Maarten Manse will present his talk at Hans Blix Centre for the History of International Relations, Stockholm University. This talk examines how Southeast Asian rulers navigated and influenced their political relationships with European powers during the era of imperial encroachment (eighteenth to twentieth centuries), with a particular focus on treaty-making, translation, and diplomatic interaction. It elucidates specific vocabulary in the indigenous versions of original (bi- and trilingual) treaties, tracing how specific terms reflect local indigenous ideas about diplomacy, governance, and political organisation, drawn from rich manuscript traditions of Southeast Asian courts—fluid genres blending theological, philosophical, and political themes from local (Malay, Javanese) and foreign (Islamic, Hindu-Buddhist, European) origins.

In doing so, the presentation highlights the often-overlooked intellectual engagements between Southeast Asian rulers and European colonisers, showing how local rulers may have inadvertently inscribed their values and norms into the diplomatic lexicon of treaty-making to safeguard their interests and traditions, and thereby potentially cocreated the legal and diplomatic frameworks of colonialism in the region, leaving enduring legacies within Southeast Asia’s pluralistic and multi-centric geopolitical context.

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Serat Sela Rasa 1804. British Library MSS Jav 28 ff. 105v-106r.