Ecology, History, and Development : A Perspective from Rural Southeast Asia

Abstract

The process by which different
 ecological conditions and historical trajectories interacted
 to create different social and cultural systems resulted in
 major differences in economic development performance within
 Southeast Asia. In the late 19th century, Indonesia, the
 Philippines, and Thailand commonly experienced
 vent-for-surplus development through exploitation of unused
 lands. Nevertheless, different agrarian structures were
 created. Indonesia s development was mainly based on the
 exploitation of tropical rain forest under Dutch
 colonialism. It resulted in the bifurcation of the rural
 sector between rice-farming peasant proprietors and large
 plantations for tropical export crops based on hired labor.
 In the Philippines, exploitation of the same resource base
 under Spanish rule resulted in pervasive landlessness among
 the rural population. Relatively homogeneous landowning
 peasants continued to dominate in Thailand, where delta
 plains that were suitable only for rice production formed
 the resource base for development. These different agrarian
 structures associated with different social value systems
 have accounted for differential development performance
 across the three economies in the recent three decades.