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Population and Society in Southeast Asia: a Historical Perspective

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Population and Society in Southeast Asia: a Historical Perspective In Linda Williams and Philip Guest, eds. Demography of Southeast Asia. (2012) Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. CHAPTER 1 POPULATION AND SOCIETY IN SOUTHEAST ASIA: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE Charles Hirschman and Sabrina Bonaparte One of the characteristics of Southeast Asia before 1750, in contrast to adjacent India and China, was low population density. Most of the region was still covered by jungle as late as 1800, so that attacks by tigers were not uncommon even on the outskirts of substantial population centers.1 Prior to the twentieth century, there were a number of medium-size cities in Southeast Asia as well as some densely settled rice-growing regions, but much of Southeast Asia remained a sparsely settled region relative to East and South Asia.2 The low population density of Southeast Asia reflected the character of a peripheral region with relatively weak states and large frontiers inhabited by populations of shifting cultivators. In 1900, the population of Southeast Asia was only about 80 million and almost one-third of this number was concentrated in Java alone.3 Southeast Asia is no longer at the periphery—demographically, economically, or politically. Characterized by sprawling megacities and a densely settled countryside, it is hard to imagine that tigers were once a major threat to those who lived on the outskirts of large Southeast Asian cities. With wild animals banished to zoos, and even the once ubiquitous trishaws and bicycles almost gone, the major features of Southeast Asia cities are shopping malls, congested roadways, and pervasive smog arising from urban industries and motorized transport. The subsistence economies of the Southeast Asian past have grown into dynamic economic engines producing 1Anthony Reid, “Economic and Social Change, c. 1400–1800,” in The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia, Volume Two: The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, ed. Nicholas Tarling (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp. 460–461. 2 Wilbur Zelinsky, “The Indochinese Peninsula: A Demographic Anomaly,” Far Eastern Quarterly 9 (1950): 115–45. 3 Colin McEvedy and Richard Jones, Atlas of World Population History (New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1978), pp. 190–203. 2 Charles Hirschman and Sabrina Bonaparte electronic goods, clothing and footwear, and household appliances for world markets. The economic, political, and strategic centrality of contemporary Southeast Asia is evident in the annual meetings of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the influential, quasi-political association of the region), which draw representatives from all the major industrial blocs in the world. These economic and political changes in Southeast Asia have been accompanied by extraordinary rates of population growth, especially during the second half of the twentieth century. At the end of the colonial era, circa 1950, the population of Southeast Asia was only one-third as large as that of Europe—the home of the primary colonial powers that ruled almost all of Southeast Asia for the first half of the twentieth century. Over the course of the last century, there was a dramatic reversal in the demographic balance between Southeast Asia and Europe. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the population of Indonesia exceeded that of Russia—the largest European country—by almost 100 million. There are currently more Vietnamese and Filipinos than Germans. Thailand—a medium-size Southeast Asian country—has a larger population than either Italy or the United Kingdom. Even tiny Laos, with a population of 6 million in 2010, is home to more people than are many European countries, including Ireland, Finland, Denmark, and Norway. The combined population of the Southeast Asian countries of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar (Burma), Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam was near 600 million at the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century. Southeast Asia is projected to be the home of more than 760 million by the middle of the century.4 The role of population in the development of Southeast Asia is generally neglected in both historical and contemporary studies. For example, the celebrated two-volume Cambridge History of Southeast Asia,5 with the exception of essays by Anthony Reid and Norman Owen, largely ignores the role of population in Southeast Asian history. Yet, changes in population size, distribution, and structure are closely intertwined with the economic, social, and political transformations of the last one hundred years. In this chapter, we present a historical overview of contemporary demographic changes in Southeast Asia with primary attention to twentieth-century patterns of population growth, including factors driving fertility and mortality. THE GEOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT There is enormous diversity in all dimensions of Southeast Asian life. The demographic and geographic enormity of Indonesia stands in sharp relief to the tiny microstates of Brunei and Timor-Leste. Over the course of history, variations in topography have created ecological niches within Southeast Asia that have given rise to an incredible diversity of cultures. Rivers and calm seas led to the settlement of fishing villages and coastal trading centers. Lowland areas with natural irrigation or possibilities for flooded fields allowed for wet rice cultivation and the emergence of 4 United Nations (Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat), World Population Prospects: The 2010 Revision (New York, NY: United Nations, 2011), http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Excel-Data/population.htm, accessed January 10, 2012. 5 Tarling, ed., The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia, Volume Two. Population and Society 3 peasant societies and despotic ruling classes. The uplands, which were more difficult for states to control and exploit, were generally inhabited by vibrant and diverse peoples were free from the grip of civilization. The sea, which sometimes serves to isolate Southeast Asia, also brought settlers and visitors from distant shores. For more than a millennium there have been frequent contact, trade, migration, and social exchange from other parts of Asia, and for the past five hundred years, European gunboats and merchants, along with adventurers and missionaries, have arrived as well. Outsiders have been drawn to Southeast Asia by the monsoons and by a desire for the natural and cultivated products of the region. Cultural influences from the outside have blended with local traditions in religion, economic organization, and statecraft. The most significant geographical division has been between the regions, roughly defined as mainland and island Southeast Asia, but there is wide topographical diversity within both areas. Coastal plains, river valleys, highlands, and mountainous regions are found in every country, and often on the same island. Tropical forests have been pushed back for human settlement and cultivation over the centuries. Much of what was once frontier has been settled, to accommodate the major wave of population growth during the twentieth century, but there still remain large expanses of forested areas (although the lucrative timber industry has taken a significant toll on forests in recent decades). Historically, settlement patterns in Southeast Asia were shaped by access to the sea and rivers. Fishing was a ubiquitous means of subsistence, and seaborne exchange and trade were central features of most societies throughout the region. Overland transportation of people and goods was made difficult by tortuous, primitive roadways until well into the twentieth century. Transportation and communication infrastructure were expanded during the colonial era, but priority was given to connecting major cities and selected rural areas where European-owned economic enterprises, such as mines and plantations, were located. Only with the development-minded policies following political independence did modern roads and transportation extend to most of the rural hinterland of Southeast Asia. The primary agricultural crop of Southeast Asia is rice, which is grown in dry fields and in rain-fed or irrigated fields. Since wet rice (grown in irrigated fields) is a more productive crop than dry rice, there has been an evolutionary drift toward wet- rice cultivation accompanying population growth, although the historical trend has been interrupted from time to time. Over the last century, most frontier areas have been settled and irrigated rice fields dot the landscape.6 The scale of human effort necessary to transform tropical forests or swampland into irrigated agricultural fields is possible only with a high population density and a centralized polity to coordinate the construction of irrigation systems.7 The classical civilizations of Angkor, Majapahit, and the Red River Delta, based on large expanses of irrigated rice cultivation, were not determined by favorable geographical settings alone. The differences between the mainland and island Southeast Asia also reflect the influences of culture, religion, and history. Buddhist beliefs, institutions, and traditions have shaped the historical evolution of social patterns and cultures in Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The primary cultural attribute of 6 Lucien Hanks, Rice and Man: Agricultural Ecology in Southeast Asia (Chicago, IL: Aldine, 1972). 7 Ester Boserup, Population and Technological Change (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1981). 4 Charles Hirschman and Sabrina
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