Map of Southeast Asian kingdoms 1100 AD Throughout its history, Southeast Asia has been dominated by a number of powerful, independent kingdoms. In the 1500s European arrived, first as explorers and traders and then as colonists. By the end of the 1800s the entire region apart from Thailand was under European control. This situation continued until 1941, when the Japanese seized the entire region, which it held until its defeat at the end of World War II in 1945. In the decades after the war, the countries of Southeast Asia one by one became independent nations.
Funan and Champa
In around 500 BC the first chiefdoms were formed in Southeast Asia. Trade led to the creation of towns and cities and the formation of the first kingdoms, of which Funan, around the Mekong Delta in what is now southern Vietnam, was the earliest in around AD 50. Funan prospered from the trade between India and China and came to dominate the region.
By 1700, Ayutthaya, with a population of around 1 million, may have been the largest city in the world.
Find the answer