Significant=Important, of consequence, etc.
WWI was responsible for the beginning "of the end" for colonies in Southwest Asia (more popularly called the "Middle East").
WWII was responsible for the beginning "of the end" for colonies in Southeast Asia.
Reason? Because the primary colonizers...France & Britain (to a lesser extent Holland, Germany, and Japan) were consumed by the world wars.
African colonies were totally different; they were based on race (apartheid).
WWII created the atomic age. This, combined with the collapse of the primary colonizers (France/UK) created a new world order...many many many new countries most being consumed by "growing pains" (read violence...(insurgencies, etc.). Significance? Many new nations and a global market (instead of the former select few...e.g. US & UK, and Europe...Japan...etc.).
'75.
Southeast Asia has a tropical climate year round. It is usually hot, humid, and has plenty of rain fall.
Ayutthaya
they forced their colonies to grow cash crops. on the island of java the dutch forced their colonies to grow and sell coffee. they caused rice production to fall. there was not enough for people to eat.
1. How could an economic crisis in Southeast Asia cause the price you pay for gasoline to <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> fall?
Like dominoes the entire region would fall.
They were poorly defended with the exception of Singapore and the Japanese had crippled the largest pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor
The term for this belief is the "domino theory." It was a Cold War foreign policy concept suggesting that if one country in a region fell to communism, the surrounding countries would also follow suit like a row of tumbling dominos.
Asia is the largest land mass of all the continents, thus, it would receive the most rainfall... at certain times of the year the typhoons and monsoons drop enormous amounts of rainfall on south and southeast Asia.
GEN Westmoreland stated to the president, that he could get the job done; but he'll need more men. Next year, more men. Next year, more men. Next year...to prevent communism from spreading in Southeast Asia
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Southeast Asia mainly has a hot and humid tropical climate throughout the year and a large amount of rainfall. The only major region in this area with a subtropical climate is Northern Vietnam which is cold in the winter. The only other smaller areas that fall outside this dominant climate are the mountainous northern region, which has a milder, drier climate and certain parts of the region that are deserts.