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This mid-19th century map of Asia has colour-coded borders that show the beginnings of the emergence of the modern nation states of Southeast Asia, such as Laos, Burmah (Burma), Siam (Thailand) and Malaya (Malaysia).

Map of the eastern half of the Dutch colonial administrative region (residency) of Palembang, Sumatra. A fort is marked in the town of Batoeradja. (From ‘Algemeene Atlas van Nederlandsche Indie [General Atlas of the Dutch East Indies]’.)

Map of the Dutch colonial administrative region (residency) of Riouw (Riau) focusing on the islands and sea passages, with bathymetry (sea depth) marked. (From ‘Algemeene Atlas van Nederlandsche Indie [General Atlas of the Dutch East Indies]’.)

Map of the eastern half of the Dutch colonial administrative region (residency) of Timor, with an inset map of its capital city and port Timorkoepang (Kupang). (From ‘Algemeene Atlas van Nederlandsche Indie [General Atlas of the Dutch East Indies]’.)

The use of hachures—short lines/dashes that give a sense of the shape and steepness of terrain—highlight the mountain ranges along the west coast of Sumatra, with rivers flowing east. The island is divided into administrative ‘residencies’.

The residency of Bagelen, Central Java, is shown divided into regencies and districts. Coffee, tea and cinnamon plantations, fields of rice, alang-alang and other crops, mountains, rivers, hot and mineral springs, settlements and routes are marked.

Map of a proposed extension of a telegraph system from Rangoon (Yangon, Myanmar) to China. Includes current and projected railways, steam ship routes, and population figures for western China. From the British magazine ‘The Illustrated London News’.