Treaty-making in Maritime Southeast Asia: Indigenous Perspectives on Interpolity Relations, c. 1600–1950

Friday 20 November 2026, 4:00–6:00 pm Singapore time (09:00–11:00 CET)
Visitor Briefing Room, National Library / Lee Kong Chian Reference Library, 100 Victoria Street, Singapore

From the seventeenth to the mid-twentieth century, thousands of treaties shaped political and economic relations between Southeast Asian polities and expanding colonial empires. Drawing on new research in original archival sources, this roundtable revisits these agreements through the lens of New Diplomatic History. It explores how Southeast Asian courts and governments served as dynamic centres of diplomacy, knowledge production and cross-cultural exchange. It also highlights how indigenous rulers strategically negotiated, adapted, contested and at times subverted imperial legal and political frameworks to advance their own interests.

Building on findings from the Historical Treaties of Southeast Asia research programme and foregrounding regional perspectives, the roundtable offers new ways of understanding treaty-making and empire. The discussion contributes to wider debates on agency, connectivity, sovereignty and international law in the history of Southeast Asia.

Presentations

• Hans Hägerdal (Linnaeus University): Coastal Elites and Diplomacy in the Papuan World: Treaty Relations between New Guinea and the Dutch East India Company, 1650–1800
• Ariel Lopez (University of the Philippines): The Sulu–Tidung Treaty of 1747
• Maarten Manse (Linnaeus University): The White Kings of Java? Colonial Sovereignty Claims and the Politics of VOC Treaty-Making in Eighteenth-Century Banten and Mataram
• Badriyah Yusof (Universiti Brunei Darussalam): Beyond ‘Unequal Treaties’: Indigenous Negotiation and Court Diplomacy in Brunei’s 1905/06 Agreement

Chair: Stefan Amirell (Linnaeus University)
Commentator: Peter Borschberg, Professor Emeritus (National University of Singapore)

Light refreshments will be served after the seminar. Registration is required.
Register for the roundtable ← länka till https://forms.gle/HyTpbULRHKQJNMMu5