The Singapore and Melaka Straits: Violence, Security and Diplomacy in the 17th Century

Acknowledgements

xv Acknowledgements This book incorporates research conducted over a period of almost a decade. Institutional support and funding have been indispensable over the years. The author wishes to thank especially the Department of History of the National University of Singapore; the Department of Asian Studies at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, Germany; the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Social Sciences, in Wassenaar, the Netherlands; the Fundação Oriente, Lisbon, Portugal; and the Folger Library, in Washington, D.C. The present author has been studying ideas pertaining to “big concepts ” such as sovereignty, security, diplomacy, trade and cartography in the region around the Singapore and Melaka Straits for approximately one decade. Individual sets of ideas were developed in a series of articles which have been published in recognised international journals under the auspices of Association Archipel, the Fundação Oriente, the Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, the Journal of the Siam Society, the Revista de Cultura (Macao), NUS Museums and the Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft. The current study brings the individual strands together into a single, expanded study. The author wishes to express his utmost appreciation for the access, understanding, forthcoming cooperation and scholarly assistance he has received over the years from various libraries and museums around the world: Amsterdam University Library, the Netherlands; Archivo Nacional/Torre do Tombo, Lisbon, Portugal; Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich, Germany; Biblioteca de la Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Portugal; Biblioteca da Marinha, Lisbon; Biblioteca Nacional do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, Lisbon; Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, 00a S&MS.indd 15 1/18/10 5:36:59 PM Spain; Bibiothèque Royale de Belgique, Brussels; Bibliotheca Thysiana, Leiden, the Netherlands; the British Library, London, United Kingdom; Staatsbibliothek Berlin (Preussischer Kulturbesitz), Germany; Cambridge University Library, United Kingdom; Casa de Bragança, Vila Viçosa, Portugal; Bibliothek der Ernst-Moritz-Arndt Universität, Greifswald, Germany; Harvard University Map Collection, Cambridge, United States; Herzog-August-Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, Germany; Huntington Library, San Marino, United States; Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, Netherlands; Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; Collectie Bodel Nijenhuis, Leiden University Library, the Netherlands; Collectie Dr. W.A. Engelbrecht, Maritiem Museum Prins Hendrik, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Nationaal Archief (formerly Algemeen Rijksarchief); Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), the Hague, Netherlands; the Vatican Library; and last but certainly not least, the Central Library of the National University of Singapore. Special thanks are due to Nicholas Tarling, who supported this publication with a generous grant from the Nicholas Tarling Fund. This book could have not been written without the input, feedback and stimulation from numerous friends and colleagues. I would particularly like to thank Leonard Blussé, Derek Heng, Martine van Ittersum, Paul Kratoska, Kwa Chong Guan, Anton van der Lem, Anthony C. Milner, Ng Chin Keong, Roderich Ptak, Merle Ricklefs, as well as Peter Borschberg Sr., Pierre-Emmanuel Jacob, Jerry Lee Kah Seng, Bruce Lockhart, Mohamed Effendy bin Abdul Hamid, Gilles Massot, Roopanjali Roy, and Tim Yap Fuan. xvi฀ Acknowledgements 00a S&MS.indd 16 1/18/10 5:36:59 PM ...