View source for Place:Malay Archipelago

{{Short description|Archipelago between mainland Southeast Asia and Australia}}

{{Infobox islands
|name = Malay Archipelago
|image_name = Location Malay Archipelago.png
|image_caption = World map highlighting Malay Archipelago
|location = [[Place:Maritime Southeast Asia|Maritime Southeast Asia]], [[Place:Melanesia|Melanesia]]
|coordinates =
|area_km2 = 2,870,000
|total_islands = 25,000
|major_islands = Java, Luzon, Borneo, Mindanao, New Guinea, Sulawesi, Sumatra
|highest_mount =
|elevation_m =
|country1 = {{wipe|Philippines}}
|country1_largest_city = [[Place:Quezon City|Quezon City]]
|country2 = Indonesia
|country2_largest_city = [[Place:Jakarta|Jakarta]]
|country3 = Papua New Guinea
|country3_largest_city = [[Place:Port Moresby|Port Moresby]]
|country4 = Brunei
|country4_largest_city = [[Place:Bandar Seri Begawan|Bandar Seri Begawan]]
|country5 = East Timor
|country5_largest_city = [[Place:Dili|Dili]]|
|country6 = Malaysia
|country6_largest_city = Kota Kinabalu
|country7 = [[Place:Singapore|Singapore]]
|country7_largest_city = Singapore City
|country8 = Christmas Island
|country8_largest_city = [[Place:Flying Fish Cove|Flying Fish Cove]]
|density_km2 =
|population = 380,000,000
|population_footnotes = <ref name=unpop>{{Cite journal | url=https://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/wpp2006/WPP2006_Highlights_rev.pdf | title=World Population Prospects, Table A.2| version=2006 revision | pages=37–42  | publisher=United Nations | author=Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division | year=2006 | access-date= 2007-06-30}}</ref>
|ethnic_groups = Predominantly Austronesians, with minorities of Negritoes, Papuans, Melanesians, Overseas Chinese, Arab descendants, and Overseas Indians
}}

The '''Malay Archipelago''' ([[Social:Indonesian language|Indonesian]]/[[Social:Malaysian Malay|Malay]]: {{lang|ms|Kepulauan Melayu}}, {{lang-tgl|Kapuluang Malayo}}) also called '''Insulindia''' or the '''Indo-Australian Archipelago''' is the [[Earth:Archipelago|archipelago]] between [[Place:Mainland Southeast Asia|Mainland Southeast Asia]] and {{wipe|Australia}}. It has also been called the "Malay world," "[[Place:Nusantara (archipelago)|Nusantara]]", "[[Place:East Indies|East Indies]]", and other names over time. The name was taken from the 19th-century European concept of a Malay race, later based on the distribution of [[Social:Austronesian languages|Austronesian languages]].

Situated between the [[Earth:Indian Ocean|Indian]] and [[Earth:Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] oceans, the archipelago of over 25,000 [[Earth:Island|island]]s and islets is the largest archipelago by area and fifth by number of islands in the [[Philosophy:World|world]]. It includes Brunei, East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the {{wipe|Philippines}}, and [[Place:Singapore|Singapore]]<ref name= Britannica>''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]''.  2006.  Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.</ref><ref>[https://www.britannica.com/place/Malay-Archipelago Encyclopaedia Britannica – Malay Archipelago]</ref> The term is largely synonymous with [[Place:Maritime Southeast Asia|Maritime Southeast Asia]].<ref name=Worldworx>"[http://www.worldworx.tv/regional-information/asia/maritime-southeast-asia/index.htm Maritime Southeast Asia] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613061856/http://www.worldworx.tv/regional-information/asia/maritime-southeast-asia/index.htm |date=2007-06-13 }}." ''Worldworx Travel''.  Accessed 26 May 2009.</ref>

