ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes the early history of Southeast Asia, illustrates some of the region's major historical features and provides an overview of its general political, economic, and cultural evolution. Srivijaya's preoccupation with the maritime world has led most scholars to assume that it had only limited contact with peoples living inland from Palembang and had no political control over its hinterland. The mainland agricultural successor to Funan and Chenla was the Khmer Empire, a different type of kingdom that was based not on control of international trade routes but on a firm agricultural foundation. The historical development of Southeast Asian states took place with a certain rhythmic ebb and flow based on factors as diverse as the movement of international trade-goods through the region, local geographic and physical resources, and the availability of culturally strengthening religious and philosophical ideas from India and China.
