Southeast Asia

The Discovery of Angkor

For nearly a hundred years, travellers and archaeologists have been investigating the mysterious ruins of Angkor. Today, writes Michael Sullivan, much of the mystery has been dispelled; but these relics of a vanished civilization still preserve their beauty and dignity.

Victory in Arakan

Geoffrey Evans describes how British and Indian forces recovered Burma from the Japanese during the Second World War.

The British in Malaya

British Malaya since 1786 has become the home of many different races, whose harmonious union, writes C. Northcote Parkinson, would offer an example from which the rest of the world might profit.

Louis XIV and the King of Siam

A foothold in Siam offered new trading opportunities for France in the late 17th century, as well as a chance to spread the Catholic faith.

Compensating the Railway Men

The suffering of prisoners of war at the hands of the Japanese during the Second World War has coloured the British view of the conflict in the Far East. Clare Makepeace highlights a little known aspect of the captives’ story: their quest for compensation.

King Mindon of Burma

For twenty-five years, King Mindon preserved a peaceful and progressive atmosphere in nineteenth-century Burma.

The French and Indo-China

The connexions of the French with Vietnam began in the eighteenth century; D.R. Watson describes how their legacy was passed to the United States in 1954.