Imperialism in South East Asia examines all the countries which might be called imperialist: Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands and the US. Examining the phenomenon from this perspective reveals imperialism as a question of rivalry; and facilitates comparison: imperialism had elements in common, yet differed as did the territories in which they operated.
This is one of the only studies of imperialism to concentrate on South East Asia. Nicholas Tarling's definition of imperialism concentrates on the establishment of political control and a periodisation between 1870 and 1914. After this period, in more recent history, he analyses the attempts to re-establish control after the overthrow of imperial regimes in the second world war. Now, South East Asia has become a region of independent states, and Nicholas Tarling views imperial ventures as forms of state-building. The imperial period at the heart of this book reflects another contemporary concern - globalisation and the relationship of the state to that process.