Monsoon Kingdoms: Pre-Modern Southeast Asian History (also ASIAN 3397) (GHB) (HST-AS, EC-SAP, EC-SEAP) (HPE, HAN)
Tuesday and Thursday: 10:10-11:25 plus Independent Research
Professor Eric Tagliacozzo
This course examines Southeast Asia’s history from earliest times up until the mid-eighteenth century. The genesis of traditional kingdoms, the role of monumental architecture (such as Angkor in Cambodia and Borobodur in Indonesia), and the forging of maritime trade links across the region are all covered. Religion – both indigenous to Southeast Asia and the great imports of Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam – are also surveyed in the various pre-modern polities that dotted Southeast Asia. This course questions the region’s early connections with China, India, and Arabia, and asks what is indigenous about Southeast Asia’s history, and what has been borrowed over the centuries. Open to undergraduates, both major and non-majors in History, and to graduates, though with separate requirements.
