Legacies of the Encounter in Seafaring & Trade

This paper reads the emergence of a unique art and culture in the Philippines during the colonial era from the optic of communications theory and the emerging theoretical discourse from information design. It views colonial exchange not primarily as an exchange of cultural goods, tangible or intangible, but as a negotiation forged by the communication between sender and receiver. In such a process, the cultural good is ineluctably transformed as it leaves the context of the sender and is transferred to the context of the receiver, who may be antipodes of each other—physically, psychologically, and culturally—as was the case of Filipinos and Europeans. Exchanges in the areas of space, the biota, the visual, literary, performative, culinary, and sartorial arts are traced. How messages are transmitted, decoded, and transformed to create the new reality of colonial art and culture is documented. A controlling metaphor is that of weaving: where strands of thread, placed at right angles to each other and woven in and out in patterns of skips, create the almost endless variety of textiles. Because emerging new cultural expressions involve communication, both sender and receiver interact in the creation of a new culture. Although there may be a power differential between the two, as in the case of colonized culture, unless sender and receiver interact, no communication occurs. Communication becomes a leveler because either side in the cultural dialogue can fail. But then again, failure is not catastrophic because either side has an opportunity to find something exotic, novel, and unexpected, or to create something completely new.

Fernão de Magalhães alcançou um lugar proeminente na História da Humanidade quando chegou às Filipinas em 16 de março de 1521. Tal facto resultou da circunstância de ele ter culminado então o processo dos Descobrimentos ao ter conseguido revelar como era a Terra em toda a sua plenitude. O nosso propósito é mostrar que foi esse o grande triunfo de Magalhães pois em termos práticos ele percebeu que não lograra cumprir os seus desígnios, visto não ter conseguido chegar às Molucas, onde queria ir e em Cebu soubera onde ficavam; não ter aberto uma nova via ocidental para ir à Ásia, pois a rota pelo estreito de Magalhães que descobriu deixou de ser seguida logo em 1525 por não ser prática, e, finalmente, terá percebido que nas Filipinas estava na parte do mundo pertencente ao domínio português e não castelhano, como ele queria provar com a sua interpretação do Tratado de Tordesilhas.

[Ferdinand Magellan attained a prominent place in the history of humanity when he arrived in the Philippines on March 16, 1521. This resulted from the fact that he ended the process of the Discoveries by being able to reveal how the Earth was like in its entirety. Our objective is to show that this is Magellan's great triumph despite the fact that he thought that he did not achieve his plan since (1) he was not able to reach the Moluccas where he had intended to go but found out that he was in Cebu, (2) he did not discover a new western route to Asia because the route through the Strait of Magellan which he discovered ceased to be used by 1525 for being impractical, and (3) finally, by being in the Philippines, he was in the part of the world that belonged to Portuguese rule and not Castilian, contrary to what he wanted to prove using his interpretation of the Treaty of Tordesillas.]

Maps show us where we are, who we are, and where we want to go. They instruct us about our history, identity, and memory. They promote our self-esteem and our sense of belonging to a global and multicultural world. Using insights from contemporary philosophical hermeneutics, the avowed lover of maps traces the gradual emergence of the Philippines in some antique maps from the sixteenth century to the eighteenth century. In the process, we become aware of Philippine antique maps as icons of beauty, archives of knowledge, and instruments of power. 

The depiction of the Philippines in Portuguese cartography went through several changes over the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Portuguese cartography was nautically based, which means that its conception was not oriented towards the individualization of geo-political entities. Rather, it incorporated and systematized nautical experiences in charts that conveyed an image of an apparent unity. But when did the Philippines begin to be perceived as such? When can we talk of cartographic models aimed particularly at encompassing the islands? Is it possible to single out cartographic narratives specific to this archipelago? In this presentation, we will analyze the Portuguese cartographic depictions of the Philippines in its diachrony and determine their main moments of change, while we try to devise possible interpretations for that change.

