Malay Archipelago
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The Malay Archipelago is a vast chain of islands stretching between mainland Southeast Asia and Australia, encompassing thousands of islands across a huge oceanic region. It matters because of its enormous geographic scale, rich biodiversity, and strategic location that has shaped trade, culture, and history across one of the world's most important maritime zones.
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The Malay Archipelago is the archipelago between Mainland Southeast Asia and Australia, and is also called Insulindia or the Indo-Australian Archipelago. The name was taken from the 19th-century European concept of a Malay race, later based on the distribution of Austronesian languages. It has also been called the "Malay world", "Nusantara", and the "East Indies" over time. The name is controversial in Indonesia due to its ethnic connotations and colonial undertones, which can overshadow the country's diverse cultures.
Situated between the Indian and Pacific oceans, the archipelago of over 25,000 islands and islets is the largest archipelago by area and fifth by number of islands in the world. It includes Brunei, East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia (specifically East Malaysia), Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, and Singapore. The term is largely synonymous with Maritime Southeast Asia.