Customer Reviews

The Mekong: Turbulent Past, Uncertain Future

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These are the reflections of a man who had studied this powerful river for the last 40 years.

The river ran through six countries and had seen civilizations emerge and disappear. It had also seen revolution, war, pollution, and destruction. Countries in the upper Mekong liked to dam the river to harness electricity while people in the lower part of the river need its water for agriculture and for its fish. Building dams in the upper Mekong could affect the ecology in the lower Mekong delta. The balance of these antagonistic goals could only be solved if the governments involved were more considerate to each other.

No one could tell the history of the Mekong better than the author.

This book covers the history of the Mekong River, of southeast Asia, and the adjacent nations. It's history is the history of the various peoples of the region and of French and American involvement in the area.

This is the story of the rise of the native civilizations of Malaysian and / or Indonesian origin and their displacement by newcomers from the north who vie with one another (and with Europeans) for control of the region. The early inhabitants of Cambodia were replaced by Khymer immigrants who established the state of Chenla and founded Angkor Thom in the 400s AD. They, along with the Cham people of Champa (present-day Central Vietnam) became the major regional powers. The Thais, a people formerly subjugated by the Khymer rose to power in the north and, in 1431, drove the Khymer from Angkor Then, in the 1500s, the Portuguese reach the region and begin exploring.

In the late 1600s, Vietnamese colonists begin settling in the territory of the declining Champa state (around present-day Ho Chi Minh) and push into Cambodia. Vietnam, along with the older powers of Siam and Burma vie for control of Laos and Cambodia while the Vietnamese people slowly consolidate control of the Mekong Delta in the 1700s and, with the help of the French, the entirety of this greatly expanded Vietnam is united under the Nguyen emperors. Fifty-odd years later, Napoleon III invades the South, defeats the Vietnamese emperor forces and gains possession of the South (Cochinchina).

Over the next two decades, the French push further north and, by 1887, extended their control over the entirety of Vietnam. France also extend its control over most of Cambodia and Laos.

Civil unrest develops as a small number of native Vietnamese control most of the arable land and bleed the peasants. These conditions, exacerbated by the Great Depression, helped expand the fledgling Indonchina Communist Party in the 1930s and, amid growing unrest due to famine and economic conditions and Communist-led uprisings, the French crack-down.

The Japanese temporarily replace the French and French efforts to reinstate their control result in the 1st Indochine War - which France loses. North Vietnam is controlled by Communists and South Vietnam comes under the control of an anti-communist nationalist, Ngo Dinh Diem. The United States presents a plan to develop the Mekong Delta region to create economic progress and undermine support for Communist there, but the plan dies when the 2nd Indochine (or Vietnam)War begins.

After the United States exits the region, hundreds of thousands of southern Vietnames face harsh conditions at "re-education camps" and northern Vietnamese are brought in to police the South, including Ho Chi Minh (still defiantly called Saigon by its natives). The North's former allies in the South were quickly disbanded as the "northern-dominated regime" took control while the problems of the Mekong Delta remain.

A dispassionate and informative look at the history of the region and the various stages of invaders from near and far. Excellent for understanding the conditions which led to the infamous conflict and the spread of Communism in southeast Asia.

Man has been infatuated with the Mekong for nearly 2,000 years. This fascination arose with the first traders, be they Indic, Roman or Chinese, who discovered the river emptying into the South China Sea.

The river is old and exotic and just as it flows from cold Tibet, through China, and the flood-plains of South East Asia, the river flows through history.

Osborne does and excellect job capturing the feeling of the Mekong River and its subsequent effect on history. Osborne attacks his work chronologically, beginning in the proto-history of mainland South East Asia during the emergence of a major trading center known as Oc Eo located at the Mekong Delta. Evidence of the importance of Oc Eo as an economic sea port is apparent by the archeological finding of artifacts originating from Rome, China, as well as the Indian sub-continent.

Throughout the next six centuries this area, which the Chinese named Funan, continued to grow and develop. However, due to conflict and changes in economic patterns Funan fell to the wayside and a new era arose, that of Chenla.

Chela was split between two kingdoms, one based in present day Cambodia, and the other possibly in Laos. Nevertheless, both kingdoms were located on the muddy banks of the Mekong. From these two kingdomsemerged one of the greatest empires to have graced South East Asia, that of Angkor.

One of the major reasons that Angkor was able to develop to such greatness was do to an anomaly of nature. During the rainy season, the flood waters, coupled with the snow melt originating in the high Himalayas, caused the Mekong to force surplus water up it's sister river the Tonle Sap. Due to this massive induction of water, the Tonle Sap acctually reverses course, trapping millions of fish in the Great Lake, on the banks of which Angkor was located.

These fish, which even today, teem the lake, provide the majority of protein to teh Cambodian people. With a surplus of food created by the enormous fish supply, and multi-harvent rice agriculture, the Angkor civilization was able to pursue other endeavors, namely trade with the kingdoms located in Thailand and Vietnam. However, like all great empires, Angkor eventually fell. Being constantly encroached upon by both Thai and Vietnamese armies, the Angkorian court migrated south along the Tonle Sap river until arriving at the location of modern Phnom Penh, the meeting point of the two major rivers, the Mekong and the Tonle Sap.

