9: East and Southeast Asia
- Page ID
- 21108
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- 9.1: The Physical Landscape of East and Southeast Asia
- East and Southeast Asia contains the world’s most populous country, the most populous metropolitan area, and some of the world’s oldest civilizations. It is also a region with intense internal disparities and a landscape that has been and continues to be transformed by physical, political, and economic forces. Although East and Southeast Asia are often divided into two regions, they share a common economic and political history and global geopolitical forces continue to transform this realm.
- 9.2: Natural Hazards in East and Southeast Asia
- Much of what unites East and Southeast Asia is its instability, not necessarily in terms of geopolitics, but rather its physical landscape. East and Southeast Asia are located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of high tectonic activity along the Pacific Ocean basin. The vast majority of the world’s earthquakes, around 90 percent, occur along this geologically unstable area.
- 9.3: East and Southeast Asia's History and Settlement
- The history of human settlement in East and Southeast Asia begins in China. Evidence of modern humans can be found in the region dating back to over 80,000 years ago. Around 10,000 years ago, several cultural groups emerged in China during the Neolithic Period, also known as the New Stone Age. This was a time of key developments in early human technology, such as farming, the domestication of plants and animals, and the use of pottery.
- 9.4: Political Conflicts and Changes in East and Southeast Asia
- The second half of the 20th century was a time of significant political change for East and Southeast Asia. The former colonies of Japan were able to break away from their colonial past and become independent, but as in many other parts of the world, that independence often coincided with political conflict.
- 9.5: Patterns of Economic Development in East and Southeast Asia
- Despite the political changes and conflicts that marked the 20th century, the 21st century has largely been marked by economic development across East and Southeast Asia. Economic geography is a branch of geography that explores the spatial aspect of economic development. Economic geographers don’t just ask “Where is economic development occurring?” but also “Why is economic development occurring in some areas and not others?”