The Wide Worlds Snaps: Southeast Asia

Showing posts with label Southeast Asia. Show all posts

Sunday, 16 August 2015

Indonesia - The Wide Worlds Snaps

President: Joko Widodo (2014)

Land area: 699,548 sq mi (1,811,831 sq km); total area: 741,096 sq mi (1,919,440 sq km)

Population (2014 est.): 253,609,643 (growth rate: 0.95%); birth rate: 17.04/1000; infant mortality rate: 25.16/1000; life expectancy: 72.17

Capital and largest city (2011 est.): Jakarta, 9.769 million

Other large cities: Surabaya 2.787 million; Bandung 2.429 million; Medan 2.118 million; Semarang 1.573 million; Palembang 1.455 million

Monetary unit: Rupiah

Indonesia is an archipelago in Southeast Asia consisting of 17,000 islands (6,000 inhabited) and straddling the equator. The largest islands are Sumatra, Java (the most populous), Bali, Kalimantan (Indonesia's part of Borneo), Sulawesi (Celebes), the Nusa Tenggara islands, the Moluccas Islands, and Irian Jaya (also called West Papua), the western part of New Guinea. Its neighbor to the north is Malaysia and to the east is Papua New Guinea.

Indonesia, part of the “ring of fire,” has the largest number of active volcanoes in the world. Earthquakes are frequent. Wallace's line, a zoological demarcation between Asian and Australian flora and fauna, divides Indonesia.

The 17,000 islands that make up Indonesia were home to a diversity of cultures and indigenous beliefs when the islands came under the influence of Hindu priests and traders in the first and second centuries A.D. Muslim invasions began in the 13th century, and most of the archipelago had converted to Islam by the 15th century. Portuguese traders arrived early in the next century but were ousted by the Dutch around 1595. The Dutch United East India Company established posts on the island of Java, in an effort to control the spice trade.

After Napoléon subjugated the Netherlands in 1811, the British seized the islands but returned them to the Dutch in 1816. In 1922, Indonesia was made an integral part of the Dutch kingdom. During World War II, Japan seized the islands. Tokyo was primarily interested in Indonesia's oil, which was vital to the war effort, and tolerated fledgling nationalists such as Sukarno and Mohammed Hatta. After Japan's surrender, Sukarno and Hatta proclaimed Indonesian independence on Aug. 17, 1945. Allied troops, mostly British Indian forces, fought nationalist militias to reassert the prewar status quo until the arrival of Dutch troops.

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Cambodia - The Wide Worlds Snaps

King: Norodom Sihamoni (2004)

Prime Minister: Hun Sen (1998)

Land area: 68,154 sq mi (176,519 sq km); total area: 69,900 sq mi (181,040 sq km)

Population (2014 est.): 15,458,332 (growth rate: 1.63%); birth rate: 24.4/1000; infant mortality rate: 51.36/1000; life expectancy: 63.78

Capital and largest city (2011 est.):Phnom Penh, 1.55 million

Monetary unit: Riel

Situated on the Indochinese peninsula, Cambodia is bordered by Thailand and Laos on the north and Vietnam on the east and south. The Gulf of Thailand is off the western coast. The size of Missouri, the country consists chiefly of a large alluvial plain ringed by mountains with the Mekong River to the east. The plain is centered around Lake Tonle Sap, which is a natural storage basin of the Mekong.

The area that is present-day Cambodia came under Khmer rule about 600, when the region was at the center of a vast empire that stretched over most of Southeast Asia. Under the Khmers, who were Hindus, a magnificent temple complex was constructed at Angkor. Buddhism was introduced in the 12th century during the rule of Jayavaram VII. However, the kingdom, then known as Kambuja, fell into decline after Jayavaram's reign and was nearly annihilated by Thai and Vietnamese invaders. Kambuja's power steadily diminished until 1863, when France colonized the region, joining Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam into a single protectorate known as French Indochina.

