1. Ports, telegraphs and railways at the new globalization era in Southeast Asia -- 2. The French railway to China: The Red River railway -- 3. The Dutch East India railway in Java -- 4. The Philippine railway: a link with Hong Kong -- 5. Conclusion.

Except for the Philippines between 1896 and 1939, Southeast Asia was never part of the century-long East Asian industrial catching up until after World War II. Before the 1950s, Southeast Asian manufacturing hardly grew at all: while commodity export processing did grow fast, import-competing...