This collection of essays places the Straits of Singapore and Melaka and their surrounding regions in a larger pattern of world trade and international diplomacy between of approximately 1500-1800. The contributions contained in this volume address a range of interdisciplinary issues pertaining to the presence and expansion of Portuguese and Spanish infl uence across the region. The authors draw on a wide range of source material in Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and Chinese, making some of them accessible to an English language readership for the fi rst time. From the table of contents (8...

The Singapore and Melaka Straits are a place where regional and long-distance maritime trading networks converge, linking Europe, the Mediterranean, eastern Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian subcontinent with key centres of trade in Thailand, Indochina, insular Southeast Asia, China, Korea and Japan. The first half of the 17th century brought heightened political, commercial and diplomatic activity to this region. It had long been clear to both the Portuguese and the Dutch that whoever controlled the waters off modern Singapore gained a firm grip on regional as well as...