Editing ASEAN (section)

===Background===
{{Main|History of Southeast Asia}}
Besides their close geographic proximity, political scholars consider [[Southeast Asia|Southeast Asian]] nations a cultural crossroads between [[East Asia]] and [[South Asia]], located at critical junctions of the [[South China Sea]] as well as the [[Indian Ocean]], and as a result received much influence from [[Arabic|Islamic]] and [[Persians|Persian]] influences prior to the [[Europe|European]] colonial ages.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Reid |first=Anthony |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2TRPCAAAQBAJ&dq=history+of+southeast+asia&pg=PA13 |title=A History of Southeast Asia: Critical Crossroads |date=2015-03-03 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-118-51293-7 |page=13}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Muhammad Ismail Marcinkowski |title=Persian Religious and Cultural Influences in Siam/Thailand and Maritime Southeast Asia in Historical Perspective: A Plea for a Concerted Interdisciplinary Approach |url=https://thesiamsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2000/03/JSS_088_0q_Marcinkowski_PersianReligiousCulturalInfluences.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200718124016/https://thesiamsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2000/03/JSS_088_0q_Marcinkowski_PersianReligiousCulturalInfluences.pdf |archive-date=18 July 2020 |access-date=28 July 2022 |website=Thesiamsociety.org}}</ref>

Since around 100 BCE, the Southeast Asian archipelago occupied a central position at the crossroads of the [[Indian Ocean]] and the [[South China Sea]] trading routes, which stimulated the economy and the influx of ideas.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Reid |first=Anthony |date=February 1990 |title=An 'Age of Commerce' in Southeast Asian History |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/modern-asian-studies/article/abs/an-age-of-commerce-in-southeast-asian-history/E09ED31B7CDB61464CA851C688C83A28 |journal=Modern Asian Studies |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=1–30 |doi=10.1017/S0026749X00001153 |issn=1469-8099 |s2cid=128602618|url-access=subscription }}</ref> This included the introduction of [[Abugida|abugida scripts]] to Southeast Asia as well as the [[Chữ Nôm|Chinese script]] to [[Literary Chinese in Vietnam|Vietnam]]. Besides various indigenous scripts, various abugida [[Brahmic scripts]] were widespread in both continental and insular Southeast Asia. Historically, scripts such as [[Pallava script|Pallava]], [[Kawi script|Kawi]] (from ancient [[Tamil language|Tamil]] script) and [[Rencong script|Rencong]] or ''Surat Ulu'' were used to write [[Old Malay]], until they were replaced by [[Jawi script|Jawi]] during [[Islam|Islamic]] [[missionary]] missions in the [[Malay Archipelago]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fadeli |first=Muhammad Al-Amin Mohd |title=Malay History & Culture |date=2019 |display-authors=etal |via=Academia}}</ref>

[[European colonial|European colonialism]] influenced most ASEAN countries, including [[French Indochina]] (present-day [[Vietnam]], [[Laos]] & [[Cambodia]]), [[British rule in Burma|British Burma]], [[British Malaya|Malaya]] and [[British Borneo|Borneo]] (present-day [[Myanmar]], [[Malaysia]] & [[Singapore]], and [[Brunei]]), [[Dutch East Indies]] (present day [[Indonesia]]), [[Spanish East Indies]] (present-day [[Philippines]] and various other colonies), and [[Portuguese Timor]] (present-day [[Timor-Leste]]), with only [[Thailand]] (then [[Siam]]) not formed from a prior European colony.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Acharya |first=Amitav |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1355/9789814311250/html |title=The Making of Southeast Asia |date=2012-11-22 |publisher=ISEAS Publishing |isbn=978-981-4311-25-0 |doi=10.1355/9789814311250}}</ref> Siam served as the buffer state, sandwiched between British Burma and French Indochina, but its kings had to contend with [[Bowring Treaty|unequal treaties]] as well as British and French political interference and territorial losses after the [[Franco-Siamese conflict of 1893]] and the [[Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909]].<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1909 |title=Treaty between Great Britain and Siam |journal=The American Journal of International Law |volume=3 |issue=4 |pages=297–304 |doi=10.2307/2212641 |issn=0002-9300 |jstor=2212641 |s2cid=246007886}}</ref> Under European colonization, Southeast Asian nations were introduced to European religions and technologies, as well as the [[Latin alphabet]].

The [[Empire of Japan|Japanese Empire]], in the vein of the [[Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere]] concept, sought to unite and create a pan-Asian identity against [[Western imperialism in Asia|Western colonial occupation]], but Japan's alliance with the [[Axis powers]] in [[World War II]] soured relations between many colonies of Europe and the United States.{{Citation needed|reason=States overarching claim without reasonable sources|date=December 2022}} Defeat of Imperial Japan eventuated in [[Decolonization of Asia|decolonization movements]] throughout Southeast Asia, resulting in the independent ASEAN states seen today.