Wrg 11e lecture_ch11

© 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.

Chapter 11 Lecture

World Regional

Geography

A Developmental Approach

11th Edition

Southeast Asia


Chapter Learning Outcomes

• Give reasons for the degradation of Southeast Asia’s forests and coastal

environments.

• Outline the energy resource endowments and challenges confronting the region.

• Describe the economic role of Southeast Asia in the larger process of colonialism as

well as the function of ethnic Chinese in this economic system.

• Explain the economic growth characteristics of modernizer and reformer countries.

• Account for the diversity of development in Southeast Asia in relation to demographic

factors.

• Understand how Singapore’s economy is spatially embedded in the regional and

global economy.

• Specify the various ways race or ethnicity has driven the development process in

Malaysia.

• Identify the core-periphery relations between Java and outer island Indonesia as well

as recent government measures to relieve these geographic tensions.

• Describe the national and local problems associated with the geographic

concentration of economic growth in Thailand.

• Contrast experiences of Vietnam and Myanmar in their respective involvement with

the global economy.


Map


About the Region

• Region of large and small peninsulas and islands

• Two constituent subregions

• Mainland Southeast (SE) Asia

• Countries that are physically a part of the continent– Vietnam

– Cambodia

– Laos

– Thailand

– Myanmar

• Insular SE Asia– Malaysia

– Singapore

– Indonesia

– Brunei

– Timor-Leste

– The Philippines


Landforms

• Wide expanse

– SE Asia stretches more than 3,000 miles.

– With surrounding oceans and seas included, equal to India and neighboring states

– Situated almost entirely in tropics


Landforms

• Mainland

– Numerous and broad interior alluvial river valleys

– Provide for substantial population concentrations and agricultural

production sustained by soil-enriching floodwaters

– Alternating east–west bands of mountain ranges and river valleys

– Most average 3,000–5,000 feet

• Insular

– Island and sea environment

– Most population clusters located along coastal plains

– Traditional economic activity focuses on agriculture, fishing, and

maritime trade.

– Sweeping volcanic arcs that have pushed to the edges of the Indian and

Pacific plates

– Many volcanic peaks reach 10,000 feet.

– At the edge of volcanic arcs are deep oceanic trenches marking tectonic

plate boundaries.


Climate

• Monsoon climate

• Mainland

– Wet season: May–October

– Dry season: November–April

• Insular

– Much more complex monsoon season

– More copious rain during season


Environmental Challenges

• Deforestation

• Coastal environments

• Urban air pollution


Religions


Colonialism

• Two time periods

1.1500 to 1800—Mercantile colonialism

2.1800 to 1945—Industrial colonialism

• Creation of core-periphery exchange

• Chinese middlemen


Precolonial states of Southeast Asia


Pre-European Empires

• Economic, political, and cultural cores are

the result of reemergence of Hinduism and

Buddhism.

• Monumental ruins at Angkor Thom and

Angkor Wat stand as testimony to agricultural

productivity and trade capabilities of this

pre-European economy.

• Srivijaya—A thalassocracy


Modern Growth

• Two urgent needs

1. Diversify economic production.

2. Reduce dependence on exports of raw

materials.


Population


Population


Economics


Economics: Modernizers vs. Reformers

• Modernizers– Members of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)

– Established 1967

– Manufacturing as engine of economic growth

– Foreign Direct Investment from the West

• Reformers– Countries in 1970s and 1980s

– Previously socialist governments

– Resistant to globalization

– Laos

– Cambodia

– Vietnam

– Myanmar

– Joined ASEAN in 1990s

• ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA)—1992


Urban vs. Rural Transformations

• Megacity regions

– Jakarta

– Manila

– Bangkok

– Known as Extended Metropolitan Regions

(EMRs)—Core inner and outer zones

comprising the larger urban area

• Fueled by FDI

• But is the outer zone truly “urban”?


Disputed Claims


Tourism

• In 2011, the travel and tourism industry contributed

10.9 percent or $237.4 billion to regional GDP and

directly or indirectly accounted for 8.7 percent of

total employment.

• Countries attracting the greatest regional share of

international tourists from 2000 to 2011 were Malaysia

(34.0%), Thailand (24.1%), and Singapore (13.7%).

• It is the diverse mix of touristic activities that makes

Southeast Asia an attractive traveler destination. Sun

and surf tourism is especially important in Thailand

(Phuket), the Philippines (Cebu),and along the coast of

Vietnam. Cultural heritage tourism, with destinations

including both precolonial and colonial landscapes, is

attractive in a number of countries.


Tourism


Singapore


Singapore

• Thoroughly globalized economy

• Regional center of banking, transport, and service industry

• Distinctive state

• 4.6 million population

• A city-state

• Smallest and most urbanized of all SE Asian countries

• Only developed nation in SE Asia where ethnic Chinese

constitute the majority of the population

• Regional and global shipping hub

• Global maritime center

• Producer services


Singapore Economy

• Economy

– Diversified

– Regional headquarters for many international firms

– State-planned industrial parks have attracted FDI.

