Indochina

The name was formed by Europeans (French) from the words “ India ” and “ China ”, since Europeans saw both Indian and Chinese features in the inhabitants of the peninsula ^[1] .

The area of ​​the peninsula is about 2 million km². Indochina is washed from the west by the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea of ​​the Indian Ocean , the Strait of Malacca , in the south and east - belonging to the Pacific Ocean by the South China Sea and its Gulf of Siam and Bakbo (Tonkin). The northern border of the peninsula is conditionally drawn from the Ganges and Brahmaputra deltas to the Hongha Delta . The southern tip of Indochina south of the Isthmus of Kra forms an elongated peninsula of Malacca .

The climate is subequatorial monsoon, equatorial on the Malacca Peninsula ^[2] . In the flat part of the peninsula, the average temperature does not fall below 20 ° C, in spring and summer it reaches 28-30 ° C. In the mountains, the temperature drops to 15 ° C and below.

The shores of the eastern part of Indochina are weakly dissected, unlike the western ones, where there are many bays and coastal islands. The landscapes of the peninsula are mostly mountainous, the directions of the ranges are mainly meridional and submeridional. In the western part of the Indochina peninsula is the Rakhine Ridge with its highest peak, Mount Victoria (3053 m). In the central part of the peninsula is located the Shan Highlands . Here begins the Tanentownji Range, ending on the Malacca Peninsula. In the eastern part of Indochina are the mountains of Cheongshon (Annam). The mountains of the Indochina peninsula are divided by vast lowlands, including the Irrawaddy , Menama , Cambodia , as well as the Korat plateau .

On the western windward slopes of the mountains, 2.5-5 thousand mm of precipitation falls annually, the most rainy season is summer. In the interior of the peninsula, less than 1 thousand mm of rain falls in places in a year. On the eastern coast of Indochina, the most rainy season is winter, here up to 2 thousand mm of precipitation falls annually. The largest lake on the peninsula is Lake Tonle Sap . The largest rivers of Indochina - Mekong , Irrawaddy , Saluin , Chauphray - are intensively used for irrigation.

The natural vegetation of the Indochina Peninsula is represented mainly by moist tropical forests of complex composition covering the windward slopes of the mountains. Along the swampy coasts, mangroves predominate. The plains of the peninsula are cultivated, the main agricultural crop is rice . On the peninsula of Malacca rubber farmers are cultivated.

The largest deposits of tin and tungsten are concentrated mainly on the Malacca Peninsula.

The states of Vietnam , Cambodia , Laos , Malaysia (most of it), Myanmar , Thailand , as well as a small part of Bangladesh are located on the Indochina peninsula ^{[3] [4]} .

• French Indochina

• Voeikov A.I. Indo-China // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Alekseeva N. N. INDOKITAI // Big Russian Encyclopedia . Volume 11. Moscow, 2008, p. 310.