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The Indies or East Indies (or East India) is a term used to describe lands of South and South-East Asia, occupying all of the former British India, the present Indian Union, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Maldives, and also Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, which was last called the Dutch East Indies prior to independence.

The East Indies also include Iranian Baluchistan, French Indochina, the Philippine Islands, Brunei, SingaporeThe Republic of Singapore ( Chinese , pinyin: Xinjiapo Gonghegu Malay Republik Singapura Tamil , Cingkappur Kudiyarasu , is an island city-state in Southeast Asia, at latitude 1°17'35"N longitude 103°51'20"E, situated on the southern tip of Malay Peninsul and Portuguese TimorTimor is an island at the south of the Malay Archipelago, divided between the independent state of East Timor, and West Timor, part of the Indonesian province of Nusa Tenggara Timur. The name is a variant of timur Malay for "east"; it is so called because. It, however, does not include Dutch New Guinea, which is a part of MelanesiaMelanesia (from Greek "black islands") is a region extending from the west Pacific to the Arafura Sea, north and north-east of Australia. The term was first used by Jules Dumont d'Urville in 1832 to denote an ethnic and geographical grouping of islands di.

The inhabitants of the East Indies are called East Indians, especially in the Caribbean. Anthropogists also call them Indic.

The extensive East Indies is sub-divided into two sections (from European perspective), called Hither India and Further India. The first is the former British India, the second is modern South-East Asia or the ASEAN Bloc.

These lands began to be explored by EuropeanFor the band of the same name, see Europe (band . Europe is a continent forming the westermost part of the Eurasian supercontinent. Europe is bounded to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Mediterranean Se powers in the 16th century15th century 16th century 17th century more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. Events Beginning of the " Little Ice Age" a cooling period that resulted in lower crop yi and became important sources of trade goods, particularly cotton, indigo and spices after the establishment of European trading companies designed for the specific purpose: the British East India CompanyThe British East India Company popularly known as John Company was founded by a Royal Charter of Queen Elizabeth I on December 31, 1600. Over the next 250 years, it became one of the most powerful commercial enterprises of its time. The British East India and Dutch East India CompanyThe Dutch East India Company Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC in Dutch, literally "United East Indies Company") was established on March 20, 1602, when the government of the Netherlands granted it a monopoly to carry out Dutch colonial activities, among others, in the 17th century.

The New World was initially thought to be the eastern-most part of the Indies by explorer Christopher Columbus, who had grossly underestimated the westerly distance from Europe to Asia. Later, to avoid confusion, the New World came to be called the West Indies whilst the original Indies came to be called the "East Indies".

The racial designation East Indian once primarily used describe people of all of the East Indies but more recently it has been used as a more precise version of Indian, to avoid the potential confusion as to whether one means people from the country of India or Native Americans. Asian Indian is a similar alternative term.

East Indian is also an ethnic or sub-ethnic group, based in and around the city of Bombay or Mumbai. These people, part of the original Konkani ethnic group, had been evangelized under Portuguese auspices, and had partly Lusitanized. Later the area was conquered by the Maratha Empire, and the Marathi language forced on the people. Under the English government, they were known as Bombay Portuguese, but, when immigrant from Portuguese-ruled Goa began to enter Bombay, in order to distinguish themselves from the Goans (whom the English also called Portuguese), they renamed themselves as "East Indians" purportedly after the British East India Company, in order to demonstrate their loyalty to the British, and as locals of Bombay as distinguished from the Goans.