Suchergebnisse

In this essay, Nicholas Tarling, Professor of History at The University of Auckland from 1968 to 1996, reflects on the nature of history-writing and on the nature of the historiography of Southeast Asia. It will be of interest to students of Southeast Asia and to those who think about history, read it, and write it.

This detailed study throws light on the evolution of British policy in South-east Asia in the turbulent post-war period. Through extensive archival research and insightful analysis of the British mindset and official policy, Tarling demonstrates that South-east Asia was perceived as a region consisting of mutually co-operating new states, rather than a fragmented mass. The book covers the immediate post-war period until the Colombo plan and the outbreak of hostilities in Korea. A companion volume to Tarling's Britain, Southeast Asia and the Onset of the Pacific War, it finds parallels between Britain's approach to the threat of Japan and its approach to the threat of communism. It also shows that the British sought to shape US involvement, in part by involving other Commonwealth countries, especially India. This is a major contribution to the diplomatic and political history of South-east Asia

This book describes British policy in South-East Asia in the early years of World War II. Britain, a major colonial power in Asia at this time, was unable to maintain its military dominance as war with Germany taxed its resources. Instead, Britain attempted to establish diplomatic dominance, trying to avert the Japanese military expansion and total penetration of Asia, and relying on the Americans to help. This book focuses in detail on Britain's wartime relations with Dutch India, the Philippines, French Indo-China and Thailand. It is an important reinterpretation of the origins of the Pacific War which escalated European conflict into a world war