Malay Archipelago

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Malay Archipelago

Malay Archipelago is the collective name for a large number of larger and smaller islands in Southeast Asia that fill the space between the Malay Peninsula and Australia . The Malay Archipelago includes the Great Sunda Islands , the Lesser Sunda Islands , the Moluccas and the islands of the Philippines .

About 300 million people live on the islands of the archipelago. The most populous island is Java .

Designations

Other names for the Malay Archipelago are in particular "Southeast Asian Archipelago" and "Indonesian Archipelago", more rarely "Indomalayan Archipelago". One also speaks of the Southeast Asian island world. Especially in English has recently often the "maritime Southeast Asia" ( Maritime Southeast Asia ) the speech.

The terms "East Indian Archipelago" or "East Indian Islands" as well as "Insulinde" (Germanized "Island India") or "Indian Archipelago" are outdated. They can be traced back to the fact that the region as well as back India was under the influence of Indian culture.

geography

Location and limits

New Guinea , which is already on the continental shelf of Australia, is usually not included in the Malay Archipelago. The fracture zone to the Australian continental mass, roughly along the southeastern Banda Sea , is considered the - geologically oriented - eastern border , so contradicting information can be found in the literature for some islands in this area. Together with the greater regions of Australia, New Zealand , Melanesia and New Guinea, they were grouped under the name Australasia , which is now considered unfavorable .

The archipelago and Australia form the border between the Indian and Pacific Oceans . In the west, the Malay Archipelago is closed off by Sumatra and its subsidiary islands, in the south by Java and the Lesser Sunda Islands, in the east by the Moluccas and in the northeast by the Philippines .

The land area of ​​the 20,000 islands is more than 2 million km². The largest island is Borneo (Kalimantan), in which the three states Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei are involved.

The islands of the Malay Archipelago are one of the most active volcanic areas on earth. The highest altitude is reached by the Kinabalu on North Borneo with 4101  m , the deepest sea depth in the Webertief on the border to the Australian land mass with 7440  m below sea level.

States

climate

The climate of the archipelago is tropical- hot due to its proximity to the equator , very rainy in the west and somewhat drier in the east at the transition to Australia.

fauna and Flora

Location of the coral triangle

The animal and plant world is extremely rich. In addition to ornamental plants, such as orchids and rafflesia , there are also numerous types of wood: definite hardwoods and also colored woods ( teak , rosewood , macassar ebony ). In addition to coconut palm , sago palm and rubber tree , useful plants are also indigo and aromatic plants .

The animal world with tigers , bears and monkeys in the western part is similar to that of the Southeast Asian region. To the east of the Wallace Line , animals from the Australian area such as marsupials are increasingly appearing , while monkeys are almost disappearing.

Large parts of the archipelago belong to the Coral Triangle , which has one of the highest biodiversity in the world.

history

At the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, Portuguese and later Spanish explorers were the first Europeans to explore the region. Rapidly a flourishing maritime trade developed with sandalwood , indigo and spices , which since the 17th century by the specially established trading companies - particularly the British and the Dutch East India Company in - monopolized was settled way. Large parts of the archipelago became Dutch colonies, the northern part of Borneo became British . The Philippines were initially Spanish but later went to the USA . Portuguese Timor remained under colonial control until 1975 as the last remnant of the possessions previously widely distributed in the archipelago.

During World War II , Japan took control of the entire archipelago as part of the Pacific War . Parts of it remained until the surrender of the empire in 1945. In the years that followed, Indonesia managed to free itself from Dutch colonial rule. The Republic of the South Moluccas , founded in 1950, was annexed by Indonesia until 1955. That happened to West New Guinea in 1963 and East Timor in 1976. Only East Timor was able to achieve independence from Indonesia in 2002. The Philippines gained independence in 1946. Parts of Malaysia on Borneo in 1965, Singapore in 1965 (from Malaysia) and Brunei in 1984 also became independent. With the exception of East Timor, all states of the archipelago are members of ASEAN .

See also