 You are clear for launch, and with that, shut down your visors, O2 on, and prepare for ignition to O2. You can copy that, and um... Hey guys, Mr. Ruschoff. Southeast Asia is rich in culture with a whole host of different languages and ethnicities. It is also home to 25 United Nations UNESCO cultural sites, including the largest religious monument in the world. Now what this lesson is going to do is go over the factors that have combined to create this rich culture. So how did the culture of Southeast Asia begin? Well, Southeast Asia is another great example of a region as a crossroads, as Southeast Asia is between both South Asia and East Asia, specifically India and China. In fact, the story of Southeast Asia is so pulled between that of India and China that it is what geographers call a cultural shatter zone. The cultural shatter zone is a region that is caught between stronger cultural and political forces. So how did this all begin? Well, the human story of Southeast Asia began 50,000 years ago when the first modern humans moved out of South Asia into the Indo-Chinese peninsula. About 5,000 years ago, people began to start moving down into the islands of the Philippines and Indonesia. Now there are two major theories on how this migration started, whether it actually came from the mainland of Southeast Asia or it came out of South Asia. The prevailing theory is that the Southeast Asian archipelago was not settled by the people of mainland Southeast Asia, we call those people actually Australasians, but that the islands were settled by the people from South China and Taiwan. These people are known as Austronesians and are the same large group of people that populated the Pacific islands such as Hawaii. Of course, it is very possible that both theories have some truth to them. Now agriculture came to Southeast Asia about two to three thousand years ago when the idea of growing rice came out of the Yangtze Valley of China. It so happened that rice is a perfect crop to raise in the region. The monsoon rains in the summer provide moisture for the soil that rice needs and the year-round warm temperatures don't hurt either. Now because of these ideal conditions, rice became the staple crop of Southeast Asia. A staple crop is the important crop in a region that forms the major portion of a people's diet. So important to this rice to the people of Southeast Asia, its cultures actually described as a rice culture as so many things in their life revolve around this most important grain. Now just as rice was being established in Southeast Asia, sea trade was now moving between China and India as part of the water routes of the Silk Road. Spice from Indonesia and jade from the Philippines now were being moved around the world as was the cultures of East and South China moving across Southeast Asia. One of the elements of culture that moved into Southeast Asia was that of Buddhism around the first century AD. Buddhism moved into Southeast Asia for two different paths. The Buddhism of Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, down into the Malay Peninsula and into the Western Indonesia came from India. But the Buddhism that moved into Vietnam first moved through China before moving into Southeast Asia from the East. Buddhism is an interesting religion as not many people practice it in South Asia where it originated, but it is a dominant religion in both Southeast and East Asia. Its path through Southeast Asia and East Asia is also an interesting story of cultural conversions as people moved out of India and met peoples who already had religions of philosophies of their own. So as Buddhism and these cultures came together, they became more similar. But that means that the Buddhism that is practiced in Japan is different than some of the places that is practiced in China and that is even more different than those what we find in Southeast Asia. These different branches of Buddhism include Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. Theravada Buddhism is what is found on most of the mainland Southeast Asia. His name means Way of the Elders as the practices of this branch are closest to the original teachings of Siddhartha Gautama. In most of China, Korea and Japan, we find Mahayana Buddhism. It is called the Greater Vehicle. This is presumably because it is supposed to be better than Theravada Buddhism. Mahayana Buddhism is more ritualistic than Theravada. Additionally, Sikh Nirvana which stops the cycle of reincarnation is optional, but they believe that anyone can actually arrive to the level of being a Buddha themselves. The third branch, Vajrayana, is found in the north in Mongolia and in Tibet. Now Tibet is a territory in the Himalayas that used to be its own country before the Chinese invaded it in the early 1950s. Vajrayana is also known as the Thunderbolt Vehicle after a weapon that a Hindu god is said to have carried. Vajrayana Buddhists seek enlightenment through magical spells, special hand gestures and mystical diagrams. The spiritual leader of Vajrayana Buddhism is called Alamas such as the Dalai Lama who is the head of one of the Tibetan schools of Buddhism that lives in India now due to the Chinese invasion back in 1951. Between 802 and 1431 AD, the Khmer Empire controlled most of mainland Southeast Asia. At its capital, they built a temple that was converted to Buddhism at 1200 that is today the largest religious monument in the world. This is Angar Wat. Then there is Islam. Islam came to Southeast Asia by Arab merchants about the same time that Angar Wat was being converted into a Buddhist temple. As these merchants were traveling by boat, Islam spread along the islands of what is now Indonesia. Today, Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim country with over 210 million followers. Islam is also the dominant religion in both Brunei and Malaysia. But in Southeast Asia, Christianity is also a major religion. In 1521, Magellan discovered the Philippines for the Spanish crown and the Spanish did what the Spanish did in those days. Just as they did in Latin America, they colonized the Philippines and brought missionaries to convert the natives. Today, over 80% of the people of the Philippines are Christian, predominantly