== Etymology and terminology ==
The term "Malay Archipelago" was derived from the archaic European supposition of a "Malay race" (a culturally-similar non-Oceanian subset of the Austronesian peoples),<ref name=Wallace>{{Cite book  | last = Wallace  | first = Alfred Russel  |  title = The Malay Archipelago | publisher = Macmillan and Co  | year = 1869  | location = London  | page = 1 }}</ref><!--Wallace uses the term, the 'Malay race,' but does not say it was anachronistic.--> a racial concept proposed by [[Earth:Europe|Europe]]an explorers based on their observations of the influence of the Srivijaya empire, which was based on the island of Sumatra.<ref>Reid, Anthony. [http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-2067345_ITM ''Understanding Melayu (Malay) as a Source of Diverse Modern Identities. Origins of Malayness''], Cambridge University Press, 2001. Retrieved on March 2, 2009.</ref> However, the Malay Archipelago does not include all islands inhabited by the Malay race such as {{wipe|Madagascar}} and Taiwan, and it includes the islands inhabited by Melanesians such as Maluku Islands and New Guinea.
[[File:Sea Safari VII, Komodo, 2016 (04).jpg|thumb|left|[[Engineering:Pinisi|Pinisi]] sailing ship exploring Komodo island, part of Lesser Sunda Islands]]
The 19th-century naturalist [[Biography:Alfred Russel Wallace|Alfred Wallace]] used the term "Malay Archipelago" as the title of his influential book documenting his studies in the region. Wallace also referred to the area as the "Indian Archipelago" and the "Indo-Australian" Archipelago.<ref>{{cite web
 |last=Wallace
 |first=Alfred Russel
 |title=On the Physical Geography of the Malay Archipelago
 |url=http://web2.wku.edu/~smithch/wallace/S078.htm
 |year=1863
 |access-date=30 November 2009
 |url-status=dead
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100117084201/http://web2.wku.edu/~smithch/wallace/S078.htm
 |archive-date=17 January 2010
}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book | last = Wallace | first = Alfred Russel |  title = The Malay Archipelago | publisher = Macmillan and Co | year = 1869 | location = London | page = 2 }}</ref> He included within the region the Solomon Islands and the [[Biology:Malay Peninsula|Malay Peninsula]] due to physiographic similarities.<ref name=Wallace /> As Wallace noted,<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.papuaweb.org/dlib/bk/wallace/race.html|chapter=40: The Races of Man in the Malay Archipelago|website=papuaweb.org|title=The Malay Archipelago|date=1869|first=Alfred Russel|last=Wallace|author-link=Alfred Russel Wallace|access-date=2009-08-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016195922/http://www.papuaweb.org/dlib/bk/wallace/race.html|archive-date=2012-10-16|url-status=dead}}
<blockquote>"If we draw a line ... commencing along the western coast of Gilolo, through the island of Bouru, and curving round the west end of Mores, then bending back by Sandalwood Island to take in Rotti, we shall divide the Archipelago into two portions, the races of which have strongly marked distinctive peculiarities. This line will separate the Malayan and all the Asiatic races, from the Papuans and all that inhabit the Pacific; and though along the line of junction intermigration and commixture have taken place, yet the division is on the whole almost as well defined and strongly contrasted, as is the corresponding zoological division of the Archipelago, into an Indo-Malayan and Austro-Malayan region."</blockquote></ref> there are arguments for excluding Papua New Guinea for cultural and geographical reasons: Papua New Guinea is culturally quite different from the other countries in the region, and it is geologically not part of the continent of [[Earth:Asia|Asia]], as the islands of the Sunda Shelf are (see [[Earth:Australia (continent)|Australia]]).

The archipelago was called the "[[Place:East Indies|East Indies]]"<ref>OED first edition ''A geographical term, including Hindostan, Further India, and the islands beyond'' with first found usage 1598</ref> from the late 16th century and throughout the European colonial era. It is still sometimes referred to as such,<ref name=Britannica /> but broader usages of the "East Indies" term had included [[Place:Mainland Southeast Asia|Indochina]] and the [[Earth:Indian subcontinent|Indian subcontinent]]. The area is called "[[Place:Nusantara (archipelago)|Nusantara]]" in the [[Social:Indonesian language|Indonesian language]].<ref>{{Cite book
|last=Shaffer
|first=Lynda
|title=Maritime Southeast Asia to 1500
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X58tqsLz0dIC&q=Maritime+Southeast+Asia+to+1500
|year=1996
|publisher=M.E. Sharpe
|page=xi
|isbn=1-56324-144-7}}</ref>

