Book Review: Prince Charoon et al: South East Asia: The Peace Conferences of 1919–23 and their Aftermath. (Makers of the Modern World). By Andrew Dalby. pp. 208. London, Haus Publishing, 2010.

Andrew Dalby has written a lively history of the rise of independence movements in five South East Asian countries – Burma (Myanmar), the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Siam (Thailand) – in the early twentieth century. It tells the story of how several key events during this period affected these nations from Japan's victory over Russia in 1905, through the Russian Revolution and the Communist Manifesto, the First World War and the Paris Peace Conferences, to the aftermath of the Peace Treaties. The book is one of 32 titles in a series entitled, Makers of the Modern World: The Peace Conferences of 1919–23 and their aftermath, that attempts to describe the personalities, events and circumstances that were influenced by the Paris Peace Treaties. Dalby explains that for the five South East Asian countries the negotiations in Paris seemed marginal; however, he claims that US President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points and his speeches of freedom and self-determination had a direct impact on the early calls for independence in South East Asia.