East Indies, in its widest sense, refers to southeastern Asia, including India, Myanmar (formerly Burma), Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam; the islands around the Malay Archipelago; and the Philippines. In a narrower sense, the term East Indies is used to mean only the islands of the Malay Archipelago. The Republic of Indonesia, formerly the Netherlands Indies, forms part of this island group.
The term Indies, or Ind, was first used in the 1400’s. Christopher Columbus thought he was finding a short route to the rich Indies when he landed in America. He therefore called the islands the Caribbean Indies. Later, these islands were named the West Indies and the Pacific islands were called the East Indies, in order to distinguish the two groups.
See also Southeast Asia.
