Colonialism and Religious Change in SE Asia

Of all the cultural changes brought about by European colonialism in SE Asia, religion was perhaps least affected. The Spanish and Portuguese before them tried to convert the SE Asians to Catholicism with mixed and limited success. Catholicism took hold in the Philippines, but failed to gain much of a following in the rest of the region (1). With the notable exception of Islam, the SE Asians would stick to their old beliefs, meaning Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and "indigenous" beliefs such as animism (2).

While the Portuguese, Spanish, and French showed great interest in converting the locals to Catholicism, the Dutch and Great Britain almost exclusively concerned themselves with economic control and did not interfere with the religious practices of the locals.

SE Asia became a center of religious rivalry between Christianity and Islam (3). While the Dutch did not consider religious conversion a goal (4), religion and conquest went hand in hand. The Dutch celebrated their colonial conquest victories as signs of the power of their Christian God (5). The Dutch had as a secondary mission the goal to stifle the spread of Islam and instead. The heavy-handed tactics of the Spanish in Sulu in the 1870s helped inspire Islamic groups to unite against the Europeans (6).

Ultimately, with the exception of the Philippines, European religions failed to catch on in SE Asia, though the presence of the Europeans set up religious conflict with Islam that resonates today.

I am sure that the believers in Christianity in SE Asia would argue that the colonial influence on religion was a positive one, but conversion at the point of a sword is anything but positive. Where the people had more of a choice, Christianity failed to spread. It was, perhaps, because of the very Un-Christian like brutal behavior of the European powers that led to a backlash against the natural adoption of Christianity in the region.



1. Clark D. Neher, Southeast Asia: Crossroads of the World (DeKalb, Illinois: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Northern Illinois University, 2004), 21.

2. Ibid.

3. Nicholas Tarling, The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia Volume One, Part Two. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 198.


4. Ibid, 185.

5. Ibid, 198.

6. Nicholas Tarling, The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia Volume Two, Part One. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 55.