The next 500 years saw the major exploration and colonization of South East Asia by Western powers. During the 16th century most exploration was conducted by the Portugese and Spanish missionaries. Eventually, more European players became aware of the wealth of region. Dutch traders began to explore the Mekong in hopes of finding a trade route with China. Although great effort was exudued, no trade route was found. The river became impassable do rapids found in the mountainous regions of Southern Laos.

In 1858, France conducted and invasion of Vietnam, and ultimately captured Saigon nine years later. With a firm foothold in South East Asia, a driving time of exploration began.

Osborne discusses a number of French expeditions in detail, most notably the Frech Mekong Expedition, 1866-68. While providing a solid historical description of events, Osborne still offers great detail of the river itself, as well as the indigenous peoples who populated it's banks. I found it amazing that the descriptions furnished by Osborne describing the Mekong of 150 years ago, were nearly identical to the scenes I witnessed in 2004.

More than just a travelogue, Dr. Osborne depicts 2,000 years of history, but seems to concentrate most on the years from 1946 to present. He examinesthe Japanese invasion of the region, the causes for the rise of communism in South East Asia, and the resultant Indochinese wars and their postliminiary effects upon the river.

One interesting point in Osborne's work was in his discussion of how the Mekong forms a cohesivness between nations. The Mekong, at one point or another, serves as a national border for five natinos adn crosses the soverign territory of a sixth. All of these nations bordering the river are in dire need of energy and investment, two major ingredients towards development. The Mekong being a potentially grand source for both.

For example, in Yunnan Province in Western China, major hudroelectric dams are being developed with the intention of selling surplus energy to it's neighbors. However, the ecological repurcussions stemming from these projects, which will effect those nations downstream, are only recently coming to light, and the end results of said projects will not be forth coming for a number of years.

With each nation seeking the wealth generated by the damming of the river, the outlook of the Mekong looks bleak. Aside from the ecological damage caused by the building of the dams, the are will shoulder the burden of a social and cultural cost. Numerous people, in some cases numbering in the hundreds of thousands, become displaced as these dams are created and the course of the river is altered. There has not been a feasible solution offered to deal with these problems of displacement. The ensuing effects upon the culture of South East Asia, a culture intrinsically linked to the river, has yet to be explored in great detail.

It is my contention that as development continues, the traditional ways of life found along the Mekong will become dilluted. It seems as the though the cost of development, which is a necessity, will be paid for using the river as currency. Indeed, the river is caught in a grim Catch-22. I has always given life to the land and the people, but now in order for this life to continue, the river may have to give its life completly.

The jacket copy on this book claims that it covers events "spanning two thousand years... beginning with the rise of... Oc Eo, to the glory of the Cambodian Empire in the first millennium..." This is true to the extent that all years up to 1511 are covered in the first 30 pages, and the next twenty pages take us up to 1860. For coverage of early Southeast Asian history, I recommend the Lonely Planet guides as much more detailed, and more useful once you're there. (On the causes of the fall of the empire at Angkor, Osborne says "No single, overriding cause for this event can be identified, nor would it be sensible to try and find one." My Lonely Planet guide discussed the patterns of overbuilding, mentioned the deliterious effect of the corveé, and talked about issues with water supply, at least.) If your interest is in Southeast Asia since the French came, then this is a fairly absorbing and well-written book.

The book was great! It came in great condition and the timing was perfect.

I read this book out of interest in South-East Asian culture which from the back sounds like what it addresses. However I have read few books that were more Euro-centric then this one. Very little of this book goes into information about the river or the people predating the French. I was also disappointed that almost every source that the author quotes is a minority, catholic, exile, political elite, European or mixed Chinese. The book is rather slow and the author seems to wish the return of the French and their "Charm". I wouldn't recommend this reading this book unless you're studying French colonialism.

I Read The Mekong as part of an intensive preperation for a trip to Southeast Asia this summer. It is a decent book with some interesting information about exploration in Cambodia and Laos.

The book starts off a little slow but gets much better as it tells the stories of explorers from Europe attempting to navigate the Mekong River. I had never heard of some of these guys and there stories were very interesting.

However, I was surprized that the stories were mostly about Laos and Cambodia and not much was written about Vietnam.

I was also surprized at how light the chapters dealing with the war in IndoChina and their aftermaths were. He never goes into deep detail about anything. What he writes about is interesting but it never gets into anything beyond the surface. I understand this is not a book about the war, but on the otherhand he does not reveal enough of his own experiences to make this fully a travel book.

I feel the book gets muddled again towards the end while discussing the impacts of building dams along the Mekong. The author repeats himself quite a bit at this point. I also felt his conclusions were a little weak, again not really revealing anything

The bottom line on the book is this: it is interesting in parts and is decent enough reading. But I do not recommend dropping everything and reading it. It is not horrible, but at the same time it is not THE book on Southeast Asia.

you like adventure ,you like exploration you like travel ? this book is for you .