By 1960, all territories in the Southeastern Asian Peninsula were independent nations. The former French Indochina gave birth two four countries in the 1950s: Cambodia, Laos, North and South Vietnam. The two Vietnams had been split on ideological lines, the North led by a communist regime with ties to China and the USSR, the South led by a pro-Western regime. They were reunited in the 1970s after a brutal civil war where the major powers were deeply involved.
Burma had become independent in 1948. The various British colonies and protectorates of the Malay Peninsula were united as the independent Federation of Malaya in 1957.
The insular part of Southeast Asia, on the other hand, was still partly under the control of European powers. The Dutch East Indies had become the independent state of Indonesia in 1949, but this did not include the territories of Western New Guinea. East Timor was still under Portuguese control and the British still controlled three territories on the North shore of Borneo. Finally, Singapore was still a British colony. It would join Malaya along with the Northern Borneo territories of Sabah and Sarawak in 1963, but became independent in 1965. Finally, the Sultanate of Brunei on Borneo remained under British sovereignty until 1984.
Southeast Asia in 1960
