East Indies

Dictionary: East In·dies (ĭn'dēz)

Indonesia. The term is sometimes used to refer to all of Southeast Asia. Historically, it referred chiefly to India.

East Indian East Indian adj. & n.

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A loosely defined region in southeast Asia comprising the countries of Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia. The islands of the East Indies extend for about 2800 mi (4500 km) from western Sumatra to New Guinea. They form part of a region of great geological and biological diversity.

Three broad geographic subdivisions can be made: (1) Sundaland, which comprises the shallow marine Sunda Shelf, peninsular southeast Asia, and the islands west of the Makassar and Lombok straits; (2) northern Australia, which includes the shallow marine Sahul and Arafura shelf areas and islands surrounding northern Australia and New Guinea; and (3) Wallacea, which comprises the islands south of the Philippines between Sundaland and northern Australia. Each division is an important geomorphological and biological region. The boundaries of Sundaland and northern Australia can be drawn at the 660-ft (200-m) bathymetric contour. Deep trenches with depths averaging 5 mi (8 km) border the margins of Sundaland with the Indian Ocean, and northern Australia with the Pacific Ocean. In contrast, within the area of Wallacea there are a number of deep troughs, and there are large variations in relief with volcanic and nonvolcanic mountains, typically up to 6600–9900 ft (2000–3000 m) in height, separated by deep marine basins underlain by extended continental and oceanic crust with depths of several kilometers. See also Asia; Australia.

At present, almost all the islands lie in a belt close to the Equator within the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). An equatorial climate prevails, with high rainfall and, except at higher elevations, high temperatures throughout the year. Diurnal variations are greater than the difference of mean temperatures of the hottest and coldest months. High relative humidity is normal in most lowland regions. Regionally, there are significant variations in rainfall, reflecting topography and position with respect to major landmasses and oceans, and each island's climate can be different. Borneo is the only large island within which there is broadly an ever-wet tropical climate. See also Climatology; Tropical meteorology.

The shallow seas with narrow deep-water passages of Wallacea mean that the region is particularly important for oceanic circulation. The Indonesian throughflow is a current to the Indian Ocean which transports large amounts of warm water from the Pacific, influencing sea surface temperatures, salinity, and rainfall. The magnitude and variations of this current are important controls on the thermohaline balance of the Pacific and Indian oceans, and perhaps on global thermohaline circulation. Most water passes from the North Pacific via the Celebes Sea, Makassar Strait, Flores Sea, and Banda Sea. See also Equatorial currents; Ocean circulation.

The East Indies are characterized by intensely active seismicity and volcanic activity. The correlation of seismicity, volcanicity, deep trenches, and strong negative gravity anomalies along the Sunda and Banda arcs was noted long before the formulation of the theory of plate tectonics; these are now known to be features characteristic of the subduction of oceanic lithosphere. The history of convergence of the Pacific, Indian-Australian, and Asian plates offers a broad explanation of the geological development and complexity of the region, but many small plates also need to be considered. However, the full details of the development of the region are still far from understood because of its size, relative inaccessibility, and the nature of the terrain. See also Continental drift; Geodynamics; Plate tectonics.

The entire region is immensely rich in natural resources, in particular petroleum, minerals, and timber. Petroleum has been produced in large quantities on land in Sumatra, Borneo, and the Bird's Head of New Guinea since the mid-twentieth century. Most oil and gas provinces are in Cenozoic basins, and in the late 1990s the East Indies provided about 5% of annual world oil production. In recent years, exploration and production has moved offshore and is increasingly moving into deeper waters. Many parts of the region have considerable potential for geothermal energy production. Mineral production has been historically important, with major discoveries of tin, gold, and nickel. The late-twentieth-century discovery of major mineral deposits in the northern New Guinea margin suggests that the young island arcs of the region will continue to be targets for exploration, and large deposits are likely to be found both on and off shore.

Columbia Encyclopedia: East Indies

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East Indies, name formerly used for the Malay Archipelago, but also more restrictively for Indonesia and more widely to include SE Asia. It once referred chiefly to India.

Wikipedia: Indies

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Indian subcontinent/Greater India Western New Guinea

You may be looking for West Indies, or Indie. For independent wrestling, see independent circuit.

The Indies is a term used to describe the lands of South and Southeast Asia,^[1] occupying all of the present Indian Union, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and also Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Brunei, Singapore, the Philippines, East Timor, Malaysia and Indonesia. In a more restricted sense, the Indies is used to refer to the islands of Southeastern Asia, especially the Malay Archipelago.^[1]^[2]. The name "indies" is derived from the river indus

Dutch-held colonies in the area were known as the Dutch East Indies before Indonesian independence, while Spanish-held colonies were known as the Spanish East Indies before the Philippines' independence. The East Indies may also include Indochina, the Philippine Islands, Brunei, Singapore and East Timor. It does not, however, include western New Guinea (West Papua), which is part of Melanesia.

The inhabitants of the East Indies are sometimes called East Indians, distinguishing them both from inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent, the Caribbean (which is also called the "West Indies"), and from the indigenous peoples of the Americas who are often called "American Indians." (In North America however, the term East Indian may be used for people originating in India living in North America.) However, the peoples of the East Indies comprise a wide variety of cultural diversity, and the inhabitants do not consider themselves as belonging to a single ethnic group. Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam are the most popular religions throughout the region, while Christianity, Sikhism, Jainism and various other traditional beliefs and practices are also prominent in some areas. The major languages in this area draw from a wide variety of language families, and should not be confused with the term Indic, which refers only to a group of Indo-European languages from South Asia.

The extensive East Indies are subdivided into two sections (from a European perspective), archaically called Hither India and Further India. The first is the former British India, the second is modern Southeast Asia or the ASEAN Bloc.

Regions of the East Indies are sometimes known by the colonial empire they once belonged to, hence, British East Indies refers to Malaysia, the Dutch East Indies means Indonesia, and Spanish East Indies means the Philippines.

Historically, the king of Abyssinia (modern Ethiopia) was identified with "Prester John of the Indies", since that part of the world was imagined to be one of "Three Indias".

History

Exploration of these regions by European powers first began in the late 15th century and early 16th century, led by the Portuguese explorers. These regions became important sources of trading goods, particularly cotton, indigo and spices after the establishment of European trading companies designed for the specific purpose: the British East India Company and Dutch East India Company, among others, in the 17th century.

The New World was initially thought to be the easternmost part of the Indies by explorer Christopher Columbus, who had grossly underestimated the westerly distance from Europe to Asia. Later, to avoid confusion, the New World came to be called the "West Indies", whilst the original Indies came to be called the "East Indies".

The racial designation East Indian was once primarily used to describe people of all of the East Indies, but more recently and wrongly, it has been used widely to refer to an Indian from India, in order to avoid the potential confusion from the term American Indian who were once simply referred to as Indians (see the Native American name controversy for more information).

References

^ ^a ^b Oxford Dictionary of English 2e, Oxford University Press, 2003, East Indies/East India
^ Britannica.com "East Indies"

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	Spice Islands
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	Dutch Colonies (history 1450-1789)