Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia that is geographically situated east of the Indian subcontinent, south of China, and northwest of Australia. It is bordered to the north by East Asia, to the west by South Asia and the Bay of Bengal, to the east by Oceania and the Pacific Ocean, and to the south by Australia and the Indian Ocean. The region consists of eleven countries that reach from eastern India to China, and is generally divided into two separate geographic regions: Mainland Southeast Asia, or Indochina, situated on the Indochinese peninsula, and Maritime Southeast Asia, which is made up of thousands of islands.

The countries that make up Southeast Asia are Brunei, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The region is culturally diverse, with peoples speaking many unrelated languages employing a number of alphabets. Several sects of Buddhism, Islam, and other religions, such as Hinduism, also have hundreds of thousands of followers.

The entire region is affected by the monsoon winds, which blow regularly from the northwest and then reverse to blow from the southeast. These wind systems bring fairly predictable rainy seasons, and before steamships were invented, these wind systems also enabled traders from outside the region to arrive and leave at regular intervals. Because of this reliable wind pattern, Southeast Asia became a meeting place for trade between India and China, the two great markets of early Asia.

In summary, Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia that is geographically situated east of the Indian subcontinent, south of China, and northwest of Australia. It consists of eleven countries that are culturally diverse and is generally divided into two separate geographic regions: Mainland Southeast Asia and Maritime Southeast Asia.