Home » Images » 0072 Pictures From History » CPA0035999

Southeast Asia: An English map depicting Southeast Asia, primarily focused on the East Indies, from Cary's New Universal Atlas by John Cary (1755-1835), 1801

The East Indies, sometimes known simply as the Indies, are the lands of South and Southeast Asia, though usually refer to just the islands of Southeast Asia, primarily the Indonesian and Philippine Archipelagos. The inhabitants of the region are rarely ever called East Indians, and comprise a wide variety of cultural and religious diversity, with no single ethnic group.

Many of these islands were Dutch colonies, and the area was known as the Dutch East Indies for around 300 years before Indonesian independence, while those under Spanish occupation were titled the Spanish East Indies until the American conquest. Sometimes French-occupied Indochina and the former British territories of Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore are included within the East Indies (the latter three as the British East Indies), as well as former Portuguese East Timor.