Researchers affiliated with the Historical Treaties of Southeast Asia project have received an International Publication Award from the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of the Philippines for their article "Revisiting the Treaty between Spain and Sulu of 1836/37," published in Diplomatica: A Journal of Diplomacy and Society (vol. 6, 2024)
The article, by project members Birgit Tremml-Werner (Stockholm University), Eleonora Poggio (Linnaeus University), and Ariel Lopez (University of the Philippines Diliman), compares the Spanish and Tausug versions of the treaty concluded between the Spanish Crown and the Sultanate of Sulu in 1836/37. Through multilingual analysis of both texts and a wide range of archival sources, the study shows that the two versions reflect fundamentally different intentions, challenges longstanding claims of Spanish sovereignty over Sulu, and situates the treaty within a previously undocumented system of regional agreements from the 1830s.
