39 SE Asia: Regional Example – Archipelagic

This is a cool word – archipelagic. It is the adjective form of the noun – archipelago. This word archipelago means a set or group or chain of islands. This word originally comes from the Greek ἀρχι- πέλαγος – where ἀρχι means chief or main, as πέλαγος refers to the sea. The English word pelagic points to the ocean, especially when distant from shorelines.

One of the focal points of Southeast Asia is directed to islands, but in specific ways. Let’s consider the extremes of islands. Southeast Asia does NOT have the most islands of any region in the world. Europe has this distinction, particularly because of the thousands of very small islands in Northern Europe. Sweden, Norway, and Finland combine to have over 675,000 islands. Even North America has more islands that Southeast Asia, though at first glance this seems odd. North America simply has two countries – the United States and Canada. However, Canada has more than fifty thousand islands, mostly north of its mainland.

Additionally, Southeast Asia does not have the largest island in the world. That island is Greenland, though it often is exaggerated in size on world maps. At over 822 thousand square miles, Greenland is more than double the area of any other island in the world. Nevertheless, Southeast Asia does have several of the other largest islands in the world. The second largest island in the world is New Guinea (about 300 sq. miles). Of note, this island is split in two jurisdictionally. The eastern side of New Guinea is the largest portion of the country Papua New Guinea. Yet, PNG belongs in a different region – the Pacific Realm, one of the regions of the Western World. (For coverage of the Pacific Realm, see our companion textbook on Geography of the Western World.)

The western half of the island New Guinea is the Indonesian province of Western New Guinea* (also known as Western Papua, formerly known as Irian Jaya), a bit more than half of the island in area. Thus, Indonesia (mapped above) has about half of the second largest island in the world. Overall, Indonesia includes several of Earth’s largest islands by area (see table). The third largest island in the world is Borneo^, yet this too is split, but among three countries – Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei. Indonesia’s share – Kalimantan^ –  is the largest piece.

So far then, we see that Southeast Asia does not have the most islands in the world, but it does have several of the largest islands in the world. Even so, the biggest distinction of archipelagic Southeast Asia is that the region has the “most island island countries.” Okay, that is an awkward term, so let’s unpack it. Which island country has the most islands? Not Canada, for it is mostly a continental country. Not Sweden nor Norway nor Finland, as these countries mainly are parts of Europe’s mainland. The answer is Indonesia with over seventeen thousand islands (depending on the definition of island by minimum area, but using similar criteria as for other countries listed in this chapter, probably not the low estimate of fourteen thousand). Second on this list is the Philippines with over seven thousand islands. (Japan in East Asia is third overall.)

Next, we have the phenomenon of shared islands and split countries. We have noted this already in regard to the island New Guinea.  Also, as noted above, Indonesia has part of the island of Borneo, its section called Kalimantan, at about 73% of the area. A much smaller case, but Indonesia shares the island of Timor, taking West Timor, while East Timor is a separate country. Thus, among countries of only island pieces, Indonesia has more islands than any other countries, but moreover, it shares some of its island spaces.

Similarly, Malaysia (outlined in this sketch) shares the island of Borneo, taking 26% of the land. Unlike Indonesia though, Malaysia has a mainland portion too, specifically on the Malay Peninsula of Southeast Asia. Malaysia also has a number of islands between these two main sections of the country.

Split as well, East Timor is only 5794 square miles. Oddly, it has an exclave – the small province Oecusse (314 sq. miles) is separate from the rest of East Timor, although still on the same island.

Brunei takes up 1% of the area of Borneo. Curiously, even that land of Brunei is divided into two sections. Yes, Brunei is only 2226 square miles, but has two pieces that do not quite touch each other.

Overall then, archipelagic Southeast Asia is distinctive not for total numbers of islands, but first for having the “most island island countries” and second for having odd jurisdictional splits between countries and even within countries.

Most fragmented region? Some would like to call Southeast Asia the most fragmented region in the world. If that is what we want to say, then we must be very precise in our definition of “most fragmented.” However, given that Europe and Canada are the other highly fragmented places, we can safely assert that Southeast Asia is the most fragmented region of the Eastern World.

Cited and additional bibliography:

WorldAtlas. “Which Countries Have The Most Islands?,” October 5, 2020. https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/which-countries-have-the-most-islands.html.