Southeast Asia Map Quiz: Find All 11 Countries

How to play the Southeast Asia map quiz

The map shows Southeast Asia from Myanmar in the west to the Philippines and Timor-Leste in the east, with southern China, India, Australia and Papua New Guinea gray for reference.

• Click the map. The quiz names a country ("Click Laos") and you click it.
• Type the name. One country lights up; type its name. "Burma" works for Myanmar and "East Timor" for Timor-Leste.
• Multiple choice. Pick from four names; the wrong answers are usually neighbors.
• Drag labels. Drag all 11 names onto the map, or tap a name and then the country.

Practice is untimed and brings misses back, the Quiz is timed with three tries per country, and Challenge is a 60-second streak game.

Mainland and maritime Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia splits neatly in two, and that split is the best way to learn it.

Malaysia is in both: part of it is on the Malay Peninsula, attached to the mainland, and part is on the island of Borneo.

Countries and capitals

Rivers, seas and straits

• The Mekong begins on the Tibetan Plateau and flows about 4,900 km through or along China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, ending in a huge delta in southern Vietnam. It forms much of the border between Laos and Thailand.
• The Irrawaddy runs north to south through the middle of Myanmar.
• The Strait of Malacca, between the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian island of Sumatra, is one of the busiest shipping lanes on Earth. Singapore sits at its southern end.
• Borneo, the third-largest island in the world, is shared by three countries: Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.
• The South China Sea lies between Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei. Several countries claim parts of it, including small island groups, and the map doesn't take sides.

Volcanoes and the Ring of Fire

Maritime Southeast Asia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates collide. Indonesia has more active volcanoes than any other country, about 130. The 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora on the island of Sumbawa was the largest in recorded history; it cooled the whole planet and caused the "year without a summer" in 1816. Krakatoa, between Java and Sumatra, erupted with a blast heard thousands of kilometers away in 1883. In the Philippines, Mount Pinatubo's 1991 eruption was one of the largest of the 20th century. Earthquakes and tsunamis are part of life in the region too; the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami struck Indonesia, Thailand and Myanmar, along with countries across the ocean.

Colonies and independence

Thailand was never colonized, but every other country on the map was ruled by a European power or the United States. Britain ruled Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei; the Netherlands ruled Indonesia (the Dutch East Indies); France ruled Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia as French Indochina; Spain and then the United States ruled the Philippines; and Portugal ruled Timor-Leste. Most of the region became independent between 1945 and 1965. Brunei followed in 1984, and Timor-Leste, after Indonesian occupation, in 2002.

Tips to memorize Southeast Asia

1. Learn the mainland left to right. Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam. Thailand's long southern "trunk" reaches down to Malaysia.
2. Remember Laos is landlocked. It's the only one with no coast, tucked between Thailand and Vietnam.
3. Follow the Malay Peninsula south. Thailand, then Malaysia, then the island of Singapore at the tip.
4. Spread out the islands. Indonesia is the long chain from Sumatra to New Guinea; the Philippines are the cluster to the north; Borneo in the middle holds Brunei and East Malaysia.
5. Spot Timor-Leste. It's the eastern half of the island of Timor, near the eastern end of Indonesia's chain, north of Australia.
6. Type the capitals. Phnom Penh, Bandar Seri Begawan and Naypyidaw are worth extra practice.

Southeast Asia's place in the world

About 690 million people live in Southeast Asia, about twice as many as in the United States. The region sits between two oceans and two giant neighbors, China and India, and for thousands of years ships carried spices, silk and ideas through its straits. That history explains why the region has so many religions side by side: Buddhism is the main religion in Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, Islam in Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, and Christianity in the Philippines and Timor-Leste.

Keep learning

The East Asia map quiz covers China, Japan and Korea to the north, and the Oceania map quiz picks up where Indonesia ends. The full Asia map quiz puts all 49 Asian countries together. Kids' magazines and subscription boxes about world cultures, like the ones below, are a friendly way to bring the region to life.