East Indies vs The Malay Archipelago

East Indies and The Malay Archipelago both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
East Indies	Yes	No	No	No
The Malay Archipelago	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, East Indies and The Malay Archipelago are synonyms defined as:

East Indies and The Malay Archipelago: a group of islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans between Asia and Australia

Other synonyms of East Indies include East India, Malay Archipelago.

East Indies (noun)	The Malay Archipelago (noun)
a group of islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans between Asia and Australia	a group of islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans between Asia and Australia