Encountering Diplomacy in Early Modern Southeast Asia

This research project is a study in global history.

It explores how diplomatic practices and foreign relations were shaped in the pluralistic, multi-centric, open geography of maritime Southeast Asia during the seventeenth and eighteenth century. In this period, exchange between local polities and aspiring European colonial powers flourished.

The project uses the rich history of negotiations and cross-cultural communication between local Southeast Asian polities and various actors from Europe to integrate practices of balancing power relations and local indigenous traditions into a nuanced global history of diplomacy.

Although foreign relations are widely regarded as an important vector for cultural exchange, and while embassies have emerged as a favoured site for studying cultural encounters, little is known about the ways in which transregional interactions shaped the very principles and practices of diplomatic dealings over the course of this transformative period.

The project will introduce the concept of the diplomatic encounter which allows to study relevant processes and practices in their own time and under consideration of their specific political culture.

It compares different acts of negotiation including the foreign relations of insular Muslim chiefdoms, colonial rivalries, the diplomatic strategies of small city states and the impact of expanding empires in the region.

Re-addressing early modern diplomatic encounters in South East Asia in diverse sources written in various languages will thus serve to overcome binaries in diplomatic history and ultimately contribute to a new narrative of diplomatic history as demanded by leading scholars in the field.The project will be hosted at the Centre for Concurrences in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies, a leading interdisciplinary research environment with an existing and steadily growing focus on Southeast Asia.