The mainland of Southeast Asia is a vast region that includes the countries of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Singapore . Despite the diversity of the region, the languages and cultures of these peoples share many common features.
The history of the region has been greatly influenced by three main river systems, the Chao Phraya, Mekong and Red rivers. Each has a fertile delta and overflows each year, producing ideal conditions for growing rice, the staple food of ancient Southeast Asia.
The first peoples of Southeast Asia were hunter-gatherers, but by 5,000 B.C., some of these groups had already settled down and started farming . Historians are not entirely sure when rice cultivation arrived in the region, but it is likely that it was introduced by people from the Yangtze basin in southern China. Whatever its origins, rice cultivation had already spread by 3,000 years BC.
The next major breakthrough was the discovery of how to work metal . The production of bronze objects in Southeast Asia began around 2,000 BC, while iron working began later, around 500 BC. At first, historians believed that metalworking had been introduced from China, but it is now thought that local people developed their own methods. An indication that more complex societies were developing.
Dong Son Culture
The Dong Son culture of the Red River Valley is one of the best known of these early civilizations, thanks to the delicate bronzes found in their tombs . Specifically, around the year 500 B.C. the Dong Son were already producing huge bronze drums decorated with incised and modeled geometric figures and scenes from everyday life. One of these drums weighs 70 kilos and to make it they needed to melt more than a ton of copper ore. Drums have been found over a wide area of Southeast Asia, indicating that the Dong Son had a flourishing trade with other cultures. Little else is known about the Dong Son, except that they were ruled by chieftains and that their society was structured in classes. In AD 43, the areas controlled by the Dong Son warriors were incorporated into China.Towards the end of the first millennium BC, many kingdoms in Southeast Asia were ruled by a chieftain and a noble class based on hereditary power . Since these kingdoms had no fixed borders and their political power depended on the ability of their rulers to confront their enemies and form alliances, they were not kingdoms in the usual sense of the term. Historians sometimes use the Sanskrit word mandala to describe such a 'state'. Each society centered on itself and its ruler, with its borders expanding and shrinking as different rulers entered into alliances. Mandalas* appeared in river valleys and in places where trade routes crossed . Some of those societies built settlements with walls and moats; others created trading centers, often linked by canals.
During the first millennium BC, the cultures of Southeast Asia were greatly influenced by their contacts with two outstanding powers - China and India -, but in a different way . The contact with China was above all of a political and military nature. Some areas of the region, such as what is now northern Vietnam, were annexed and governed as provinces, while others mandalas were forced to pay tribute to the Chinese court. India, by contrast, did not attempt to conquer or colonize Southeast Asia. The initial contacts were probably due to Indian merchants. Roman demand for eastern products such as gold, spices and silk, coupled with Indian advances in shipbuilding, encouraged Indian merchants to set off with the monsoon winds to the coastal areas of Southeast Asia to trade . Gradually settlements sprang up around the ports. It seems likely that some merchants married local women and that Indian ideas and beliefs slowly transformed these ports into Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms.
Oc Eo Y Funan
Excavations at Oc Eo in present-day Vietnam have revealed the remains of a great port that flourished between the 1st and 6th centuries AD. and that it was connected by canals with other settlements. Oc Eo got his food from the rice farmers of the Mekong Delta . Its citizens made glass jewelry, tin ornaments, and pottery, and imported goods from as far away as Rome. The Chinese called it «Funan » (the Port of a Thousand Rivers) to the region around Oc Eo and, according to their data, the ports of the delta dealt with bronze, silver, gold and spices.
The people of Southeast Asia seem to have adopted aspects of Indian and Chinese cultures that were in harmony with their own societies. The earliest inscriptions found in the region are in Sanskrit, which also influenced many of the local languages . The Hindu and Buddhist religions, along with their own artistic and architectural styles, were also quickly accepted by most people in Southeast Asia.
Vietnam:a rebel colony in Asia
A strong local culture existed in the Red River Valley before the Chinese occupation, around 100 BC. Power was held by tribal chiefs, who were large landowners with many farmers under their control . When the Chinese extended their rule to this region, they divided it into military districts headed by Chinese governors. The Chinese built roads, canals and ports, introduced the plow and pack animals to drag it, as well as new weapons and tools and advanced mining methods . For about a century, the Chinese allowed local chiefs to retain some power, but in the 1st century AD. local lords were replaced by Chinese officials, and China began to exploit Vietnam's vast resources such as timber, precious metals, pearls, and ivory, in addition to taxing peasants.
The Han dynasty (202 BC-220 AD) tried to make the local population more Chinese by suppressing local customs and beliefs and imposing the teachings of Confucianism, the Chinese language and even Chinese clothing and hairstyles . Some of the changes were beneficial and accepted, but others were very bitter. The first major rebellion against the Chinese took place in AD 40. and was headed by a noblewoman named Trung Trac , whose husband had been executed by the Chinese . She, along with her sister and the armed followers of the local chiefs, managed to seize a number of Chinese fortresses and create an independent kingdom. Three years later, it was crushed by a large Han army and the two sisters executed. Vietnam was then subjected to renewed attempts to make it fully Chinese. The following rebellions were quickly crushed. However, in the year 939 AD. Vietnamese forces led by General Ngo Quyen finally succeeded in overthrowing the Chinese government and declaring the country independent .