page_title: History of Southeast Asia
section_title: Name
hierarchical_section_title: History of Southeast Asia / Name
context_page_description: The history of Southeast Asia covers the people of Southeast Asia from prehistory to the present in two distinct sub-regions: Mainland Southeast Asia and Maritime Southeast Asia. Mainland Southeast Asia comprises Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam whereas Maritime Southeast Asia comprises Brunei, Cocos Islands, Christmas Island, East Malaysia, East Timor, Indonesia, Philippines and Singapore.
  The earliest Homo sapiens presence in Mainland Southeast Asia can be traced back to 50,000 years ago and to at least 40,000 years ago in Maritime Southeast Asia. As early as 10,000 years ago, Hoabinhian settlers had developed a tradition and culture of distinct artefact and tool production. During the Neolithic, Austroasiatic peoples populated Indochina via land routes and sea-borne Austronesian immigrants preferably settled in Maritime Southeast Asia. The earliest agricultural societies that cultivated millet and wet-rice emerged around 1700 BCE in the lowlands and river floodplains of Indochina.
context_section_description: There are numerous ancient historic Asian designations for Southeast Asia, none are geographically consistent with each other. Names referring to Southeast Asia include Suvarnabhumi or Sovannah Phoum (Golden Land) and Suvarnadvipa (Golden Islands) in Indian tradition, the Lands below the Winds in Arabia and Persia, Nanyang (South Seas) to the Chinese and Nanyo in Japan. A 2nd-century world map created by Ptolemy of Alexandria names the Malay Peninsula as Avrea Chersonesvs, (Golden Peninsula).
  
  The term "Southeast Asia" was first used in 1839 by American pastor Howard Malcolm in his book Travels in South-Eastern Asia. Malcolm only included the Mainland section and excluded the Maritime section in his definition of Southeast Asia. The term was officially used to designate the area of operation (the South East Asia Command, SEAC) for Anglo-American forces in the Pacific Theater of World War II from 1941 to 1945.
caption: Detail of Asia in Ptolemy's world map. Gulf of the Ganges left, Southeast Asian peninsula in the centre written as Avrea Chersonesvs, China Sea right, with "Sinae" (China).
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