The liberal security experiment in Southeast Asia

Abstract

The aggressive colonisation of the Malay Peninsula which occurred in the late nineteenth century has long been the main focus of study for students of British imperialism in Southeast Asia. During the 53 years from the founding of Singapore in 1819 to the British exerting direct control over the native states in the Malay Peninsula in 1872, British involvement in Southeast Asia represented a liberal security experiment. Published in 1878, Peter Benson Maxwell's 124-page pamphlet, Our Malay Conquests was the first attempt at writing a history of the British occupation of the Malay Peninsula 1868-1876. British colonial policy in Southeast Asia was an early attempt to demonstrate the success of liberal ideas of security, whereby support for trade would prevent war and colonial conquest. In 1873, the author also spoke against Dutch colonial aggression towards the state of Aceh and presented a view of international relations in Southeast Asia that emphasised individual rights to trade and open relations between states. Show more