Asia: What's in a name?

For much of the 19th and early 20th Century how we defined regions and areas of the world was a by-product of European colonialism and European conceptions of their own enlightened superiority and 'divine' mission to raise up the non-White peoples of the world. ... Initially the area of operations for SEAC included India, Burma, Sri Lanka, Malaya and the Indonesian island of Sumatra with offensive operations in Thailand (Siam) and French Indochina. ...