 British influence in South-East Asia and the South Pacific began in the late eighteenth century, involving primarily the territories now known as Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.Papua New Guinea, also a British protectorate, exemplified the English-based pidgin - Tok Pisin.The Americans came late in South-East Asia but their influence spread like wildfire as their reforms on education in the Philippines progressed in their less than half a century colonization of the islands.