island University for all their help, encouragement, and logistical support in bringing this motley crew together twice and in assuring that all were fed and cared for properly, and Iris Ng and her colleagues at the University of Hong Kong for assistance in preparing the manuscript. We were fortunate to get Robert Cribb to prepare the maps. Countless others will have to be unnamed, lest the acknowledgments swamp the text of the book. Finally, the authors hope that their efforts through this book may have a sustaining impact, exciting future generations of historians and regional specialists to love this marvelous part of the world as much as we do.

Changing Names Q

Cambodia “Carauonla” is the English-language rendering of a Sanskrit word usually transliterated as “Kambuja” and pronounced “Kampuchea” in modern Khmer. The word, which means “born of Kambu,” a mythical, semidivine forebear, was part of the name Kambujadesa (Cambodia-land), which the empire of Angkor,

centered in what is now northwestern Cambodia, gave itself after the tenth century c.E. The nomenclature remained in use after the abandonment of Angkor in the sixteenth century. Under the French colonial protectorate (1863-1954) the kingdoms name came to be written “Cambodge”in French but was still smitten and pronounced in Khmer as “Kampuchea.” The transliteration “Kampuchea” reappeared briefly in documents written in French in March I945, when Cambodia was told to declare independence byjapanese forces occupying the region, and it renamed itself the Kingdom of Kampuchea. By November 1945, when the French

returned to power, the kingdoms name in French had reverted to Cambodge (Cambodia for English speakers). In I970, following a coup against Norodom Sihanouk, the country named

itself the Khmer Republic. When the Republican regime was defeated by local communists five years later, the Marxist-Leninist government that took power called the country Democratic Kampuchea. Aliietnamese invasion in

December I973 drove this regime from power and the newly established, proxvii

Changing Names

Vietnamese government came to oflice under the name of the People's Republic of Kampuchea.When thelfietnamese withdrew their forces in I939, the ruling

party remained in power, but its leaders renounced Marxism-Leninism and renamed their country the State of Cambodia.This name lasted until I993, when Sihanouk, who had abdicated the throne in I955, became king for a second time, and the country restored its pre-rgyo name, the Kingdom of Cambodia. The word “Khmer” refers to the major ethnic group in Cambodia, comprising perhaps 9o percent of the population, and also to the language spoken

throughout the country.The etymology of the word is obscure, but it has been in use to describe the inhabitants of the region for over a thousand years. In general the terms “Khmer” and “Cambodian” are interchangeable, and in con-

versation most Cambodians refer to their country as srule Khmer [Khmer-land).

Indonesia THE TERM “Indonesia” was first used in 185o by the British anthropologist j. R. Logan to designate islands called the “Indian Archipelago” by otherwestern writers. For Logan,“Indonesia” did not designate a political unit but a cultural zone that included the Philippines.The forebears of today’s Indonesians had no term for the region or concept of a single political unit linking communities across seas. From ancient times java had been known by that single name, but most of Indonesia’s islands derive their names from European labeling. Early European traders at the port of Samudera named the entire island Sumatra, and

visitors to the sultanate of Brunei called the whole island Borneo. The Dutch named their colonial possessions Indiii (the Indies). Initially the Indies meantjava and a few ports scattered across the archipelago. Between r85o and 1914 Dutch power engulfed over three hundred separate sultanates and communities, and welded them into a single administrative unit called the “Netherlands Indies.” Subjects were called “Natives,” a legal category alongside “Europeans” and “Foreign Orientals” (local Chinese and Arabs), replacing the terms “Moor,” “Christian,” and “Heathen” used in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Associations in the early years of the twentieth century identified themselves by geography and generation, such as “League of Sumatran Youth” and “A1'nboneseYouth.”As ideological identities developed, parties took the colo-

nial unit as their geographic marker but opted for Logan's “Indonesia” instead of the Dutch “Indies.” The first to do so was the Communist Party of Indone-

sia, founded in roar. Opponents of the Dutch understood “Indonesia” as both a political and a cultural entity; they adopted as a common language a variant of Malay spoken in Sumatra, already widely used as a lingua franca, and called it the “Indonesian language” (Bahasa Indonesia).The political unit they eventually won was the Dutch colony stretching from Sabang Island off northern xviii

Changing Names

Sumatra to Merauke on the border with eastern New Guinea, but many wanted the cultural definition of “Indonesia”—Islamic and Malay-speal

ii

1-"I?

'

'

I

-

'IIFl"l' Ir-“‘

Fl Z?‘.-._ ‘HI

H"_.

Tl-‘L

_ _ 1.; -e .1.! -.1 .-'1' |-| i-| |-|

-‘Ill

Koala Lumpur ca. 1880.

On both sides of the strait rise high mountainous ridges,volcanic in origin, seemingly blanketed by tropical raiiilbrest, which are sliced by rivers running

down to the sea.As the plane crosses over the Malaysian coastline in its initial descent, it becomes increasingly apparent that not all the land is covered by this dense foliage. Indeed parts of the mountains are barren, brown, and stripped of timber, evidence of the tin sluicing and dredging once so important in l"v'lal.