This book provides an original study of the sizeable Portuguese community in Ayutthaya, the chief river-state in Siam, during a period of apparent decline (1640-1720). Portuguese populations were displaced from their chief settlements like Melaka and Makassar, and attracted to the river-states of mainland South-East Asia by a protective model of kingship, hopes of international trade and the opportunity to harvest souls. A variety of sources will be used to shed light on the fortunes and make-up of this displaced, mixed-race 'tribe', which was largely independent of the matrices of Portuguese colonial power, and fared poorly alongside other foreign communities in this remarkably open, dynamic environment. Circumstances changed for the better after the National Revolution of 1688, when Portuguese started to fill many of the jobs at court and in commerce previously occupied by Frenchmen and northern Europeans.
Stefan Halikowski Smith, Ph.D. (2001) in History and Civilisation, European University Institute, is Lecturer in History at Swansea University. His specialisation is Portuguese overseas expansion in the early modern period, both publishing widely and lecturing on this topic at Brown University, Rhode Island. His most recent edited collection entitled Portugal Ãndico: Essays on the history of the Portuguese presence in South Asia came out as a Special Issue of Itinerario in 2007.
1. Introduction: a world of creolization
2. âPeople on the moveâ: Seventeenth century population movements in the Portuguese Indies
3. The rise and fall of Portuguese Makassar
4. No obvious home: the flight of the Portuguese âtribeâ from Makassar in the 1660s
5. From contact to settlement in South-East Asia: a history of mercenaries and interlopers
6. âO campo portuguêsâ: The Portuguese quarter in Ayutthaya in the wake of the Makassarese diaspora
7. The development of the presence of the Catholic church in Ayutthaya
8. âThose (â¦) who occupy the lowest category hereâ. The social relegation, but survival, of the Portuguese âtribeâ
9. âLiving great after the fashion of the countryâ: Comparisons with Portuguese in neighboring kingdoms
10. Unpublished depictions of Portuguese in Thai and Burmese temple murals
11. âAll that the French Bishops wish is to see us leaveâ: Religious disputes in South-East Asia between Portuguese Jesuits and French Missionaires Ãtrangères de Paris
12. Conclusion
Documentary annexes
Bibliography
Index
All those interested in the history of European empires in the East, their settlement patterns and cultural transfer. This book is aimed specifically at specialists in Portuguese overseas and South-East Asian history, focusing on the period building up to the National Revolution in Siam of 1688.