– Part of the global growth triangle

• Government

– Pervasive role of government critical to economy and

society

– Soft-authoritarian government


Malaysia and Indonesia


Malaysia

• Middle-income industrialized country

• Economy based on a wide variety of electronics exports

• Spatially fragmented country

– West Malaysia—More densely populated

– East Malaysia—Sparsely populated state of

Sarawak and Sabah


Malaysian Economy

• Since 1970s has emerged from a developing state

• New Economic Policy (NEP)

– Increase economic contributions of ethnic Malays

– This would be done at the expense of Chinese and

Western economic interests.

– Increase government funding of roads and other

infrastructural improvements to expand commercial

cultivation of rubber, oil palm, and coffee by native

smallholder farmers in frontier areas

• Movement toward postindustrial economy with

Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC)


Indonesia

• Tied to resource exports

• Developing countries with problems of economically integrating their respective far-flung archipelagos

• Archipelagic state is largest in SE Asia

• Most populous country in SE Asia

• Enlarged considerably when newly independent state

annexed the western half of New Guinea in 1963

– Forge national unity from a diverse array of ethnic groups

– Religious freedom respected, even though it is the most

populous Islamic country in the world.

• Population

– 231 million population

– Growth and distribution major issues


Indonesian Initiatives

• Poverty eradication through widespread

adoption of hybrid rice seed and fertilizers

• Most of the economy is state-owned enterprises.

• Jakarta

– National capital region (primate city)

– Has attracted some export-oriented manufacturing

operations

• Electronic parts

• Footwear

• Household appliances


Asian Financial Crisis of late 1990s

• Meltdown of Indonesian economy

• Forced resignation of Suharto in 1998

• Regional tensions associated with

economic disparities between core and

periphery


December 26, 2004 Tsunami

• Tsunami—Seismic sea waves triggered by

energy released from deep earthquakes,

massive landslides, or volcanic eruptions

• Banda Aceh, Indonesia—Focal point

• 300,000 deaths in thirteen countries

– Indonesia—243,530

– India—18,389


Phillipines


The Phillipines

• 7,000 islands

• Early colonization by Spain

• Ceded to United States in 1898 after

Spanish–American War

• American culture domination has retarded

development of a national culture.

• 1946—Independence


Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and

Vietnam


Thailand

• Newly industrialized country

• FDI in a wide variety of industries, notably in automobiles

• Never a Western possession

• Renamed from Siam in 1939

• Ruled by successive military governments

with constitutional monarchy

• Monarchy carries moral force.


Thailand Economy

• Until late 1970s, economy was primarily

agriculture.

• Some benefit from association with West as

part of Vietnam War

• Has become center of SE Asia auto industry

• Economic growth has been restricted to

capital city region and EMR of Bangkok.

• Clustering has had several environmental

consequences


Vietnam

• Major target of FDI

• Introduction of market-based economies in 1980s

• Conquered by Viets from China second century BC

• Next 2,000 dominated culturally and politically by China

• Captured by France in mid-to-late nineteenth century

• 1940s—Nationalist opposition forms under leadership of Communist

guerilla, Ho Chi Minh.

• Vietnam War (1958–1975)

– North

• Traditional core of Vietnamese culture

• Incubation for communism

• Allied with U.S.S.R.

– South

• Was capitalist

• French and U.S. influences

• 1975—Unification of North and South


Vietnam Economy

• Positive developments

– FDI has been vehicle for economic turnaround.

– Primarily East Asian

– Specifically has targeted garments and footwear

for export

• Negative developments

– Increased sex workers

– Spread of HIV/AIDS


Cambodia

• Slow economic rebound after Marxist-inspired and horrifically murderous regime

• Heavily reliant on foreign aid

• Even more troubled than Vietnam

• Part of Vietnam War spilled over into

the East.

• Khmer Rouge—Genocide in the

“killing fields”


Myanmar

• Resource-rich

• One of the last isolationist military governments in the world

• Led by authoritarian government

• Indigenous brand of socialism

• Well-endowed resource base

– Timber

– Rice

– Gems

– Gold

– Tin

– Petroleum

• A reformer country that has resisted globalization


Summary of Chapter

• The many countries that comprise Southeast Asia and the

experience of being colonized by so many Western powers make

the region very different from South Asia and East Asia.

• In the immediate post-World War II period some countries chose to

open their economies to globalization and as modernizers

experienced rapid rates of economic growth with varying degrees of

government management. Others decided to remain economically

isolated based on socialist economic principles.

• Whether modernizer or reformer, the region’s physical environment

has suffered as a result of rapid economic growth.

• In Insular Southeast Asia, Singapore is the only rich and developed

country.

• In Mainland Southeast Asia, only Thailand has fully embraced

globalization and as a result is an upper middle-income country.