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Malay Archipelago



 
 
The Malay Archipelago and Maritime Southeast Asia are names given to the archipelago
Archipelago

An archipelago is a chain or cluster of islands that are formed tectonically. The word archipelago literally means "chief sea", from Italian language arcipelago , derived ultimately from Greek language arkhon and pelagos ....
 located between mainland Southeastern Asia
Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India and north of Australia....
 (Indochina
Indochina

Indochina, or the Indochinese Peninsula, is a subregion in Southeast Asia. It lies roughly east of India, south of China.The word has French origins, Indochine, and was adopted when French colonizers in Vietnam began expanding their territory to bordering countries....
) and Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
. Located between the Indian
Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering about 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by Asia ; on the west by Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and Australia; and on the south by the Southern Ocean ....
 and Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Mare Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portugal explorer Ferdinand Magellan....
s, the group of 20,000 island
Island

An island or isle is any piece of land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls are called islets....
s is the world's largest archipelago by area. It includes the countries of Indonesia
Indonesia

The Republic of Indonesia , is a transcontinental country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Comprising Islands of Indonesia, it is the world's largest Archipelago state....
, the Philippines
Philippines

The Philippines, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
, Singapore
Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country microstate located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. It lies 137 kilometres north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands....
, Brunei
Brunei

Brunei Darussalam, officially the State of Brunei, Abode of Peace , is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia....
, Malaysia
Malaysia

Malaysia is a federation that consists of States of Malaysia in Southeast Asia with a total landmass of . The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government....
, East Timor
East Timor

East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro Island and Jaco , and Oecussi-Ambeno, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor....
, and most of Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands ....
.

concept of a “Malay race
Malay race

The concept of a Malay race was proposed by the German scientist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach . Since Blumenbach, many anthropologists have rejected his theory of five races, citing the enormous Race ....
” which included the people’s of Indonesia
Indonesia

The Republic of Indonesia , is a transcontinental country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Comprising Islands of Indonesia, it is the world's largest Archipelago state....
, Malaysia
Malaysia

Malaysia is a federation that consists of States of Malaysia in Southeast Asia with a total landmass of . The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government....
, and the Philippines
Philippines

The Philippines, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
 was put forward by Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
an colonialists due to their observations regarding the influence of the Malay empire, Srivijaya
Srivijaya

Srivijaya or Sriwijaya was an ancient Malays kingdom on the island of Sumatra, Southeast Asia which influenced much of the Malay Archipelago. The earliest solid proof of its existence dates from the 7th century; a Chinese monk, I-Tsing, wrote that he visited Srivijaya in 671 for 6 months....
.






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Encyclopedia


The Malay Archipelago and Maritime Southeast Asia are names given to the archipelago
Archipelago

An archipelago is a chain or cluster of islands that are formed tectonically. The word archipelago literally means "chief sea", from Italian language arcipelago , derived ultimately from Greek language arkhon and pelagos ....
 located between mainland Southeastern Asia
Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India and north of Australia....
 (Indochina
Indochina

Indochina, or the Indochinese Peninsula, is a subregion in Southeast Asia. It lies roughly east of India, south of China.The word has French origins, Indochine, and was adopted when French colonizers in Vietnam began expanding their territory to bordering countries....
) and Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
. Located between the Indian
Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering about 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by Asia ; on the west by Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and Australia; and on the south by the Southern Ocean ....
 and Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Mare Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portugal explorer Ferdinand Magellan....
s, the group of 20,000 island
Island

An island or isle is any piece of land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls are called islets....
s is the world's largest archipelago by area. It includes the countries of Indonesia
Indonesia

The Republic of Indonesia , is a transcontinental country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Comprising Islands of Indonesia, it is the world's largest Archipelago state....
, the Philippines
Philippines

The Philippines, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
, Singapore
Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country microstate located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. It lies 137 kilometres north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands....
, Brunei
Brunei

Brunei Darussalam, officially the State of Brunei, Abode of Peace , is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia....
, Malaysia
Malaysia

Malaysia is a federation that consists of States of Malaysia in Southeast Asia with a total landmass of . The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government....
, East Timor
East Timor

East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro Island and Jaco , and Oecussi-Ambeno, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor....
, and most of Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands ....
.

Terminology

The concept of a “Malay race
Malay race

The concept of a Malay race was proposed by the German scientist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach . Since Blumenbach, many anthropologists have rejected his theory of five races, citing the enormous Race ....
” which included the people’s of Indonesia
Indonesia

The Republic of Indonesia , is a transcontinental country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Comprising Islands of Indonesia, it is the world's largest Archipelago state....
, Malaysia
Malaysia

Malaysia is a federation that consists of States of Malaysia in Southeast Asia with a total landmass of . The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government....
, and the Philippines
Philippines

The Philippines, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
 was put forward by Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
an colonialists due to their observations regarding the influence of the Malay empire, Srivijaya
Srivijaya

