Underlying this openness was a sense of self-confidence and assurance that they could always absorb and adapt foreign influences for their purposes without feeling inferior or insecure about it. They were content with the autonomy of each of their units which interacted with one another without fear and without needing to set up a big bureaucratic system. This has been described as the “mandala system” – a set of loose relationships between various units, each being autonomous, confident and capable of looking after itself. In all these places, the people did not feel they needed a region or to be identified as a region. Compared to the vastness of the Indian Ocean, the South China Sea was smaller, more manageable and well used as the main route of communication throughout the region and to other parts of the globe. There is ample evidence of numerous and robust connections among different units in the region, both at sea and on the mainland. For example, the Chams of the Champa Kingdom were a very mobile people who not only set up maritime connections with the Malay Peninsula, Java and Sumatra but also enabled the trade passages between the region and China. Collection of ISEAS Library (Accession No: MAP ASE8) ny, 1988 literature. The locals combined these external influences with their own ideas and faiths, drawing them together into a set of values which they have more or less preserved for hundreds of years. It was towards of the end of this period that the Mongol expansion into China in the 13th and 14th century produced some important changes. The invasions led to increased migration from the empire into mainland Southeast Asia. The Mongols represented a new force that was very powerful and consequential. They conquered all of China, took over the Song China’s maritime capacity and used its navy against Java, Vietnam and Champa. On land, they moved into southwestern China, destroyed the kingdom of Dali, and threatened both Burma and Vietnam. The Mongol force was overwhelming for some 200 years, and its momentum was maintained by the Ming dynasty in China for another 100 years. During this period, new borders between the Mongol empire (later the Ming) and Vietnam and Burma emerged. These borders were not yet firm but could be seen as indicating a northern edge of a future region. From the 16th century to 19th century Things were about to change around 1500 that began to give some shape to the future Southeast Asia. Outside forces from the 16th century onwards exerted pressure on the islands and the mainland alike and some contemporary records noted a region that had much in common. The arrival of the Europeans from the 16th century presented a new force but it was not sizeable, overwhelming or dominating in the beginning. They came in powerful ships, starting with the Portuguese, that made a difference to the trading patterns. Their primary concern was access to and control of as many ports as possible. At the same time, the Spanish came across the Pacific from the other side, taking over the Philippines and creating a completely new corner of Southeast Asia. There, the border of Southeast Asia started to take shape on the Pacific side although the Philippines remained an outlier to the region for many centuries. Interestingly, the border between the western part of Southeast Asia and the rest of the Indian Ocean countries could not be discerned. Probably because the Indian Ocean was simply so vast that it was in itself a natural border and nobody questioned the western boundary of Southeast Asia beyond the island of Sumatra. From the 18th century to the end of the 19 th, the development of Europe, prompted by the scientific and industrial revolutions and thriving capitalism, completely changed the pattern of European interactions with the world. A series of major wars among the European powers created new weaponry, new powerful instruments of domination. After defeating the French navy in the Indian Ocean, British naval dominance made it possible for them to move into India and take over the whole sub-continent. This was the most revolutionary change: A new kind of colonial power had emerged that could move deeper inland and occupy large territory. The nature of power had changed once naval dominance could enable ventures into the interior of the mainland. This new capacity of the Europeans also brought their colonisation onto mainland Southeast Asia. They ultimately took over Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Burma, and put pressure on Thailand. The British also 3 — ISSUE 5/2018