OPPapers.com

Empires

FUNAN
Funan (Old Khmer Bnam, Modern Khmer Phnom (i.e., "mountain"), Vietnamese Phù Nam) was a pre-Angkor Indianized kingdom located around the Mekong delta. It is believed to have been established in the first century C.E. by a Mon-Khmer people, although extensive human settlement in the region may have gone back as far as the 4th century B.C.E. Though regarded by Chinese envoys as a single unified empire, Funan may have been a collection of city-states that sometimes warred with one another and at other times constituted a political unity. At its height, Funan and all its principalities covered much of mainland Southeast Asia, including within its scope the territory of modern day Cambodia and Southern Vietnam, as well as parts of Laos, Thailand and Myanmar, and extending into the Malay Peninsula. Little is known about Funan, except that it was a powerful trading state, as evidenced by the discovery of Roman, Chinese, and Indian goods during archaeological excavations at the ancient port of Oc Eo in southern Vietnam. The capital, initially located at Vyadhapura ("City of the Hunter") near the modern Cambodian town of Phumi Banam in the Prey Veng Province, may have been moved to Oc Eo at a later time.
The Funanese Empire reached its greatest extent under the rule of Fan Shih-man in the early third century C.E., extending as far south as Malaysia and as far west as Burma. The Funanese established a strong system of mercantilism and commercial monopolies that would become a pattern for empires in the region. Fan Shih-man expanded the fleet and improved the Funanese bureaucracy, creating a quasi-feudal pattern that left local customs and identities largely intact, particularly in the empire's farther reaches.

Srivijaya
Srivijaya, Sriwijaya, Sri Boja or Shri Vijaya was an ancient Malay[2] kingdom on the island of Sumatra which influenced much of the Malay Archipelago. Records of its beginning are scarce while estimations range from the 3rd to 5th centuries CE,...