Search

A map of Southeast Asia coloured to indicate the five different language families spoken in the region in the late 19th century. Names of indigenous tribes/languages are marked in red text, with European colonial possessions in grey.

A mid-19th century map colour-coded with British, French, Portuguese, Danish and Dutch colonial possessions in India and western Southeast Asia, as well as the ‘Native States’. A table lists the dates when the British acquired each area.

Regional borders are colour-coded on this mid-19th century map of mainland Southeast Asia, with British colonial territory in red (including part of the Burman Empire, the Straits Settlements, and Sarawak on Borneo).

A mid-19th century German map of mainland Southeast Asia showing a mixture of ancient kingdoms (e.g. Birma, Siam, Anam) and the colonial possessions of Britain (Malaya, Straits Settlements) and Denmark (Nicobar Islands).

This map of Asia, from an atlas by the German cartographer Karl von Spruner, is colour-coded to show the colonial possessions of the European powers—Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, France, Britain and Denmark—at the end of the 17th century.

This map of Asia, from an atlas by the German cartographer Karl von Spruner, is colour-coded to show the possessions of the Indian Maratha Empire, and of the European colonial powers at the end of the 18th century.