Srivijaya or Sriwijaya was an ancient Malays kingdom on the island of Sumatra, Southeast Asia which influenced much of the Malay Archipelago. The earliest solid proof of its existence dates from the 7th century; a Chinese monk, I-Tsing, wrote that he visited Srivijaya in 671 for 6 months....
. Nineteenth century naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace
Alfred Russel Wallace

Alfred Russel Wallace, Order of Merit, Fellow of the Royal Society was a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Natural history, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist....
 used the term “Malay Archipelago” as the title of his influential book
The Malay Archipelago

The Malay Archipelago is a book by the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace that chronicles his scientific exploration, during the eight year period 1854 to 1862, of the southern portion of the Malay Archipelago including Malaysia, Singapore, the islands of Indonesia, then known as the Dutch East Indies, and the island of New Guinea...
 documenting his studies in the region.

The region known as Maritime Southeast Asia is more or less coextensive with the Malay Archipelago, and refers to the island nations in the region including.

There are arguments for excluding Papua New Guinea for cultural and geographical reasons: Papua New Guinea is culturally quite different from the other countries in the region, and the island of New Guinea
New Guinea

New Guinea, located just north of Australia, is the List of islands by area, having become separated from the Australian mainland when the area now known as the Torres Strait flooded after the last glacial period....
 itself is geologically not part of the continent of Asia
Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
, as the islands of the Sunda Shelf
Sunda Shelf

Geology, the Sunda Shelf is an extension of the continental shelf of Southeast Asia, covered during interglacials by the South China Sea, which isolates as islands Borneo, Sumatra Java and smaller islands....
 are (see Australia
Australia (continent)

Australia Sahul is the smallest of the geographic continents, though not of geological continents. There is no universally accepted definition of the word "continent"; the lay definition is "One of the main continuous bodies of land on the earth's surface." ....
). The archipelago is sometimes also known as the “East Indies”, particularly in the European colonial era, but broader definitions of the “East Indies” include Indochina
Indochina

Indochina, or the Indochinese Peninsula, is a subregion in Southeast Asia. It lies roughly east of India, south of China.The word has French origins, Indochine, and was adopted when French colonizers in Vietnam began expanding their territory to bordering countries....
, the Indian subcontinent
Indian subcontinent

The Indian subcontinent is a large section of the Asian continent consisting of the land lying substantially on the Indian Plate. The subcontinent includes parts of various countries in South Asia, including those on the continental crust , an Island#Continental islands country on the continental shelf , and an Island#Oceanic islands countr...
, and even areas as far west as Iran
Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran and formerly known internationally as Persian Empire until 1935, is a country in Central Eurasia, located on the northeastern shore of the Persian Gulf and the southern shore of the Caspian Sea....
ian Baluchistan.

Geography and geology

The archipelago encompasses many groups which may be considered archipelagoes in their own right. The major ones are:

  • The Sunda Islands
    Sunda Islands

    The Sunda Islands are a group of islands in the western part of Maritime Southeast Asia.They are divided into two groups, with the Greater Sunda group being referred to much less than the Lesser Sunda....
    • The Greater Sunda Islands
      Greater Sunda Islands

      The Greater Sunda Islands are a group of islands within the Malay Archipelago. Islands included in the group are Sumatra, Java , Borneo, Sulawesi and adjacent smaller islands....
    • The Lesser Sunda Islands
      Lesser Sunda Islands

      The Nusa Tenggara , or Lesser Sunda Islands, are a group of islands in the middle-south part of Maritime Southeast Asia. Together with the Greater Sunda Islands to the west they make up the Sunda Islands....
  • The Maluku Islands
    Maluku Islands

    The Maluku Islands are an archipelago in Indonesia, and part of the larger Malay Archipelago. They are located on the Australian Plate, lying east of Sulawesi , west of New Guinea, and north of Timor....
  • The Philippines
    Philippines

    The Philippines, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....


The archipelago's area is more than 2 million km˛, and its total population is more than 300,000,000+. The biggest islands in the archipelago are New Guinea
New Guinea

New Guinea, located just north of Australia, is the List of islands by area, having become separated from the Australian mainland when the area now known as the Torres Strait flooded after the last glacial period....
, Borneo
Borneo

Borneo is the List of islands by area and is located at the centre of Maritime Southeast Asia. Administratively, this island is divided between Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei....
, and Sumatra
Sumatra

Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the list of islands by area in the world ....
. The most heavily populated is Java.

