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Southeast Asia: History and Culture. No.32, pp.88-104, JSSEAH ed., Tokyo: Yamakawa publisher, May 2003.
This review article deals with the following 3 volumes of Iwanami History of Southeast Asia『岩波講座 東南アジア史』(Iwanami Shoten, Tokyo, 2001) below:
Anthony Reid's achievements are mentioned in all of the Introductions. This shows deep impact of his reserch clearly. One special feature of this series is the volume 4 totally devoted to the 18th century. All of the titles enable us to imagine the Southeast Asia from 15th to 19th centuries as one large cycle, with “Early Modern” as a common keyword. Moreover, we are also reminded the opinion of Victor Lieberman.
The volume 3 deals mainly with from 15th to 17th centuries. The Introduction declared that this volume deals with ”Early Modern“ period corresponding to “The Age of Commerce”. Furthermore, it is regarded as a time when an economic quantitative expansion caused qualitative conversion in politics and culture. This volume consists of two parts: Part I (The Age of Commerce) dealing with external powers, in which the editor regards the activity of such powers as the initial moment of the Age of Commerce; Part II (The Formation of the Spheres of the Southeast Asian States) dealing with the internal powers.
The volume 4 asserts the importance of the 18th century, when the political framework which follows present day via the 19th century first emerged. The formation process of that framework corresponds to each three parts of this volume: the expansion of primary-goods demand inducing exploitation and development on the frontier and bringing about autonomous polities (Part I: The Age of Frontier); the increasing importance of overseas Chinese as intermediater or labor force made a singular society in frontier region and a pluralistic society in urban areas (Part II: The Chinese Era); and the expansion of colonial states and the “big” states on mainland, serving the political framework in which Chinese dropped out of competition and lost political independence (Part III: Broader Historical-Circle).
The volume 5 deals mainly the 19th century. Saito summarize the 19th century as “The Age of Change Accelerated”. Part I, “Initiation for the Modernity”, examines how three countries on mainland tried to manage against the new situation. Part II, “Colonization and a change of ‘Traditional’ states”, describes mainly colonization aspect, and Part III, “Urban Metamorphosis”, contains a vivid description of four cities which serve as the symbols of their countries even today.
While thse five centuries should indeed be considered as a cycle, whether or not that cycle should be called “Early Modern” is by no means certain. Until the end of 19th century, there still survived the “Periphery” and “Traditional Society”. Both were more steadfast than in earlier period, but look ambiguous from the viewpoint of modern state. They become the object of “Reorganization” for both colonialist and nationalist.