World War One in Southeast Asia
Colonialism and Anticolonialism in an Era of Global Conflict

An original study of the First World War's impact in Southeast Asia, extending our understanding of the conflict as a global phenomenon.

Heather Streets-Salter (Author)

9781316501092, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 3 April 2017

244 pages, 3 maps
22.8 x 15 x 1.5 cm, 0.36 kg

'… this book is essential reading for historians interested in Southeast Asia, European imperialism and colonialism, and world history. It advances our understanding of the ways the First World War impacted Southeast Asia and beyond. It also captures a global story that traces the struggles between Allied and Central powers as each intersected with British, Dutch, and French colonialism and anticolonialism in Southeast Asia. For world historians, this book should be required reading for methodological purposes. It considers the significance of scale and the intersections of local, regional, and world history. Equally important, it makes a strong case for situating archival evidence and research at the center of world history in order to enrich the stories we tell and our conceptualization of global transformation and connection.' Michele L. Louro, World History Connected

Although not a major player during the course of the First World War, Southeast Asia was in fact altered by the war in multiple and profound ways. Ranging across British Malaya, the Dutch East Indies, and French Indochina, Heather Streets-Salter reveals how the war shaped the region's political, economic, and social development both during 1914–18 and in the war's aftermath. She shows how the region's strategic location between North America and India made it a convenient way-station for expatriate Indian revolutionaries who hoped to smuggle arms and people into India and thus to overthrow British rule, whilst German consuls and agents entered into partnerships with both Indian and Vietnamese revolutionaries to undermine Allied authority and coordinate anti-British and anti-French operations. World War One in Southeast Asia offers an entirely new perspective on anti-colonialism and the Great War, and radically extends our understanding of the conflict as a truly global phenomenon.

Introduction
1. The Singapore Mutiny of 1915: global origins in a global war
2. The defeat of the Singapore Mutiny: regional expression of global alliances
3. Germans, Indians, and the war in the Dutch East Indies
4. The SS Maverick and the unraveling of a global conspiracy
5. Siam and the anti-Allied conspiracies
6. China, Germany, and the Viet Nam Restoration Association.

Subject Areas: Military history [HBW], Asian history [HBJF]