Southeast Asia: How the West shaped an identity
(Essay by Marta Soliño)


The influence from the West and its relations with Southeast Asia have been and still are really close. This connection can be seen just by taking a brief look at the term “Southeast Asia”, as it is not a term that has been going on since centuries ago. Not at all. This term was given and started to be used when these countries were colonized by Western superpowers, the Allied Forces. Actually, the term was first used in the Quebec Conference in August 1943, where Burma, Malaysia, Sumatra and Thailand were grouped under the Southeast Asia Command (SEAC-I). In the Potsdam Conference (1945), Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia) and several countries of Indochina were added to the SAEC-I. The fact that the name Southeast Asia was given by westerners proves how this concept is a projection of the images they had of the East.
However, we should retrocede in time a little bit to the end of the 19th century, to the time that we now know by the name of “new imperialism”. At that time,Thailand was the only Southeast Asian nation not colonized by Europeans, although it was greatly affected too by the power politics of the Allied Forces. During this time, Western superpowers controlled and imposed their rules over the people in this countries not taking into account the huge cultural and ethnic mix that made this part of the world so singular.
During World War II the problems began for the colonizers as this area was occupied by Japan. After the war was over the pro-independence movements started to gain force. It must be pointed out that the independence movements, both in Africa and Asia, were led by the national bourgeoises within the colonies. This social group was divided in two sectors: a progressive one with an anti-imperialist orientation and that was pro-autonomous development, and the majority sector which just wanted to change those aspects of colonialism that were against their interests.

Based upon the Atlantic Charter (1941) the people of Indochina started asking for their independence from France, which had had controlled over the area since 1880’s. The French government rejected the independence claims as it was a really productive colony and it could lead to a domino effect within its colonies. The French underestimated the consequent war for independence and ended up losing it after eight years of fighting in 1954.
This war had a lot of significance not just for France but for the rest of the world too as this was one of the first clashes between Communism and Capitalism: United States gave supplies and weapons to the French government while the Soviet Union did so for the Vietnamese people. It was at this time too that Vietnam ended up divided in two: the democratic South Vietnam and the communist North Vietnam, which set the scene for the Vietnam war.
Another French colony, Cambodia, declared its independence after World War II but it was not granted until 1953. It must be taken into account that as a neighbour country of Vietnam, this country’s war affected Cambodia in a negative way, destabilizing the country that ended up in a coup d’état and civil war supported by the United States.
Moving from Indochina to the South we have the case of Indonesia. Indonesia was a Dutch colony that started claiming for independence from the early 1900s onwards. After the end of WWII and the fall of Japan, the Dutch tried to regain control over the area with the support of the British. However, after four years of war sovereignty was accepted and so Indonesia became officially independent in 1949. Although Indonesian independence, both countries continued struggling up till the mid 1960’s over the control of West Papua, once again with the support of the United States. Nevertheless, it was not until 2017 that the actual implications of the U.S. were proved.
In the case of Malaysia, the fight for independence was against the British who had occupied the territory since early 19th century. After WWII, the Federation of Malaya was  created under British protection. However, a communist insurrection that lasted until 1950s started and ended up with the independence of the Federation of Malaya in 1957. The country was renamed Malaysia in 1963 and two years later, Singapore became an independent country by itself.
The achievement of independence was not so clear in practice, as the majority sector of the national bourgeoisie controlled the new independent governments. This meant that they no longer represented the interests of the newly born nation, but rather the interests of the former colony in this new independent nation. This way neocolonialism was born and this bourgeoisie would receive the name of “figurehead bourgeoisie”.
This neocolonialism creates a dependency on the neocolony through transnational corporations that control its internal and external market. One important characteristic of this neocolonialism is its dependence on ideological penetration to achieve its purpose. The feeling of needing the neocolonizer, the feeling of being less, the feeling of wanting to be more like they are… These are all characteristics of the neocolonialism and its major exporter: the United States. The United States expanded its power worldwide especially during the Cold War with the excuse of stopping communism and the Soviet Union as it was exposed before.
But going back to Southeast Asia and the main topic of this essay, the relation between the West and this region are still really tangible in things as the Association of SouthEast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Although it was conceived with the willing of cooperating for the economic, cultural and technical development of the region as independent countries seeking to being able to compete against neighbouring superpowers as China or Japan; the commercial and economic relations between association and the rest of the world serves as a probe of the past and present importance of some countries in this region.
The ASEAN Plus three is an annual meeting between the heads of the ASEAN members and the ones from China, the Republic of Korea and Japan. In addition, it is the ASEAN Plus Six, which is the ASEAN Plus Three and Australia, India and New Zealand; and the East Asia Summit, a meeting between the ASEAN Plus Six and Russia and the United States.
In conclusion, nowadays this region is recovering from a tumultuous period and establishing itself as a more independent and prosper region thanks to its incredibly fast growing economies. Today, ASEAN has become the 3rd most influential and prosperous regional bloc at the global level and is being regarded as a role model for the new regionalism by other developing regions in the world. In a no-so-far future we will know this region not because of its past as colonies of Western superpowers and brutal wars and genocides, but because of its growing importance on the global economic arena.






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