ABSTRACT
Several strands of conflict afflicted Southeast Asia after World War II. France fought unsuccessfully beginning in 1945 to regain control of Indochina. Japan assumed direction of Indochina in 1941, one year after Paris fell to Germany. The First Indochina War cost at least 500,000 fatalities, most of them civilians. Military occupation continued until April 1, 1946 when a civilian government was appointed to administer the Union of Malaya (Malaysia), incorporating all Malay states except Singapore. Nationalists resisted British military occupation and subsequent Dutch efforts to reestablish colonial government. The United Kingdom conquered states previously representing the Burmese Empire during a series of wars from 1826 and annexed them to India in 1885. The United Kingdom was driven from the Malay Peninsula by Japanese forces in 1942 and returned following the armistice with Japan in 1945. It is estimated that 10,000 persons died during the Malayan Insurgency, including numerous civilians.
