[[image:Indies.PNG|right|thumb|300px|legend: #F60 Indies legend: Indian subcontinent/Greater India legend: Western New Guinea ]]

The Indies is a term used, in a wider sense, to describe the lands of South and Southeast Asia,Oxford Dictionary of English 2e, Oxford University Press, 2003, East Indies/East India occupying all of the present Indian Union, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and also Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Brunei, Singapore, the Philippines, East Timor, Malaysia and Indonesia. In a more restricted sense, the Indies is used to refer to the islands of Southeastern Asia, especially the Malay Archipelago.Oxford Dictionary of English 2e, Oxford University Press, 2003, "East Indies/East India" Dutch-held colonies in the area were known as the Dutch East Indies before Indonesian independence.

The East Indies may also include Indochina, the Philippine Islands, Brunei, Singapore and East Timor. It does not, however, include western New Guinea (West Papua), which is part of Melanesia.

The inhabitants of the East Indies are sometimes called East Indians, distinguishing them both from inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent, the Caribbean (which is also called the "West Indies"), and from the indigenous peoples of the Americas who are often called "American Indians." (In North America however, the term East Indian may be used for people originating India living in North America.) However, the peoples of the East Indies comprise a wide variety of cultural diversity, and the inhabitants do not consider themselves as belonging to a single ethnic group. Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam are the most popular religions throughout the region, while Christianity, Sikhism, Jainism and various other traditional beliefs and practices are also prominent in some areas. The major languages in this area draw from a wide variety of language families, and should not be confused with the term Indic, which refers only to a group of Indo-European languages from South Asia.

The extensive East Indies are subdivided into two sections (from a European perspective), archaically called Hither India and Further India. The first is the former British India, the second is modern Southeast Asia or the ASEAN Bloc.

Regions of the East Indies are sometimes known by the colonial empire they once belonged to, hence, British East Indies refers to Malaysia, the Dutch East Indies means Indonesia, and Spanish East Indies means the Philippines.

History

Exploration of these regions by European powers first began in the late 15th century and early 16th century, led by the Portuguese explorers. These regions became important sources of trading goods, particularly cotton, indigo and spices after the establishment of European trading companies designed for the specific purpose: the British East India Company and Dutch East India Company, among others, in the 17th century.