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Malay Archipelago

World map highlighting Malay Archipelago, with the island of New Guinea—not part of the Malay Archipelago by some definitions—in light green.
Geography
Location Southeast Asia, Oceania
Total islands 20,000
Major islands Borneo, Java, Luzon, Mindanao, New Guinea, Sulawesi, Sumatra
Area >2 million km²
Country
 Brunei
Largest city Bandar Seri Begawan
Largest city Dili
Largest city Jakarta
Largest city Kuching
(Kuala Lumpur is larger, but it is not part of the Malay Archipelago)
Largest city Quezon City
Largest city Singapore
Demographics
Population 300+ million

The Malay Archipelago and Maritime Southeast Asia are names given to the archipelago located between mainland Southeastern Asia (Indochina) and Australia. Located between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the group of 20,000 islands is the world's largest archipelago by area. It includes the countries of Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, East Timor, and most of Papua New Guinea.

Contents

Terminology

The concept of a “Malay race” which included the people’s of Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines was put forward by European colonialists. Nineteenth century naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace used the term “Malay Archipelago” as the title of his influential book documenting his studies in the region.

The region known as Maritime Southeast Asia is more or less coextensive with the Malay Archipelago, and refers to the island nations in the region including.

There are arguments for excluding Papua New Guinea for cultural and geographical reasons: Papua New Guinea is culturally quite different from the other countries in the region, and the island of New Guinea itself is geologically not part of the continent of Asia, as the islands of the Sunda Shelf are (see Australia (continent)). The archipelago is sometimes also known as the “East Indies”, particularly in the European colonial era, but broader definitions of the “East Indies” include Indochina, the Indian subcontinent, and even areas as far west as Iranian Baluchistan.

Geography and geology

The archipelago encompasses many groups which may be considered archipelagoes in their own right. The major ones are:

The archipelago's area is more than 2 million km², and its total population is more than 300,000,000+. The biggest islands in the archipelago are New Guinea, Borneo, and Sumatra. The most heavily populated is Java.

Geologically the archipelago is one of the most active volcanic regions in the world. Geological uplifts in the region have also produced some impressive mountains, culminating in Mount Kinabalu in Sabah with a height of 4 095.2 m (or Puncak Jaya in Papua at 4 884 m, if New Guinea is included).

The climate throughout the archipelago, owing to its position on the equator, is tropical. It is notably rainier in the west than in the east.

Demography

The people of the archipelago are predominantly from Austronesian subgroupings, and all correspondingly speak western Malayo-Polynesian languages. Also, this region of Southeast Asia share more social and cultural ties with other Austronesian peoples in the Pacific than with the peoples of Mainland Southeast Asia.

Often, the mainland part of Malaysia, which is known as Malaya, is included as part of Maritime Southeast Asia in order that all the non-Oceanian Austronesian peoples can be included together in one cultural region.

The main religions in this region are Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and traditional Animism.

Sources

See also

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Countries of the Malay Archipelago
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