Revisiting Southeast Asian History with Geology: Some Demographic Consequences of a Dangerous Environment

New geological research strengthens a growing sense of Indonesian history as one unusually exposed to the vagaries of nature. In periods of relative quiescence on the ring of fire, such as the twentieth century, a benign climate and fertile soils can produce rapid population growth and development. But rather than forming a constant, this pattern appears to have been interrupted by periodic disasters. Cooperation between scholars in different disciplines, and the pooling of data from around the Indian Ocean, offers a way forward in understanding the long-term pattern of the region and makes a huge difference to our understanding of the Southeast Asian past, and therefore likely future.