The ‘Portuguese’ Encounter with the Malay-Indonesian World of the 16th Century

Date and Time

08:15 am, 19 March 2021

Abstract

The encounter of the Portuguese with the Malay Indonesian world of the 16^th century was characterized by the complementarity of both the “white” or European Portuguese and the “black” Portuguese or those who were of overwhelmingly local Asian descent. While the former provided the model for Portugueseness, it was the latter who succeeded in blending it with local cultures that were crucial to the success of the Portuguese enterprise.  The ability of the black Portuguese to understand local perceptions of meaningful unities of bodies of water—what in the Philippines is captured in the indigenous term “sabang”—enabled the Portuguese to establish thriving international hybrid entrepots at Melaka on the Malay Peninsula, at Makassar on the southwest peninsula of Sulawesi (Celebes) and at Larantuka in eastern Indonesia in the 16^th and into the 17^th centuries.

Profile

Leonard Y. Andaya, PhD is Professor of Southeast Asian Historyat the University of Hawai' at Manoa. He has written on the early modern history of Malaysia, Indonesia, the southern Philippines, and southern Thailand. He is the co-author of "A History of Early Modern Southeast Asia, 1400–1830"  (2015)