38 Southeast Asia (SE Asia)
How do we define this region?
As we have with other regions, as geographers we seek to group similarities together in a region. What do we find that makes a coheren Southeast Asia?
The region of Southeast Asia (SEAsia or SE Asia) is tricky to define. First of all, these countries occupy either continental space in the southeast corner of Asia or these countries are island groups to the east and southeast of that continental space. Wow, Malaysia has territory both on the continent and in the island territories. The common denominator is an emphasis on coastline. Except for landlocked Laos, all the countries in SE Asia have coastline, usually a lot of coastline, a clear economically beneficial characteristic.
The physical geography additionally features mountains, at least present somewhere in the countries that have notable area (unlike the frequent exception to patterns – Singapore). On mainland SE Asia, prominent rivers, such as the Mekong, add to the focus on water (connecting to coastlines).
Religion in SE Asia also is mixed. Indonesia has the world’s largest population of Muslim believers, though its island Bali is a focal point of Hinduism. Due to its history of colonization by Spain and later control by the United States, the Philippines is mainly Christian, though the far southwestern islands of its Mindanao region are Muslim areas. Mainland SE Asia is predominately Buddhist.
European colonization of the region is a common thread, except for unconquered Thailand. However, the British, Dutch, French, Portuguese, and Spanish each had colonial territory in SE Asia, so their influence was culturally diverse, though all European.
Languages are numerous in SE Asia. Actually, they fall into four different language families! Languages become more numerous among the widespread islands of Indonesia and the Philippines. We can note that these languages are not in the Indo-European family, though English is a very common lingua franca in the region.
Climate in the region is tropical, due to its location straddling the equator. Monsoons occur both on the western and eastern sides of the region.
So, we don’t have very much to go by. Do we simply assert that SE Asia are the continental territories and island spaces that are in the southeast corner of Asia? The region is culturally very diverse, even the usual commonalities of religion and language are greatly mixed. It is difficult to find any widespread cultural patterns. The physical landscape of SE Asia features mountains and coastlines.
Maybe we can find additional answers in the chapters that follow.
Did you know?
Cited and additional bibliography:
Wiertz, Steve. Southeast Asia. College of DuPage GIS class. May 2022.