The French quickly usurped all but ceremonial powers from the monarch, Norodom. When he died in 1904, the French passed over his sons and handed the throne to his brother, Sisowath. Sisowath and his son ruled until 1941, when Norodom Sihanouk was elevated to power. Sihanouk's coronation, along with the Japanese occupation during the war, worked to reinforce a sentiment among Cambodians that the region should be free from outside control. After World War II, Cambodians sought independence, but France was reluctant to part with its colony. Cambodia was granted independence within the French Union in 1949. But the French-Indochinese War provided an opportunity for Sihanouk to gain full military control of the country. He abdicated in 1955 in favor of his parents, remaining head of the government, and when his father died in 1960, Sihanouk became chief of state without returning to the throne. In 1963, he sought a guarantee of Cambodia's neutrality from all parties in the Vietnam War.

However, North Vietnamese and Vietcong troops had begun using eastern Cambodia as a safe haven from which to launch attacks into South Vietnam, making it increasingly difficult to stay out of the war. An indigenous Communist guerrilla movement known as the Khmer Rouge also began to put pressure on the government in Phnom Penh. On March 18, 1970, while Sihanouk was abroad, anti-Vietnamese riots broke out and Sihanouk was overthrown by Gen. Lon Nol. The Vietnam peace agreement of 1973 stipulated withdrawal of foreign forces from Cambodia, but fighting continued between Hanoi-backed insurgents and U.S.-supplied government troops.

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Burma (Myanmar) - The Wide Worlds Snaps

4:12 pm ASIA, Southeast Asia

President: Lt. Gen. Thein Sein (2011)

Vice President: Vice President Sai Mouk Kham (2011)

Land area: 253,954 sq mi (657,741 sq km); total area: 261,969 q mi (678,500 sq km)

Population (2014 est.): 55,746,253 (growth rate: 1.03%); birth rate: 19.11/1000; infant mortality rate: 47.74/1000; life expectancy: 65.24; density per sq km: 72

Capital and largest city (2011 est.):Rangoon, 4.457 million

Other large cities: Mandalay, 1.063 million; Nay Pyi Taw 1.06 million

Monetary unit: Kyat

Slightly smaller than Texas, Myanmar occupies the Thailand/Cambodia portion of the Indochinese peninsula. India lies to the northwest and China to the northeast. Bangladesh, Laos, and Thailand are also neighbors. The Bay of Bengal touches the southwest coast. The fertile delta of the Irrawaddy River in the south contains a network of interconnecting canals and nine principal river mouths.

The ethnic origins of modern Myanmar (known historically as Burma) are a mixture of Indo-Aryans, who began pushing into the area around 700 B.C. , and the Mongolian invaders under Kublai Khan who penetrated the region in the 13th century. Anawrahta (1044–1077) was the first great unifier of Myanmar.

In 1612, the British East India Company sent agents to Burma, but the Burmese doggedly resisted efforts of British, Dutch, and Portuguese traders to establish posts along the Bay of Bengal. Through the Anglo-Burmese War in 1824–1826 and two subsequent wars, the British East India Company expanded to the whole of Burma. By 1886, Burma was annexed to India, then became a separate colony in 1937.

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Brunei - The Wide Worlds Snaps

10:35 am ASIA, HOME, Southeast Asia No comments

Brunei Darussalam
Sultan: Haji Hassanal Bolkiah (1967)

Land area: 2,035 sq mi (5,271 sq km);
total area: 2,228 sq mi (5,770 sq km)
Population (2012 est.): 395,027 (growth rate: 1.7%); birth rate: 18/1000; infant mortality rate: 11.8/1000; life expectancy: 75.9; density per sq km: 72
Population (2012 est.): 408,786 (growth rate: 1.69%); birth rate: 17.74/1000; infant mortality rate: 11.15/1000; life expectancy: 76.37; density per sq km: 72
Capital and largest city (2009 est.): Bandar Seri Begawan, 78,000
Other large cities: Kuala Belait 27,800, Seria 23,400
Monetary unit: Brunei dollar
The Sultanate of Brunei ruled during the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. Its territory allegedly covered the northern part of Borneo and the southern Philippines. European influence gradually brought an end to this regional power. Later, there was a brief war with Spain, in which Brunei was victorious. The decline of the Bruneian Empire culminated in the nineteenth century when Brunei lost much of its territory to the White Rajahs of Sarawak, resulting in its current small landmass and separation into two parts. Brunei was a British protectorate from 1888 and a British dependency in 1905. Japan occupied Brunei during World War II; it was liberated by Australia in 1945.