This presentation inquires into the evolution of cartographic representations of the Philippines as a whole over the 300-year presence of Spain in the Philippines. Using the 1575 Lopez de Velasco and 1601 Herrera y Tordesillas maps as starting points, it attempts to survey and compare Hispano-Filipino representations of the Philippines including the 1659 Colin-Orozco map, the 1728 Romero-Ghandia chorographic chart, the 1734 Murillo Velarde-de la Cruz Bagay hydrographic and chorographic chart,  the 1802 Malaspina chart, the 1849-1852 Coello-Morata topographic map and representative ones produced toward the end of the 19th century.

Soon after Andrés de Urdaneta’s first “tornaviaje” from the Philippines to New Spain, the idea of creating a carrera on the Atlantic model emerged to establish a permanent link between the new conquest and the rest of the Spanish empire. However, five routes were possible: those of the Cape of Good Hope, the Strait of Magellan, New Spain, the Isthmus of Panama, and finally, the “Northwest Passage” or Anian Strait bypassing the American continent from the north. Although the route of the Galleon de Manila, Acapulco-Cavite was rapidly becoming the most popular, there was no shortage of alternative travel plans and their realization. In addition, from the Iberian Union (in 1581), Hispanics sometimes took the road to Malacca and Goa, which allowed a return to Lisbon via the Carreira da Índia or a trip to Spain via the Arabian Peninsula and then the Mediterranean. I propose to document all these routes for the beginning of Philippine colonization between 1565 and 1609.

The search for an alternative to the Portuguese route that would allow the Castilians to reach the spice islands has been the subject of some research. Those works include the territory of New Spain because of a good part of the organizing of the explorations, as well as the coordination of the exchange networks of the Manila Galleons, emanated from there. But beyond seeing the territory of New Spain as a passage area for the expansion of Castilian commercial networks, one must highlight how the American territory was inserted in this process of expansion, that is, how the Atlantic maritime objectives and experiences were soon assimilated and adapted to the physical, economic, and social conditions in New Spain. This can be discussed by reviewing the way in which ports suitable for navigation were sought, how local supplies, provisions, and labor were used, and how ports were constantly restructured. The objective of this presentation is to reconsider, based on the review of studies, chronicles, and maps, the role of the ports of New Spain in the processes of Spanish exploration of and expansion towards the “western islands.”

Following the shipwreck in October 1596 of the galleon San Felipe on route from Manila to Acapulco, off the coast of Urado, on the island of Shikoku (Japan), a map was drawn by some Japanese officers. The manuscript map, written in Japanese and oriented to the South, was based on geographical information communicated by the Spaniards. One copy of this map is still held at the Prefectural Library of Kōchi, in Japan: it is a document of exceptional importance for understanding the reconfiguration of Japan, the Philippines, and the late sixteenth-century global sea routes, as they were understood and designed by the Japanese themselves. The map of Kōchi allows us to grasp the reception in Japan of the sea routes that for the first time linked the Philippines and the Chinese and Indochinese coasts with the American continent, in particular New Spain, and, indirectly also, with the Iberian coasts in Europe, by placing Japan and the Philippines at the center of the representation, as the point of observation form which the world is reconfigured. The Kōchi map integrates two different perspectives: on the one hand, the Spanish view of the world, from the Iberian Peninsula to the Chinese coasts, crossing the American continent and the Pacific Ocean; on the other hand, the repositioning of Japan and Southeast Asia at the center of these enormous maritime spaces, through a Japanese reinterpretation, mediated by the Spanish, of the Iberian transoceanic routes, rooted in the pioneering navigations of Magalhães, Elcano, Legazpi, and Urdaneta.

In 1511 the Portuguese conquered the city of Malacca, settled the old trading post and the port where several sea routes were found, connecting the Far East to the central and western Indian Ocean. From that date, they sought to enter all these shipping routes and reach the same commodities, learning to sail with the region’s pilots. They realized the importance of trade with China and, step by step, they learned to deal with the Empire, obtaining in 1557 a special concession to settle in Macau. As we know, in 1571 Lopez Legazpi consolidated the Spanish presence in Manila and, a few years later, there was a regular maritime connection between the Philippines and New Spain (Mexico), crossing the Pacific Ocean. At the turn of the century, Malacca, Macau, and Manila became the cornerstones of trade network routes, involving Portuguese, Spanish, and some other local merchants. For that they had to create their own maritime routes and elaborate sailing directions (rutters), which give precious indications about navigation. These routes and rutters will be the central theme of our conference.