Roman Catholic. Due to this cultural diffusion, we have seen three religions have taken hold in Southeast Asia. Islam is the biggest largely due to the population of Indonesia. Buddhism is the second largest, dominating the mainland of Southeast Asia, and Christianity in the Philippines makes Christianity the third largest religion in the region. But the Spanish were not the only Europeans that colonized countries like Southeast Asia. The same shipbuilding technology that allowed for Columbus to sail the Atlantic now allows the Portuguese, the English, the Dutch, the French, and the Spanish to go and establish colonies in Southeast Asia. It would be spice found in the islands of Indonesia that entice Europeans with the idea of controlling Southeast Asia. In later years, it would be different resources such as oil. In fact, you have probably seen this logo before. You've seen it on gas stations throughout the state. Today, we just call it shell. But it was first called the Royal Dutch Shell Group. It was first formed in 1907 to develop an oil field in Dutch East Indies, which is known as Indonesia today. See, Shell's very start really is part of the story of European colonization of Southeast Asia. Now, in all four European countries and even the United States would have colonies in Southeast Asia. Now, the British would add Myanmar to the empire calling it Burma. They also would control Malaysia and Singapore. The French controlled Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia in what it called French into China. And as we discussed, the Spanish controlled the Philippines. But after the Spanish lost to the Americans in the Spanish-American War, the Philippines were given to the Americans and the Americans tried their hand at colonization. It didn't work out all that well. And the Dutch control the Dutch East Indies as we talked about is now known as Indonesia today. The only country not colonized was a corrupted country called Siam. Now, the French and the British didn't want any misunderstandings, so the less Siam is kind of a buffer area between the British colonies of Malaysia and Burma and French into China. Siam was and still is an influential part of Southeast Asia. In fact, it has lent its name to many different words you already know, such as Siamese cats and Siamese twins. But since 1948, we've known this country as Siam as Thailand, which literally means land of the free. While Thailand was not colonized, unfortunately, the region has been influenced by a conflict. After World War II, nearly every European country laid in rubble and had to turn its attention to home to rebuild. This meant that many colonies around the world, such as Indochina, were starting to demand their own independence. Now France fought unsuccessfully during the French Indochina War to keep its colonies together between 1946 and 1954. The result, unfortunately, for the French was a withdrawal of the French and Vietnam being split into a communist north and a capital of south. However, the communists in the north were not satisfied with their independence. They wanted all of Vietnam to be under one communist rule. This sets the conditions for the Americans and the Vietnam War. To support the South Vietnamese, John F. Kennedy began to send American military advisors. After Kennedy was assassinated, Texas' own Lyndon Means Johnson was sworn into office. The next July, the USS Maddox, a US Navy ship, was patrolling in the Gulf of Tonkin when three North Vietnamese patrol boats attacked the ship. The next month, there was in the report of another attack. Together, this is what is called the Gulf of Tonkin incident that was the spark that brought the United States fully into war in Vietnam. Outraged by these attacks, President Johnson asked Congress the authority to use military action and he got it. Unfortunately, it was later revealed after America was already committed to war that there was no actual attack in the Gulf of Tonkin. Apparently, Johnson himself had doubts about the attack, but pressed for the military authorization regardless. Faulty intelligence and opportunistic administration led America to fight in Vietnam for nearly 10 years at a cost of 58,220 American lives lost. The revelation of the truth of the Gulf of Tonkin incident and other missteps by political and military leaders fueled already heated protests against the American war effort and the draft. With support at home dwindling, President Nixon pulled America out of the war in 1973. We today have concluded an agreement to end the war and bring peace with honor in Vietnam. South Vietnam continued to fight against the Communist North for another two years, but after Congress decided to cut the hour funding to Vietnam in half, Vietnam fell to the North in 1975. Now Vietnam is a united communist country. The fallout of the Vietnam War would have consequences in Cambodia where a man named Pol Pot would come to power after overthrowing Cambodia's monarchy. Though Pol Pot was the leader of a group called the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot's vision was to move everyone out of the cities and everyone would become farmers. He realized that many educated people who lived in the cities would be obviously against this plan. His answer was the killing fields and appeared in between 1975 and 1979 over 21% of the country was killed by executions, forced labor, malnutrition, and poor health care. Pol Pot's targets were the educator professionals in the country such as teachers, engineers, technicians, city planners, all the individuals you would need to be able to run a country, all because Pol Pot saw them as a threat to his vision. Over 2 million people were killed before Vietnamese troops were able to invade Cambodia and stop the killing. Unfortunately Cambodia is still facing the effects of having nearly an entire generation of educated people killed or moved out of the country. Now despite such a somber last point, Southeast Asia is a remarkable region with a rich vibrant culture formed by the conversion of so many peoples and so many thoughts and ideas. Next lesson, we'll look at what Southeast Asia looks like today and what their modern issues are. Until then, keep on learning.