1.
While such friction could foster the localization of loyalties, it could equally serve as a stimulus for greater co-operation among groups as they sought to withstand attack by a predatory neighbor
•Certain sites such as the graves of ancestors might be designated as places where disputes could be settled by negotiation and discussion, with the decision sealed by an impressive oath.
•The binding medium in the creation of bonds between communities was always kinship(blood ties), usually formalized by a ceremony whereby two leaders accepted each other as brothers. The ancient custom by which two men could become brothers by together drinking each other's blood was legitimized in Theravada Buddhist society by the dhammathatlaw books.
Thus
•The cultural and geographic environment of Southeast Asia had a fundamental influence on the manner in which the polities of the region developed. Confederations of communities which saw themselves as equivalent were found in many parts of Southeast Asia
•Relations between leaders and followers mirrored the obligations of relatives.
•Like a parent, the overlord should give protection, assistance and occasionally a stern rebuke; in return, the vassal/child should return loyalty, respect and service.
•The ideal of personal and continuing reciprocity which grew out of concepts of kinship lay at the heart of the Southeast Asian polity, and it could well be argued that whatever 'structure' can be discerned in most early kingdoms was ultimately based on the bonds of family.
2.Southeast Asia during the Sixteenth Century
•During the 16th century, Spain and Portugal explored the world's seas and opened world-wide oceanic trade routes.
•Philip II of Spain, Dom Vasco da Gama, Ferdinand Magellan, Christopher Columbus
•the continuing expansion of international commerce and the consequent rise of new exchange centres.
•the island world -proliferation of trading centres-growing world demand for the region's products.
•the expanding market for fine spices encouraged Javanese, Malay and Chinese traders to deal directly with sources of supply in the eastern islands
The rise of new ports was further stimulated by the arrival of Europeans in search of spices and by the Portuguese defeat of Melaka in 1511 which saw the flight of Muslim trade to other centres.
•Pattani, on the east coast of the Malay peninsula, was a strategic meeting point for Malay and Chinese vessels
•The loosening of ties between overlord and vassal was equally apparent on Java's north coast, where a number of harbourswere well placed to benefit from participation in the spice trade and the diversion of Muslims from Melaka.
•Around 1527 that a coalition of these ports, led by Demak, defeated Majapahitand established their own independence
Ayutthaya had been able to take advantage of growing maritime commerce as a result of administrative reorganization under King Trailok(r. 1448-88). A new ministry, the Mahatthai, was established to supervise civil matters and to oversee foreign affairs and trade.
•In the early sixteenth century some Portuguese ranked Ayutthaya with the most powerful continental empires in Asia, and its prosperity was such that later Thai chroniclers regarded this period as a golden age.
•the rise of small but thriving exchange centresgave a new impulse towards the development of larger groupings, especially in the Philippines and eastern Indonesia. In these areas there had previously been little need or incentive to move towards the formation of 'kingdoms', but a more commercialized environment made increasingly obvious the value of some form of economic and political cooperation in order to strengthen links with wider trading networks
The economic climate of the early sixteenth century nurtured the movement towards political consolidation, a movement apparent not only among coastal ports, but among prominent interior centresas well.
•In the Tai-speaking world Ayutthaya may have dominated the Menambasin among LanNa with its important cities of ChiengmaiandChiengrai, while eastwards lay LanSang which included much of modern day Laos and was focused on two muangatLuangPrabangand Vientiane. But throughout Southeast Asia an equally important factor in the centralizing process was the reputation for religious patronage which normally accompanied the rise of a commercial centre.
•The leadership of Demakon Java's north coast, for example, was based not only on its trading prosperity but on its fame as a centrefor Islamic studies and protector of the venerated mosque associated with the first Muslim teachers on Java.