ABSTRACT ON WESTERN COLONIALISM

• Portugal – Sultanate of Mallaca 1511
• Dutch (East India Company) took over Malacca from the Portuguese in 1641 and set enclave in Jacarta, while Spain began to colonize the Philippines (named after Philip II of Spain) from 1560s.
• British (East India Company) just come in the XIX Century, settling bases in Penang (Malasya) and Singapore as they advanced over Dutch areas during the Napoleonic wars.
• Since 1850 the UK and Holland signed a colonial agremment which settled 'peace' to geared development
• By 1913, the British occupied Burma, Malaya and the Borneo territories
  • Burma secured their independence from Britain in 1948
  • After suppressing the communist insurrection during the Malayan Emergency from 1948 to 1960, Britain granted independence to Malaya and later, Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak in 1957 and 1963 respectively within the framework of the Federation of Malaysia
  • Britain ended its protectorate of the Sultanate of Brunei in 1984
• the French controlled Indochina
  • the French were driven from Indochina in 1954 after a bitterly fought war (the Indochina War) against the Vietnamese nationalists
  • The United States intervention against communist forces in Indochina during a conflict commonly referred to in the United States as the Vietnam War meant that Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia had to go through a prolonged and protracted war in their route to independence.
    • By the war's end in 1975, all these countries were controlled by communist parties. After the communist victory, two wars between communist states — the Cambodian-Vietnamese War of 1975-1989 and the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979 — were fought in the region.
• the Dutch ruled the Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia)
  • Indonesia declared independence in 17 August 1945 and subsequently fought a bitter war against the returning Dutch until Sukharno took power (backed by the USA) and proceeded the genocide of 500.000 communists in the country
• Portugal managed to hold on to Portuguese Timor
  • In 1975, Portuguese rule ended in East Timor. However, independence was short-lived as Indonesia annexed the territory soon after, just regaining independence in 2002

Filipino revolutionaries declared independence from Spain in 1898 but was handed over to the United States despite protests as a result of the Spanish-American War