Malay Archipelago
World map highlighting Malay Archipelago | |
| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | Maritime Southeast Asia, Melanesia |
| Total islands | 25,000 |
| Major islands | Java, Luzon, Borneo, Mindanao, New Guinea, Sulawesi, Sumatra |
| Area | 2,870,000 km2 (1,110,000 sq mi) |
| Largest settlement | Bandar Seri Begawan |
| Largest settlement | Dili |
| Largest settlement | Jakarta |
| Largest settlement | Kota Kinabalu |
| Largest settlement | Port Moresby |
| Largest settlement | Quezon City |
| Demographics | |
| Population | 380,000,000 |
| Ethnic groups | Predominantly Austronesians, with minorities of Negritoes, Papuans, Melanesians, Overseas Chinese, Arab descendants, and Overseas Indians |
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", "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, and the Philippines. The term is largely synonymous with Maritime Southeast Asia.