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| Maritime Asia | |
|---|---|
| Name | Maritime Asia |
| Subdivisions | Southeast Asia, South Asia, East Asia |
Maritime Asia is the region of Asia characterized by extensive coastlines, archipelagos, and strategic sea lanes that link the Indian Ocean, South China Sea, East China Sea, and Pacific Ocean. It encompasses peninsulas, islands, and littoral states whose histories are shaped by seafaring, trade, migration, and naval contests involving actors such as Srivijaya, Majapahit, Ayyubid dynasty, Chola dynasty, and Qing dynasty. Contemporary Maritime Asia includes states and territories such as Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Brunei, Singapore, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
Maritime Asia's geography spans the Malay Archipelago, the Andaman Sea, the Bay of Bengal, the Gulf of Thailand, the Strait of Malacca, the Luzon Strait, the Sunda Shelf, and the Riau Islands, connecting chokepoints like the Strait of Malacca, the Karimata Strait, and the Taiwan Strait. Major island groups include the Philippine Islands, the Greater Sunda Islands, the Lesser Sunda Islands, the Japanese archipelago, and the Ryukyu Islands, lying adjacent to continental shelves such as the South China Sea continental shelf and abyssal plains like the Sunda Trench and Nankai Trough. Jurisdictional seas are defined under instruments like the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea affecting exclusive economic zone claims by states including Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand, Brunei, China, Japan, South Korea, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.
Maritime Asia's premodern networks linked empires and polities such as Srivijaya, Majapahit, Chola dynasty, Sailendra dynasty, Khmer Empire, Ayutthaya Kingdom, Pagan Kingdom, Tokugawa shogunate, and Ming dynasty through routes frequented by merchants from Tang dynasty and Song dynasty China, Caliphate traders, Persian Empire intermediaries, Austronesian peoples, and Malay sailors. Commodities circulated along the Maritime Silk Road and included spices, silk, ceramics, sandalwood, pepper, precious metals, and porcelain, traded at entrepôts like Srivijaya (Palembang), Melaka Sultanate, Port of Malacca, Aden, Calicut, Cochin, Quanzhou, Canton (Guangzhou), Hanoi, and Ayutthaya. European incursions by Portuguese Empire, Dutch East India Company, British East India Company, Spanish Empire, and French colonial empire reshaped circuits, prompting conflicts such as the Battle of Manila Bay and the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 and institutions like the VOC establishing outposts in Batavia and Malacca.
Maritime Asia is home to maritime cultures such as Austronesian peoples, Javanese, Bajau people, Moken people, Iban people, Sama-Bajau, Bugis people, Cham people, Malay people, Ilocano people, Visayan peoples, Sinhalese, Tamil people, Bengali people, Okinawans, Ryukyuan people, Korean people, and Chinese people who developed seafaring technologies like the jong (ship), dhow, proa, junk (ship), and lorcha and navigational knowledge including Austronesian navigation and star navigation. Religious and cultural exchanges involved Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam in Southeast Asia, Christianity in the Philippines, Confucianism, Taoism, and syncretic forms manifested in festivals celebrated in Bali, Borobudur, Banten, Malacca City, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki.
Naval power has been projected by actors ranging from historic fleets of the Chola dynasty and Song dynasty to modern navies such as the People's Liberation Army Navy, Indian Navy, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, Republic of Korea Navy, Royal Thai Navy, Royal Malaysian Navy, Indonesian Navy, Philippine Navy, and United States Pacific Fleet. Diplomatic frameworks include the ASEAN dialogues, the South China Sea arbitration (Philippines v. China), the Seven Seas Treaty-era pacts, and strategic partnerships like the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue and India–ASEAN relations, with incidents such as the Scarborough Shoal standoff, the Senkaku Islands dispute, and confrontations around the Paracel Islands shaping maritime diplomacy.
Economic hubs include ports and cities such as Singapore, Port of Shanghai, Port of Hong Kong, Port of Busan, Port of Yokohama, Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan, Port of Guangzhou, Port of Kaohsiung, Port of Colombo, Port of Colombo (Sri Lanka), Port Klang, Tanjung Priok, Manila, Ho Chi Minh City, Laem Chabang, Phnom Penh river port, Chittagong, Karachi, Cochin (Kochi), and Mumbai Port. Sectors include shipping dominated by companies like Maersk Line, CMA CGM, COSCO, Evergreen Marine, and ONE (Ocean Network Express), ports governed by authorities such as the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, Port of Felixstowe-style management, and logistics nodes linked by projects like the Belt and Road Initiative, India–Myanmar–Thailand Trilateral Highway, and the Trans-Asian Railway.
Marine ecosystems encompass the Coral Triangle, Sunda Shelf mangroves, Sulu-Sulawesi Marine Ecoregion, Gulf of Mannar, Andaman and Nicobar Islands biodiversity, and migratory corridors for species like blue whale, humpback whale, sea turtles, giant clam, and tuna (Thunnus). Threats include overfishing involving fleets from Taiwan, China, Japan, and South Korea; pollution linked to tanker incidents such as Amoco Cadiz-type spills; habitat loss affecting mangrove forests and seagrass meadows; and coral bleaching events documented near Great Barrier Reef-adjacent studies and in Philippine Sea surveys. Conservation initiatives arise from bodies like IUCN, regional agreements such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, and national programs in Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Australia (for adjacent regions), and Japan.
Contemporary security concerns involve freedom of navigation operations, maritime law enforcement by coast guards such as the Japan Coast Guard, Indian Coast Guard, Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, Philippine Coast Guard, and China Coast Guard, and counter-piracy efforts in the Gulf of Aden and Strait of Malacca supported by coalitions including Combined Task Force 151 and the European Union Naval Force. Governance frameworks include the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, arbitration under the Permanent Court of Arbitration, regional institutions like ASEAN Regional Forum, the East Asia Summit, and bilateral mechanisms such as China–Japan–South Korea trilateral summit and India–ASEAN Summit. Emerging issues include maritime cyber security, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, sea level rise impacts discussed in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports, and infrastructure investments like Port of Gwadar and Kolkata Port shaping strategic competition.
Category:Geography of Asia