Southeast Asia: every state, empire and people from 3200 BCE to today
The Southeast Asia section of the timeline follows 143 states, empires, colonies and peoples from 3200 BCE to today, in 7 areas: Burma, Thailand and Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, Java and Eastern Indonesia and Borneo and the Philippines. Among the most significant are Austronesian peoples, Srivijaya, Khmer Empire, Ayutthaya Kingdom, Majapahit Empire and Dutch East Indies.
Open Southeast Asia on the interactive timeline
Burma
- Hoabinhian foragers
- Neolithic and Bronze Age farmers of Burma
- Pyu city-states
- Pagan Kingdom
- Thaton Kingdom
- Shan States
- Hanthawaddy Kingdom
- Myinsaing, Pinya and Sagaing
- Ava Kingdom
- Mrauk U Kingdom (Arakan)
- First Toungoo Empire
- Restored Toungoo dynasty
- Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom
- Konbaung dynasty
- British Burma
- Japanese-occupied Burma
- Myanmar (Burma)
Thailand and Laos
- Hoabinhian foragers
- Austroasiatic rice farmers
- Ban Chiang culture
- Plain of Jars culture
- Dvaravati
- Haripunjaya
- Tai muang chiefdoms
- Sukhothai Kingdom
- Lan Na
- Ayutthaya Kingdom
- Lan Xang
- Kingdom of Luang Phrabang
- Kingdom of Vientiane
- Kingdom of Champasak
- Thonburi Kingdom
- Rattanakosin Kingdom (Siam)
- French Laos
- Thailand
- Kingdom of Laos
- Lao People's Democratic Republic
Cambodia
- Hoabinhian foragers
- Austroasiatic rice farmers of the Mekong
- Funan
- Chenla
- Khmer Empire
- Post-Angkor Cambodia
- French Cambodia
- Kingdom of Cambodia (Sihanouk era)
- Khmer Republic
- Democratic Kampuchea (Khmer Rouge)
- People's Republic of Kampuchea
- Kingdom of Cambodia
Vietnam
- Neolithic cultures of northern Vietnam
- Phung Nguyen and Dong Dau cultures
- Dong Son culture
- Sa Huynh culture
- Van Lang
- Au Lac
- Nanyue (Nam Viet)
- First Chinese domination (Han)
- Trung sisters' kingdom
- Second Chinese domination
- Champa
- Early Ly dynasty (Van Xuan)
- Third Chinese domination (Sui and Tang)
- Ngo dynasty
- Dinh dynasty
- Early Le dynasty
- Ly dynasty
- Tran dynasty
- Ho dynasty
- Fourth Chinese domination (Ming)
- Later Le dynasty
- Mac dynasty
- Trinh lords
- Nguyen lords
- Tay Son dynasty
- Nguyen dynasty
- French Indochina
- Japanese occupation of Indochina
- Democratic Republic of Vietnam
- State of Vietnam
- Republic of Vietnam
- Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Malay Peninsula and Sumatra
- Hoabinhian foragers
- Orang Asli (Semang and Senoi)
- Austronesian peoples of Sumatra and Malaya
- Langkasuka
- Srivijaya
- Dharmasraya (Melayu)
- Samudera Pasai Sultanate
- Pagaruyung Kingdom
- Malacca Sultanate
- Pattani Sultanate
- Aceh Sultanate
- Portuguese Malacca
- Johor Sultanate
- Dutch Malacca
- Straits Settlements
- British Malaya
- Japanese occupation of Malaya
- Federation of Malaya
- Malaysia
- Singapore
Java and Eastern Indonesia
- Pre-Austronesian foragers
- Austronesian farmers of Java and Wallacea
- Buni culture
- Tarumanagara
- Sunda Kingdom
- Medang Kingdom (Mataram)
- Sailendra dynasty
- Kediri Kingdom
- Singhasari
- Majapahit Empire
- Gowa Sultanate (Makassar)
- Balinese kingdoms
- Ternate and Tidore sultanates
- Demak Sultanate
- Banten Sultanate
- Mataram Sultanate
- Dutch East India Company (VOC)
- Portuguese Timor
- Surakarta and Yogyakarta
- Dutch East Indies
- Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies
- Indonesia
- Indonesian occupation of East Timor
- Timor-Leste
Borneo and the Philippines
- Philippine Negrito foragers
- Austronesian peoples
- Dayak peoples of Borneo
- Kutai Martadipura
- Barangay chiefdoms
- Tondo
- Rajahnate of Cebu
- Bruneian Sultanate
- Sultanate of Sulu
- Sultanate of Maguindanao
- Spanish Philippines
- Raj of Sarawak
- British North Borneo
- American Philippines
- First Philippine Republic
- Japanese occupation of the Philippines
- Philippines
- Brunei
Key events
- Austronesians reach the Philippines. Farmers from Taiwan cross the Luzon Strait with red-slipped pottery and rice, the first step of the Austronesian spread through the islands.
