J.F. Warren

A tale of two centuries: The globalisation of maritime raiding and piracy in Southeast Asia at the end of the Eighteenth and Twentieth centuries

The comparative temporal perspectives in this paper, which covers the latter part of two centuries, the late eighteenth and the late twentieth centuries, lends considerable explanatory power to my treatment of the multi-faceted links and changes between Iranun maritime raiding, on the one hand, and on the other, modern day crime on the high seas in Southeast Asia, with the China connection, growing commodity flows, and the fluctuations of the global economy (Warren 1981, 1998a, 2001)...

Report on Brunei in 1904

In 1904 the British Protectorate of Brunei had reached the nadir of its fortunes. Reduced to two small strips of territory, bankrupt, and threatened with takeover by the Rajah of Sarawak (Sir Charles Brooke), Brunei received M. S. H. McArthur who was dispatched to make recommendations for Bruneis future administration. As a result of McArthurs Report on Brunei in 1904, the British government decided to underwrite the separate existence of the sultanate, thus giving a reprieve to the \u201cdying kingdom.\u201d The report is the most important document in the history of modern Brunei and is here annotated and given historical context by A. V. M. Horton.

Who were the Balangingi Samal? Slave raiding and ethnogenesis in Nineteenth-Century Sulu

The problem of ethnic identification is an important but neglected theme in Southeast Asian history. Historians of the region are indebted to Leach, F. K. Lehman and M. Moerman for their pioneering work on the nature and history of upland societies in Southeast Asia.2 In the Political Systems of Highland Burma, Leach demonstrates that culture and ethnic identity are not necessarily synonymous. He points out that the process of identification among tribal people like the Kachin is never simple; it entails migration, intermarriage, barter trade relations, warfare, inter-penetrating political systems, and values and beliefs shared with non-Kachin.

Slave Markets and Exchange in the Malay World: The Sulu Sultanate, 1770–1878

The impact of the Wests commercial intrusion in China towards the end of the eighteenth century had significant bearing on the growth of the slave trade in Southeast Asia. It led to the crystallization of a permanent slave traffic around organized markets and depots in the Sulu Archipelago. Jolo Island, as the centre of a redistributive network encompassing the Sulu zone, became the most important slave centre by 1800. This had not always been the case. Most accounts of the Sulu Sultanate written before 1780 indicate that the internal demand for slaves at Jolo was on a much smaller scale than it was destined to become in the nineteenth century. These early writers reported that it was often more profitable for the Taosug, the dominant ethnic group in the Sulu Archipelago, to deliver slaves to the Magindanao and Bugis merchants of Cotabato (Mindanao) and Pasir (Borneo) for trans-shipment to Makassar and Batavia, than employ them in their own settlements.

Philippine typhoons, sources and the historian

The pre-requisite for investigating the impacts of cyclonic storms and climatic change in Philippine history is adequate meteorological records and information on how weather and climate fluctuate and change in the Philippines across time. Reconstructing the history of the typhoon’s impacts, climate variability and human-environment interactions on Philippine society and culture is difficult. The meteorological records to attempt such a reconstruction for the pre-instrument era are fragmentary. For the period prior to 1880, we have to rely on ‘proxy records’ to reconstruct the record of the weather and cyclonic storms over long periods, for example the records produced by provincial parish priests from as early as the seventeenth century, and the early histories and travel accounts of the Spanish friars. In order to trace climatic patterns and the impacts of typhoons, floods and storm surges in the era of pre-instrument observation, the historian must start with the Spanish records held in various civil and ecclesiastical archives and repositories in Spain and the Philippines. In the records of the Archivo General de Indias, Archivo Historico Nacional, Museo Naval, and the archives of the various religious orders—especially the Jesuits, given their unique role in pioneering the science of meteorology in the Philippines—can be found information in documents, letters and books about typhoons, and the colonization process . The catalogues, records and books held in the Philippine National Archive also contain invaluable information to help explain the long-term impacts of cyclonic storms and the ecological disadvantages confronting various typhoon-prone areas in the archipelago up until the end of the nineteenth century. Most importantly for the study of typhoons and human-environment interaction in the Philippines under American rule, the Bureau of Insular Affairs was the knowledge bank, regarding physical, cultural and geographical information about the archipelago. Under the auspices of the government, its staff archived, compiled and printed official data to supply the growing public demand for knowledge about the islands. As part of its range of activities the BIA undertook studies of important issues about the Philippines on behalf of the business sector and distributed thousands of printed documents relating to trade, agriculture, and, most importantly, aspects of the work of the Weather Bureau. There also exists an important oral and visual record of Philippine typhoons and detailed accounts of their impacts in nineteenth and twentieth century newspapers.