Geologically the archipelago is one of the most active volcanic
Volcano

A volcano is an opening, or rupture, in a planet's surface or Crust , which allows hot, molten rock, ash, and gases to escape from below the surface....
 regions in the world. Geological
Geology

Geology is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitute the Earth. The field of geology encompasses the study of the composition, structural geology, physical properties, dynamics, and History of the Earth of Earth materials, and the processes by which they are formed, moved, and changed....
 uplifts
Tectonic uplift

Tectonic uplift is a geology process most often caused by plate tectonics which increases elevation. The opposite of uplift is subsidence, which results in a decrease in elevation....
 in the region have also produced some impressive mountains, culminating in Mount Kinabalu
Mount Kinabalu

Mount Kinabalu is a prominent mountain in Southeast Asia. It is located in Kinabalu National Park in the east Malaysian state of Sabah, which is on the island of Borneo in the tropics....
 in Sabah
Sabah

Sabah is a Malaysian States of Malaysia located on the northern portion of the island of Borneo . It is the second largest state in Malaysia after Sarawak, which it borders on its south-west....
 with a height of 4?095.2 m (or Puncak Jaya
Puncak Jaya

Puncak Jaya , sometimes called Mount Carstensz or the Carstensz Pyramid, is a mountain in the Sudirman Range, the western central highlands of Papua , Indonesia....
 in Papua
Papua (Indonesian province)

Papua is the largest Provinces of Indonesia of Indonesia, comprising a majority part of the western half of the island of New Guinea and nearby islands ....
 at 4?884 m, if New Guinea is included).

The climate throughout the archipelago, owing to its position on the equator
Equator

The equator is the intersection of the Earth's surface with the Plane perpendicular to the Earth's rotation and containing the Earth's center of mass....
, is tropical. It is notably rainier in the west than in the east.

Demography

The people of the archipelago are predominantly from Austronesian subgroupings, and all correspondingly speak western Malayo-Polynesian languages
Malayo-Polynesian languages

The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 351 million speakers. These are widely dispersed throughout the island nations of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean, with a smaller number in continental Asia....
. Also, this region of Southeast Asia share more social and cultural ties with other Austronesian peoples in the Pacific than with the peoples of Mainland Southeast Asia.

Often, the mainland part of Malaysia, which is known as Malaya
Peninsular Malaysia

Peninsular Malaysia , also known as Malaya or West Malaysia, is the part of Malaysia which lies on the Malay Peninsula, and shares a land border with Thailand in the north....
, is included as part of Maritime Southeast Asia in order that all the non-Oceania
Oceania

Oceania is a geography, often geopolitics, region consisting of numerous lands—mostly islands in the Pacific Ocean and vicinity. The term "Oceania" was coined in 1831 by French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville....
n Austronesian peoples can be included together in one cultural region.

The main religions in this region are Islam
Islam

Islam is a Monotheism, Abrahamic religion originating with the teachings of the Prophets of Islam Muhammad, a 7th century Arab religious and political figure....
, Christianity
Christianity

Christianity is a Monotheistic religion #Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as New Testament view on Jesus' life....
, Buddhism
Buddhism

Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices considered by most to be a religionand is based on the teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as "The Buddha" , who was born in what is today Nepal....
, Hinduism
Hinduism

'Hinduism' is the predominant religion of the Indian subcontinent. Hinduism is often referred to as , a Sanskrit phrase meaning "the eternal dharma", by its practitioners....
 and traditional Animism
Animism

Animism is a philosophical, religious or spiritual idea that souls or spirits exist not only in humans and animals but also in plants, rock s, natural phenomena such as thunder, geographic features such as mountains or rivers, or other entities of the natural environment, a proposition also known as hylozoism in philosophy....
.

Sources

  • "." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2006. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.
  • Wallace, Alfred Russel
    Alfred Russel Wallace

    Alfred Russel Wallace, Order of Merit, Fellow of the Royal Society was a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Natural history, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist....
     .


See also


  • Austronesia
    Austronesia

    Austronesia, in historical terms, refers to the homeland of the Austronesian people who speak Austronesian languages, to which Malay language, Filipino language, Indonesian language, Maori language, Malagasy language, native Hawaiian, the Fijian language and around a thousand other languages belong....
  • Malesia
    Malesia

    Malesia is a biogeography region straddling the boundary of the Indomalaya and Australasia ecozones. Malesia was first identified as a floristic province that included the Malay Peninsula, Indonesia, the Philippines and New Guinea, based on a shared tropical flora derived mostly from Asia but also with numerous elements of the Antarctic flo...
  • Nusantara
    Nusantara

    Nusantara is a traditional geographical concept that encompasses the Indonesian lands from Sabang in the West to Manokwari in the East, coastal Kalimantan, and all but the northwest corner of Sulawesi, the Malaysian lands of Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia, most islands of the Philippine archipelago, and the lands of both Singapore and Brunei...
  • The Malay Archipelago
    The Malay Archipelago

    The Malay Archipelago is a book by the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace that chronicles his scientific exploration, during the eight year period 1854 to 1862, of the southern portion of the Malay Archipelago including Malaysia, Singapore, the islands of Indonesia, then known as the Dutch East Indies, and the island of New Guinea...
     - a book by Alfred Russel Wallace
    Alfred Russel Wallace

    Alfred Russel Wallace, Order of Merit, Fellow of the Royal Society was a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Natural history, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist....
  • Wallacea
    Wallacea

    Wallacea is a biogeography designation for a group of Indonesian islands separated by deep water straits from the Asian and Australia continental shelf....