- Dong Son bronze drums. Red River valley smiths cast large decorated bronze drums, traded as prestige goods across mainland and island Southeast Asia.
- Han conquest of Nanyue. Han armies take the Nanyue capital at Panyu, bringing northern Vietnam under Chinese rule for most of the next thousand years.
- Trung sisters' revolt. Trung Trac and Trung Nhi drive out the Han governor and rule as queens for three years, later honoured as Vietnam's national heroines.
- Yijing studies at Srivijaya. The Chinese monk Yijing stops at Srivijaya on his way to India and advises pilgrims to study Sanskrit and Buddhist texts there first.
- Borobudur completed. The Sailendra dynasty completes Borobudur in central Java, a stepped stone mandala with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues.
- Battle of Bach Dang. Ngo Quyen plants iron-tipped stakes in the Bach Dang River and wrecks the Southern Han fleet at low tide, ending Chinese rule over Vietnam.
- Chola raid on Srivijaya. Rajendra I's fleet from south India sacks Palembang, Kedah and other Srivijayan ports, breaking Srivijaya's hold on the straits.
- Construction of Angkor Wat begins. Under Suryavarman II, who takes the throne this year, builders begin Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world, dedicated to Vishnu.
- Mongols invade Pagan. Yuan armies invade Burma after earlier clashes, and the Pagan kingdom breaks apart into rival successor states.
- Dai Viet defeats the Mongols. Tran Hung Dao repeats Ngo Quyen's stake trap at the Bach Dang River and destroys the Yuan fleet, ending the third Mongol invasion.
- Mongol expedition to Java. A Yuan fleet sent to punish Kertanegara is used by Raden Wijaya to crush his rivals and then driven out, and Majapahit is founded.
- Zheng He's fleets reach Malacca. The Ming admiral's treasure fleets begin calling at Malacca, and Ming backing helps the young sultanate resist Siam.
- Ayutthaya sacks Angkor. Siamese armies take Angkor, and the Khmer court soon moves south toward Phnom Penh.
- Dai Viet conquers Vijaya. Le Thanh Tong takes the Cham capital Vijaya, killing or capturing tens of thousands and reducing Champa to a southern remnant.
- Portuguese capture Malacca. Afonso de Albuquerque storms Malacca, giving Portugal control of the main gateway between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.
- Magellan killed at Mactan. Ferdinand Magellan's expedition reaches the Philippines, converts the ruler of Cebu and loses Magellan in battle with Lapulapu on Mactan.
- Manila galleon route opens. Andrés de Urdaneta finds the return route across the Pacific, opening the galleon trade that carried American silver to Asia for 250 years.
- Batavia founded. Jan Pieterszoon Coen destroys Jayakarta and builds Batavia, the headquarters of the Dutch East India Company in Asia.
- Fall of Ayutthaya. Konbaung armies sack and burn Ayutthaya after a long siege, ending a kingdom that had lasted over 400 years.
- Eruption of Tambora. Mount Tambora on Sumbawa produces the largest eruption in recorded history, killing tens of thousands and causing the year without a summer in 1816.
- Anglo-Dutch Treaty. Britain and the Netherlands divide the Malay world along the Strait of Malacca, roughly fixing the later border between Malaysia and Indonesia.
- Krakatoa erupts. The explosion of Krakatoa in the Sunda Strait and its tsunamis kill over 36,000 people, and the blast is heard nearly 5,000 km away.
- Philippine Revolution. The Katipunan secret society launches a revolt against Spain, and the execution of the writer Jose Rizal in December hardens the rebellion.
- Fall of Singapore. About 80,000 British, Indian and Australian troops surrender to Japan, and Japanese forces occupy all of Southeast Asia within months.
- Indonesia declares independence. Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta proclaim independence in Jakarta on 17 August, starting a four-year war against the returning Dutch.
- Battle of Dien Bien Phu. The Viet Minh under Vo Nguyen Giap besiege and capture the French base at Dien Bien Phu, ending French rule in Indochina.
- ASEAN founded. Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand sign the Bangkok Declaration, founding the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
- Fall of Saigon and Phnom Penh. The Khmer Rouge take Phnom Penh on 17 April and North Vietnamese tanks enter Saigon on 30 April, ending the Indochina wars.
- Indian Ocean tsunami. An earthquake off Sumatra sends tsunamis across the Indian Ocean, killing about 230,000 people, over 160,000 of them in Aceh.