Written by two experienced teachers with a long history of research, this textbook provides students with a detailed overview of developments in early modern Southeast Asia, when the region became tightly integrated into the world economy because of international demand for its unique forest and sea products. Proceeding chronologically, each chapter covers a specific time frame in which Southeast Asia is located in a global context. A discussion of general features that distinguish the period under discussion is followed by a detailed account of the various sub-regions. Students will be shown the ways in which local societies adapted to new religious and political ideas and responded to far-reaching economic changes. Particular attention is given to lesser-known societies that inhabited the seas, the forests, and the uplands, and to the role of the geographical environment in shaping the region's history. The authoritative yet accessible narrative features maps, illustrations, and timelines to support student learning. A major contribution to the field, this text is essential reading for students and specialists in Asian studies and early modern world history. "… the authors convey in remarkably clear terms the complexity of the entire region’s dynamics during the early modern age. Their coherent narrative will no doubt help bring Southeast Asian developments into the flourishing field of world history." Pierre-Yves Manguin, Emeritus Professor, Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient/Centre Asie du Sud-Est (EHESS-CNRS) "This is a stunningly ambitious, comprehensive and insightful overview of pre-modern Southeast Asia. It will serve both to energize regional specialists and to introduce the region to a wider public. A landmark history greatly to be welcomed." Victor Lieberman, Raoul Wallenberg Distinguished University Professor of History and Professor of Southeast Asian History, University of Michigan "For once, the term magnum opus is truly appropriate for the Andayas’ stunning achievement. An ambitious and sweeping history reflecting their vast learning, a sure grasp of both region-wide developments and local adaptations, and an eye for the telling detail. No history of early-modern Southeast Asia is likely to surpass this high intellectual standard for the foreseeable future. We are all in their debt." James C. Scott, Sterling Professor of Political Science and Anthropology, Yale University, Connecticut "The Andayas have done a magnificent service for programs seeking to expand their global history offerings and craft courses that will build on the world history survey to provide depth for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students. The book’s vivid narrative interweaves political, cultural and economic history, with the men and women who made that history at the core of the story, but the physical environment of seas and forests ever-present as a force as well. Each chronological chapter is clearly laid out in a structure that moves from the global context to Southeast Asia as a whole to various sub-regions, allowing students and other readers to examine this key part of the early modern world at a range of geographic scales. Instructors who are not themselves historians of Southeast Asia could easily use this overview to anchor a course as they explore new areas for teaching, and departments could use it as a model for how to redesign their course array into a more comparative, coherent and connected whole." Merry Weisner-Hanks, Distinguished Professor, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Written by two expert and highly esteemed authors, this is the much-anticipated textbook on the early modern history of Southeast Asia. Barbara Watson Andaya is Professor of Asian Studies in the Asian Studies Program at the University of Hawai'i, and was President of the American Association for Asian Studies (2005–6). Together with Leonard Y. Andaya, she has taught and researched Southeast Asian history for nearly forty years, working in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia and the United States. She has collaborated with Leonard Y. Andaya on numerous projects, notably A History of Malaysia (1982, 2001), and they have published several books dealing with early modern Southeast Asian history. Her most recent publication is The Flaming Womb: Repositioning Women in Early Modern Southeast Asia (2006). Leonard Y. Andaya is Professor of Southeast Asian history in the History Department at the University of Hawai'i. He has taught and researched Southeast Asian history for nearly forty years and has worked around the world. His most recent publication is Leaves of the Same Tree: Trade and Ethnicity in the Straits of Melaka (2008).