Retrieving prostitutes' live source materials and an approach for writing the history of the Ah Ku and Karayuki-San of Singapore

A new found interest in social history, recent developments in historical thought and methodology and a fresh awareness of the importance of gender-specific experience have led historians to question an ‘ordinary womans place’ in Singapores past. In the historiography of Singapore, there is a need to foreground the critical importance of the ah ku and karayuki-san in the sex,politics and society of the city, stressing not only alterations in their life and circumstance, but also variations in the role of the colonial government, and changes in the ideology of sex and social policy.

Volcanoes, Refugees, and Raiders: The 1765 Macaturin Eruption and the Rise of the Iranun

This chapter offers a compelling account of the tangled relationship between the history of the Iranun and the eruption of the Macaturin Volcano. Focusing on this little-known eruption, it draws attention to the disastrous events that unfolded afterwards in Mindanao, the Sulu Archipelago, and north Borneo, where the Iranun experienced a subsistence crisis and displacement. The chapter also draws attention to the link between this major eruption and the rise of the displaced Iranun as saltwater slavers in South-East Asia. This case study concludes with a comparison of other eruptions that have threatened human survival and led to an increase in slavery and raiding in different places and eras.

Philippine Typhoons Since the Seventeenth Century

This chapter elaborates on the typhoons that affect the Philippines, including historical difficulties with forecasting the approach or trajectory of any given typhoon, the problems associated with the seasonal patterns, increasing wind speeds and the successive nature of typhoons that are associated with the Philippines and the importance of the El Nino and La Nina phenomena. The chapter also discusses the impacts of typhoons on agriculture and considers whether the Philippine government needs to develop a culture of response and remedy on behalf of its vulnerable populace, or whether a culture of capacity building, particularly in the area of mitigation and preparedness, will best serve the inevitable humanitarian crises and the dire associated costs as such disasters, activated by climate change and recent extreme weather, loom ever larger on the horizon.

Trade for Bullion to Trade for Commodities and ‘Piracy’

Maritime-raiding or ‘piracy’ already existed when the Portuguese arrived in Asia at the turn of the sixteenth century.1 But the incidence of piracy in South East Asia only rose dramatically in direct response to colonialism and Western enterprise. There is a strong interconnective relationship between the ascendancy of long-distance maritime-raiding on a regional scale and the development of an economic boom in South East Asia linked to the advent of the China trade at the end of the eighteenth century. In this context, maritime-raiding was closely linked to slaving and slavery as social and economic phenomena that became a crucial part of an emergent global commercial system and economic growth in the Asian region.

Saltwater Slavers and Captives in the Sulu Zone, 1768–1878

In the early nineteenth century several Malayo-Muslim ethnic groups, the Iranun and Samal-Balangingi, specialized in state-sanctioned maritime raiding, attacking Southeast Asian coastal settlements and shipping. This paper traces the slaving and raiding operations of these sea raiders and how the economy of their sponsor, the Sulu Sultanate, was integrated into the world-capitalist system. The paper stresses the motives behind their slave raids, the hazardous nature of their long distance expeditions, and the experience of their captives in the middle passage. It also highlights the background and origins of the Iranun and Balangingi, their raiding vessels and crews, their social organization, and daily life at sea.