ABSTRACT
The interstate system of traditional Southeast Asia can be divided functionally into cultural, religious, economic, political, diplomatic, and military subsystems. Religion and custom were critical elements of power within the state and linked the village and the court in an all-subsuming metaphysical view of the world. Maritime kingdoms employed impressive naval forces to control trade because they sought power to control the flow of traffic through the Strait of Malacca, the primary water route for the China-to-Europe trade. The political philosophy of the state, based on the metaphysical view of the kingdom as a microcosmic version of the universe, left little room for the development of a set of relationships that presumed the existence of more than one state. The principal characteristics of this regional system can be summarized in terms of four components: weak institutions, weak interactions, limited regional recognition, and patterns of dependence on extraregional powers.