===Insulindia===
'''Insulindia''' is a somewhat archaic geographical term<ref>T. Barbour. Reptiles in the East and West Indies- and Some Digression. The American Naturalist, Vol. 57, No. 649 (Mar. - Apr., 1923), pp. 125-128</ref><ref>Review: The Tongking Delta and the Annamite House. Geographical Review, Vol. 27, No. 3 (Jul., 1937), pp. 519-520</ref><ref>A. Aiyappan. Pottery Braziers of Mohenjo-Daro. Man, Vol. 39, (May, 1939), pp. 71-72</ref> for [[Place:Maritime Southeast Asia|Maritime Southeast Asia]], sometimes extending as far as [[Place:Australasia|Australasia]].<ref>Donald F. Lach, Edwin J. Van Kley (eds.) Asia in the making of Europe: Volume III, A century of advance. University of Chicago Press, 1993. {{ISBN|978-0-226-46757-3}} pp. 1301-1396</ref> More common in [[Social:Portuguese language|Portuguese]] and [[Social:Spanish language|Spanish]],<ref>Portugal. Embaixada (Indonesia).  Sukarno and Portugal. Embaixada de Portugal em Jacarta, 2002 pp. 61-62</ref><ref>António Augusto Mendes Correa. Timor português: contribuïções para o seu estudo antropológico. Volume 1 of Memórias : Série antropológica e etnológica, Portugal Junta de Investigações do Ultramar. Imprensa Nacional de Lisboa, 1944</ref><ref>Jules Sion, Luis Villanueva López-Moreno (tr.).  Asia monzónica: India, Indochina, Insulindia. Volume 13 of Geografía Universal. Montaner y Simón, 1948</ref> it is also sometimes used in [[Art history|art history]] or [[Social:Anthropology|anthropology]] to describe the interface zone between the cultures of [[Earth:Oceania|Oceania]] and [[Place:Southeast Asia|Southeast Asia]].<ref>[http://www.quaibranly.fr/en/collections/permanent-collections/oceania/insulindia.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718111519/http://www.quaibranly.fr/en/collections/permanent-collections/oceania/insulindia.html |date=2011-07-18 }} Insulindia: musée du quai Branly, France</ref>

Insulindia is used as a [[Earth:Geopolitics|geopolitical]] term in academic discussions of the former European colonial possessions within Maritime Southeast Asia, especially Dutch East Indies and Portuguese East Indies ("''Portuguese Insulindia''")<ref>Insulindia Portuguea. Divisao de Publicacoes e Biblioteca Agencia Geral das Colonias. Clamagirand (-Renard), Brigitte. 1971</ref> much as former French colonial possessions in Southeast Asia are still termed French Indochina.<ref>Christian Pelras . [http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/arch_0044-8613_1978_num_16_1_1414?_Prescripts_Search_tabs1=standard&]  Indonesian Studies in France: Retrospect, Situation and Prospects.  Archipel, 1978, Volume 16, Issue 16, pp. 7-20</ref> It is also used to describe and locate the Chinese cultural diaspora (the "''insulindian Chinese''")<ref>Leo Suryadinata. The Ethnic Chinese in the ASEAN states: bibliographical essays. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1989, {{ISBN|978-981-3035-11-9}} p. 54</ref> across the islands of Southeast Asia.<ref>Claudine Salmon. Cultural links between insulindian Chinese and Fujian as reflected in two late 17th-century epigraphs. Archipel, 2007, Issue 73, pp. 167-194</ref>

== Geography ==
[[File:Philippines Bohol Virgin Island.JPG|thumb|One of the majority of uninhabited islands of the {{wipe|Philippines}}.]]

The land and sea area of the archipelago exceeds 2 million km<sup>2</sup>.<ref name="area" /> The more than 25,000 islands of the archipelago consist of many smaller archipelagoes.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20071022221129/http://www.gov.ph/aboutphil/general.asp Philippines : General Information]. Government of the Philippines. Retrieved 2009-11-06; {{cite press release|publisher=[[Organization:International Monetary Fund|International Monetary Fund]] |url=http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2006/01/data/dbcoutm.cfm?SD=2005&ED=2005&R1=1&R2=1&CS=3&SS=2&OS=C&DD=0&OUT=1&C=536&S=PPPWGT-PPPPC&RequestTimeout=120&CMP=0&x=45&y=5 |access-date=2006-10-05 |title=World Economic Outlook Database |date=April 2006 }}; {{cite web|title=Indonesia Regions |publisher=Indonesia Business Directory |url=http://www.indonext.com/Regions/ |access-date=2007-04-24 }}</ref>

The major island groupings in the Indonesian Archipelago include the Maluku Islands, New Guinea, and the Sunda Islands. The Sunda Islands comprise two island groups: the Greater Sunda Islands and the Lesser Sunda Islands.

The major island groupings in the Philippine Archipelago include Luzon, Mindanao, and the Visayan Islands.

