ABSTRACT
Colonial Southeast Asia had been created under the aegis of the British, the primate power of the nineteenth century. The three states of northern Borneo favored the continuance of the Dutch empire in the archipelago, and they accepted the establishment of the French in Vietnam, Cambodia, and the eastern parts of Laos. The intensification of the Japanese threat after the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the British began to consider the region as a whole. At the end of the war, it was clear to the British that their future in Southeast Asia must depend on coming to terms with the nationalism that either the interregnum had promoted or to which it had offered an unprecedented opportunity. In terms with Indonesian nationalism was made more difficult by the West New Guinea dispute, in Australia, an essential Common wealth partner, opposed its transfer to the republic on security grounds. This leads to some kind of regional security arrangement.
