Editing History of Southeast Asia (section)

===Early relations with China===
[[File:Silk route copy.jpg|thumb|Major trading routes in the pre-colonial [[Eastern Hemisphere]]]]
The earliest attested trading contacts in Southeast Asia were with the Chinese [[Shang dynasty]] ({{Circa|1600–1046{{nbsp}}BCE}}), when [[cowry]] [[Shell money|shells]] served as currency. During the [[Zhou dynasty]] (1050{{En dash}}771&nbsp;BCE), various natural products, such as [[ivory]], [[rhinoceros]] horn, [[tortoise]] shells, pearls and birds' feathers found their way to [[Luoyang]], the Zhou capital. Although current knowledge about port localities and shipping lanes is very limited, it is assumed that most of this exchange took place on land routes, and only a small percentage was shipped "on coastal vessels crewed by [[Malays (ethnic group)|Malay]] and [[Yue Chinese|Yue]] traders".<ref name="shi" />

Military conquests during the [[Han dynasty]] (202&nbsp;BCE{{En dash}}220&nbsp;CE) brought a number of foreign peoples within the Chinese empire when the [[Imperial Chinese tributary system]] began to evolve under Han rule. This tributary system was based on the Chinese worldview that had developed under the Shang dynasty, in which China was deemed the center and apogee of culture and civilization, the "Middle kingdom" ([[Mandarin Chinese|Mandarin]]: 中国, Zhōngguó), surrounded by several layers of increasingly [[Barbarian|barbarous]] peoples.<ref name="middle kingdom">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kUn07EepBZ8C&pg=PA408|title= The Middle Kingdom: A Survey of the Geography, Government, Literature, Social Life, Arts and History of the Chinese Empire and Its Inhabitants |author= Samuel Wells Williams |page=408|publisher= Routledge |year= 2006 |isbn=978-0710311672}}</ref> Contact with Southeast Asia steadily increased by the end of the Han period.<ref name="shi" />

Between the 2nd-century BCE and 15th-century CE, the [[Maritime Silk Road]] flourished, connecting [[China]], [[Southeast Asia]], the [[Indian subcontinent]], the [[Arabian Peninsula]], [[Somalia]] and all the way to [[Egypt]] and [[Europe]].<ref>{{cite web| title = Maritime Silk Road| work = SEAArch| url = https://www.southeastasianarchaeology.com/tag/maritime-silk-route/| access-date = 25 February 2020| archive-date = 5 January 2014| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140105043328/http://www.southeastasianarchaeology.com/tag/maritime-silk-route/| url-status = dead}}</ref> Despite its association with China in recent centuries, the Maritime Silk Road was primarily established and operated by [[Austronesian peoples|Austronesian]] sailors in Southeast Asia and by [[Persian people|Persian]] and [[Arab people|Arab]] traders in the [[Arabian Sea]].<ref name="Guan"/>

The Maritime Silk Road developed from the earlier [[Austronesian peoples|Austronesian]] [[spice trade]] networks of [[Islander Southeast Asians]] with [[Sri Lanka]] and [[Southern India]] (established 1000{{En dash}}600&nbsp;BCE), as well as the [[jade]] industry trade in ''[[lingling-o]]'' artifacts from the [[Philippines]] in the [[South China Sea]] ({{Circa|500{{nbsp}}BCE}}).<ref name="Bellina">{{cite book|first1=Bérénice|last1= Bellina|editor1-first=John|editor1-last=Guy|title =Lost Kingdoms of Early Southeast Asia: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture 5th to 8th century|chapter =Southeast Asia and the Early Maritime Silk Road|publisher =Yale University Press|year =2014|pages=22–25|isbn =9781588395245|url =https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263007720}}</ref><ref name="Mahdi1999"/> For most of its history, Austronesian [[thalassocracies]] controlled the flow of the Maritime Silk Road, especially the [[polities]] around the [[Strait]] of [[Malacca Strait|Malacca]] and [[Bangka Strait|Bangka]], the [[Malay Peninsula]] and the [[Mekong Delta]] (although Chinese records misidentified these kingdoms as being "Indian" due to the [[Indianization of Southeast Asia|Indianization]] of these regions).<ref name="Guan">{{cite journal |last1=Guan |first1=Kwa Chong |title=The Maritime Silk Road: History of an Idea |journal=NSC Working Paper |date=2016 |issue=23 |pages=1–30 |url=https://www.iseas.edu.sg/images/pdf/nscwps23.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.iseas.edu.sg/images/pdf/nscwps23.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live}}</ref> Prior to the 10th century, the route was primarily used by Southeast Asian traders, although [[Tamil people|Tamil]] and [[Persian people|Persian]] traders also sailed them.<ref name="Guan"/> The route was influential in the early spread of [[Hinduism]] and [[Buddhism]] to the East.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sen |first1=Tansen |title=Maritime Southeast Asia Between South Asia and China to the Sixteenth Century |journal=TRaNS: Trans-Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia |date=3 February 2014 |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=31–59 |doi=10.1017/trn.2013.15|s2cid=140665305 }}</ref>

China later built its own fleets starting from the [[Song dynasty]] in the 10th century, participating directly in the trade route up until the end of the [[Colonial Era]] and the collapse of the [[Qing dynasty]].<ref name="Guan"/>