South East Asia From 1450-1914

by Jon Weinerman in Society, July 28, 2009

From 1450 to 1914, Early Modern Era and Long 19th Century, the economic situation in South East Asia changed, but also had some continuity. Some change that was made was that Industrialization and the idea of New Imperialism controlled the economics in South East Asia. There is also some continuity in their raw materials and control over trade from that region.

At the beginning of the Early Modern Era, 1450, Southeast Asia was practically economically obsolete to the European powers such as Spain and England. A lot changed from then until the end of the Long 19th Century, 1914. At the start, South East Asia was practically isolated from the entire rest of the world, until the Europeans took over. The Europeans came in and took over in South East Asia, colonized and benefited from them. The whole purpose of colonizing there was for the Europeans to benefit from raw materials produced there. Coffee, tea and cocoa were valuable goods that’s the European countries used for their own benefit. Another economic change that occurred in South East Asia was brought on by the Industrial Revolution. Most of South East Asia became industrialized by the Europeans that colonized there, namely the Spanish who colonized the Philippines. Factories were built for the processing of their raw materials and roads were built for transportation. The Industrial Revolution is such an important change that it brings with it another important economic change for South East Asia, New Imperialism. New Imperialism dealt with European colonies in South East Asia and the good that were produced. Factories were built in South East Asia to process the raw materials that they had to offer. They did this to connect more with the World Network of Trade. They took finished products now along with raw materials and traded with other countries.

This way, the mother countries benefited even more from their colony instead of just getting raw materials; they are manufacturing and trading in the World Network. The economic situation in South East Asia was greatly changed from the beginning of the Early Modern Era (1450) to the end of the Long 19th Century (1914).

While there were drastic economic changes in South East Asia during the Early Modern Era and the Long 19th Century, there were also some points of continuity. Something that was continuous in South East Asia was the economic status of the indigenous people. Even though the Europeans came in and colonized, the indigenous people never economically benefited. They remained poor as the Europeans sucked all the wealth from the entire region of the world. Another example of economic continuity was control of trade. For most of the Early Modern Era and all of the Long 19th Century, Europe controlled all of the trade from South East Asia. When the Spanish colonized the Philippines it was the raw materials that wanted, so they took them. Then during the time of New Imperialism they wanted to trade South East Asian things in the World Network and because of their control of trade they did it. One last economic example of continuity was the raw materials produced in South East Asia.