*To be presented in Portuguese, with Q&A in English

Historiography has paid insufficient attention to the influence of winds and currents. The rise of Western European states to global dominance and world empires from the sixteenth century is usually characterized as maritime but it should more fittingly be described as Aeolian or “wind-driven.” This paper examines the role winds and currents played in influencing the outline, structure, and nature of Portugal’s seaborne empire in the Indian Ocean and Spain’s seaborne empire in the Pacific. The nature of Iberian encounters with Asia during the days of sail was largely determined by the ways the wind blew.

This presentation will discuss the concepts of ton and tonnage in the Spanish shipbuilding industry in Southeast Asia from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. It will focus on the fundamental principles of shipbuilding technology: the volumetric systems of measurement in use in the Spanish Pacific, and the peculiarities of the systems for measuring cargo capacity in the Manila-Acapulco trade route. It will argue that the Spanish shipbuilding industry in the Pacific operated with technical considerations that differed from those of the Spanish Atlantic during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and that the process of imperial standardization begun in Peninsular Spain in the 1590s did not reach the Philippines until the mid-eighteenth century. 

For many years, the history of the Manila Galleon Trade has privileged economic and political approaches, which explain the commercial dynamics and the role of the Philippines in the geopolitics of the Hispanic monarchy. However, in recent years other approaches have emerged in realizing the importance of the trans-Pacific route for the social and cultural life of the inhabitants of both sides of the Pacific. In this sense, studying the dissemination of plants across the Pacific Ocean during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries becomes a highly relevant topic for understanding the ecological and social transformations as a consequence of the exchange of tropical plants between Asia and America. It is not only a matter of making a count of the plant species that crossed the so-called “Spanish lake,” but also of tracing their insertion, adaptation, transformation, and use of plant resources both in the Philippines and in Mexico.

The first Europeans to reach the Philippine archipelago were surprised by how diverse and novel the plant and animal species they found there were. In order to take advantage of the fertility of its soils, missionaries, merchants, and imperial agents transferred plants from Europe, America, and Asia to the archipelago. As a result, by the early seventeenth century, the islands had seen new biodiversity added to their existing natural wealth. Originally from the interior of the Brazil-Paraguay region, Ananas comosus (L.) Merr. experienced a long domestication process. The Amerindians, who valued the pineapple for the sweetness of its pulp, its medicinal properties, and the quality of its fibre, had long taken the pineapple with them on their migrations. In the 1560s, the Portuguese took it from Brazil to the west coast of India, where it was later transferred to other parts of Asia. In the latter part of the 1500s, the Spaniards introduced it into the Philippines. In this work, I will highlight the importance of pineapple cultivation in the Philippines. I will analyze the success that fabrics and embroidery made from the fibre extracted from pineapple leaves achieved in Europe and the New World from the late sixteenth century onwards. and I will illustrate how the local use of these fibres has contributed to the emergence of a more sustainable textile industry.

This year, 2021, we commemorate five hundred years of the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan and his crew in the Philippines. This historical milestone implied the first encounter of the Spanish and Filipino people and the beginning of a cultural exchange process, which has a special relevance from the gastronomic point of view. The current Filipino cuisine is the result of an evolution of native, Spanish, Malaysian, or Chinese contributions, among others, that came into contact in this archipelago over the centuries. This article will analyze the documentary sources available for the research of Filipino food at the time of the arrival of the Spaniards (edibles, customs, and techniques). Among them, the chronicle written by Antonio Pigafetta, a member of that expedition, has been considered the main source, although it is necessary to complete and contrast its report with other primary and secondary sources written after 1521. The original manuscripts preserved in the General Archive of the Indies, both in direct relation to this expedition and immediately afterwards, will be presented. In addition, they will be compared with other handwritten and printed sources from the 16th century.