Untangling History: Duration of Colonization in Southeast Asian Countries

According to a study by Bastian Becker published in Our World in Data in 2023, there is information on how long European countries such as Belgium, England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Italy, or combinations thereof, have colonized a region.

According to his findings, Cape Verde holds the record for the longest period of colonization in the world, with a total of 514 years. In Southeast Asia, Indonesia leads the way with 340 years, ranking 14th in the world. Timor-Leste and the Philippines follow with 334 years each, followed by Malaysia with 207 years. On the other hand, Thailand is the only country in Southeast Asia that has never experienced colonization.

In processing the data, Bastian Becker compiled the information into a data set. This data was collected from reputable secondary sources that recorded the duration and extent of European colonial empires.

The data collection process relied on secondary sources in this discipline rather than directly from primary sources. This approach allows the dataset to reflect the accumulation of knowledge in the field and helps researchers make better decisions when dealing with the various historical data available.

For each colonized country, the data record the total accumulation of years of colonial rule during the specified time period. If a country was never colonized, the recorded value is 0.