The rush to develop new cities and nations in the 20 century left Little attention saw the fragile environment and traditional means of building to resist earthquake and flood.
THE EVOLUTION OF FooDs
The Columbian exchange should in the Pacific be named the Magellan maize, tobacco, exchange, in that the crucial new crops from the Americas chili, papaya entered Asia through the route opened up by the Spanish between Mexico and Manila. Irrigated rice complexes had developed sufficient surpluses by then to supply the large trading cities and spice-exporting regions. When the seventeenth century crisis forced them toward greater self-sufficiency, the New World crops were fortunately available to assist. By the mid-seventeenth century maize was being planted in many hillier or drier regions of Southeast Asia as a supplement or replacement for rice. In the eastern Archipelago especially those places hitherto dependent on imported rice or on sago, maize became a primary staple in the eighteenth century. One index of Java's grow ing impoverishment was the increasing acreage devoted to maize, from 18% of non-irrigated agricultural land in 1815 to 36% in 1880 and 50% in 1910 rice was always preferred, maize (like tapioca) kept people alive, with Although about the same number of calories produced per hectare of
Visitors from temperate climates were usually enthusiastic about the abundance of fruits of Southeast Asia, the mango, durian, mangosteen, rambutan and jackfruit being long established and a pleasant surprise to visitors, while there was also no shortage of citrus options. Papaya, pineapple, and soursop made their entry from the Americas in the seventeenth century, papaya being the quickest to establish itself within the staple diet through its hardiness and the portability of its seeds. Widely available coconuts and other fruits of the palm provided vital additional calories and nutrients and enriched loca cuisines. In a few areas of the eastern islands they became the primary source of food. Essentially grown as a standby by householders, fruits were not commercialized into large-scale production until the twentieth centu
Vegetables had been less developed until the settlement of Chinese increased the range, with items such as kangkong and spinach entering the local cuisine soybeans were also introduced from China by the sixteenth century, and in the form of both soy sauce and soybean cakes (tofu) took a place in the diet of many Southeast Asians. The most remarkable adaptation occurred in Java by the eighteenth century, to turn soy by fermentation into chewy compact cakes (tempe), which had some of the functions of meat in both food and protein content.
The commercialization of rice production in the Mainland deltas from the late nineteenth century provided the means to sustain the plantation sector, as well as city-dwellers, military personnel and miners. Rice was a complete food capable of long storage, and thus ideal for such purposes. The plantation and mining areas of Malaya, Bangka, and East Sumatra became, with the cities, the great importers of commercial rice.