Page 220 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V
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warfare—southeast asia 1997
Gender and Social objective was booty and political control and not terri-
Implications torial ambition or diffusion of civilization. One sought to
Before foreign intervention and the introduction of control an enemy capital and its nearby communities to
firearms to Southeast Asian societies in the fifteenth and secure material and human resources rather than to
sixteenth centuries, headhunting was a prevalent form of change individuals’ ways of life.
conflict both on the mainland and in archipelagic South- Between 1407 and 1427, Ming China defeated Viet-
east Asia. Headhunting raids allowed male warriors to nam and occupied the country, including its capital,
prove their manhood and indicate preparation for mar- Hanoi. The Vietnamese studied the advanced military
riage. Failure in these raids was considered a disgrace and techniques and the bureaucracy and government of the
damaged men’s social status.Armed conflict was carried Ming. Eventually the Vietnamese drove out the Chinese,
out in the context of ceremonies to honor and glorify but as a result of Ming influence, the Vietnamese came to
ancestors and spirits. Banging of drums and the use of believe—as the Ming Chinese did—that war should be
women and children in the occupation of fortifications to used to civilize barbarous cultures.The Vietnamese used
aid and encourage male warriors reinforced gender rela- force against their southern and northern neighbors, the
tionships. Even after guns became available, armies in Chams and Tai. Exploration of new lands and their
Burma and Bali relied on small numbers of warriors annexation were other justifications for warfare that the
armed with primitive weapons in order to gain access to Vietnamese and other Southeast Asian civilizations
spiritual forces and keep honor intact. Numerous soci- slowly adopted.
eties in Bali and Java considered warfare as an expression The tactical use of terrain in combat was critical in
of society and mysticism. waging conflict. Vietnamese armies used the terrain to
Religion was a justification for warfare as well. Bud- achieve success on the battlefield during their wars
dhism was active in Southeast Asian societies, and Bud- against the Chams and Tai. In campaigns against the
dhist leaders waged war whenever there was a threat Chams, Vietnamese commanders relied on amphibious
from competing religions or whenever they felt that the assaults and regular troop movements on flat coastal
religion’s influence was declining. areas. Against the Tai, who occupied valleys and moun-
tain regions,Vietnamese armies conducted quick strikes
Interpretations and flanking movements in order to avoid becoming
of Warfare trapped and isolated in the mountains.
European nations that established a commercial presence
in Southeast Asia during the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- Foreign Influence
turies viewed warfare differently from the indigenous and Methods of War
inhabitants. Europeans adhered to the Prussian general European and Chinese governments occupied and dom-
Carl von Clausewitz’s view that war was a tool to achieve inated parts of Southeast Asia as far back as the fifteenth
political objectives and not an end in itself.This differed century. They brought with them new weapons that
somewhat from, for example, the view of war held in Dai altered indigenous warfare. Firearms, although not com-
Viet (Vietnam). The Vietnamese considered war as a mon, were available by the fifteenth century from both
means to an end, but the end was the attainment of mate- sources and allowed Southeast Asian societies allied to
rial goods and war captives for human labor purposes, the Europeans or Chinese to subdue their less well-
not territorial ambition. Similarly, on the islands of Bali equipped neighbors. Bows, arrows, lances, blowpipes,
and Java, prisoners of war were used as slaves and and animals such as horses and elephants were gradually
exported between 1650 and 1830.This was a common replaced with cannons and muskets. Kingdoms in
feature of warfare in most Southeast Asian countries.The Malaysia and Indonesia retained traditional weapons