The seven largest islands are New Guinea, Borneo, Sumatra, Sulawesi and Java in Indonesia; and Luzon and Mindanao in the Philippines.

Geologically, the archipelago is one of the most active [[Earth:Volcano|volcanic]] regions in the world. Producing many volcanoes especially in Java, Sumatra and Lesser Sunda Islands region where most volcanoes over {{convert|3000|m|0|abbr=on}} are situated. [[Earth:Tectonic uplift|Tectonic uplift]]s also produce large mountains, including the highest in Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysia, with a height of 4,095.2 m and Puncak Jaya on Papua, Indonesia at {{convert|4884|m|0|abbr=on}}. Other high mountains in the archipelago include Puncak Mandala, Indonesia at {{convert|4760|m|0|abbr=on}} and Puncak Trikora, Indonesia, at {{convert|4750|m|0|abbr=on}}.

The climate throughout the archipelago is tropical, owing to its position on the [[Astronomy:Equator|Equator]].

=== Biogeography ===
[[File:Línea de Wallace.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|Wallace Line between Australian and Southeast Asian fauna. The deep water of the Lombok Strait between the islands of Bali and Lombok formed a water barrier even when lower sea levels linked the now-separated islands and landmasses on either side.]]

Wallace used the term ''Malay Archipelago'' as the title of his influential book documenting his studies in the region. He proposed what would come to be known as the "Wallace Line", a boundary that separated the flora and fauna of Asia and Australia. The ice age boundary was formed by the deep water straits between Borneo and Sulawesi; and through the Lombok Strait between [[Place:Bali|Bali]] and Lombok. This is now considered the western border of the [[Biology:Wallacea|Wallacea]] transition zone between the [[Biology:Biogeographic realm|zoogeographical regions]] of Asia and Australia. The zone has a mixture of species of Asian and Australian origin, and its own endemic species.

== Demography ==

===Population===
Over 380 million people live in the region, with the 10 most populated islands being the following:

# Java (141,000,000)
# Sumatra (50,180,000)
# Luzon (48,520,774)
# Mindanao (21,902,000)
# Borneo (21,258,000)
# Sulawesi (21,258,000)
# New Guinea (11,306,940)
# Singapore (5,638,700)
# Negros (4,414,131)
# Panay (4,302,634)

===Language and religion===
The people living there are predominantly from Austronesian sub-groupings and correspondingly speak western Malayo-Polynesian languages. The main religions in this region are [[Religion:Islam|Islam]] (62%), [[Religion:Christianity|Christianity]] (33%), as well as [[Religion:Buddhism|Buddhism]], [[Religion:Hinduism|Hinduism]], [[Philosophy:Taoism|Taoism]] and traditional folk religions.

===Culture===
Culturally, the region is often seen{{By whom|date=June 2011}} as part of "Farther India" or [[Social:Greater India|Greater India]]—the Coedes' ''Indianized states of Southeast Asia'' refers to it as "Island Southeast Asia".<ref>Coedes, G. (1968) ''The Indianized states of Southeast Asia'' Edited by Walter F. Vella. Translated by Susan Brown Cowing.Canberra : Australian National University Press. Introduction... ''The geographic area here called ''Farther India'' consists of Indonesia, or island Southeast Asia....''</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Earth:Archipelago|Archipelago]]
* British Indian Ocean Territory
* [[Place:East Indies|East Indies]]
* Greater Indonesia
* [[Place:Maritime Southeast Asia|Maritime Southeast Asia]]
* [[Place:Nusantara (archipelago)|Nusantara]]
* Indonesian Archipelago
* [[Biology:Malay Peninsula|Malay Peninsula]]
* Malayness
* Maphilindo

== Notes ==
{{reflist|2}}

== External links ==
* [[Biography:Alfred Russel Wallace|Wallace, Alfred Russel]]. ''The Malay Archipelago'', [http://www.authorama.com/book/malay-archipelago-1.html Volume I], [http://www.authorama.com/book/malay-archipelago-2.html, Volume II].
* [http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/42850/rec/1 Art of Island Southeast Asia], full-text of an exhibition catalog from the Metropolitan Museum of Art

{{Regions of the world}}


{{Coord|2|56|S|107|55|E|type:isle_source:kolossus-ruwiki|display=title}}

[[Category:Regions of Oceania]]

{{Sourceattribution|Malay Archipelago}}