This course provides a broad overview of the colonial period in Southeast Asian history, starting with the growing Western presence in the region in the early nineteenth century and concluding with the impact of the Second World War and its immediate aftermath upon the emerging independent nation-states that make up present-day Southeast Asia. It uses a comparative framework in order to highlight the similarities and differences in the colonial experiences of the various peoples and polities of the region, while also considering to what extent we can speak of a cohesive regional history for this period.