Lost in Translation? The Languages of Euro-Southeast Asian Diplomacy in the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries

Abstract

This chapter explores some of the issues related to Europe’s diplomatic engagement with Asia in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries with special attention placed on the early Dutch contacts with Southeast Asia in the period c. 1595–1620. The over-arching questions addressed are these: How did the Dutch present themselves to their Southeast Asian hosts and in turn, how were Southeast Asian princes, officials and their core political values translated and made accessible to the Dutch leaders in commerce and politics in Europe? What were the underlying assumptions of the Malay rulers in selected dealings with the Dutch? Four areas will be examined in more detail: first, translating ideas and institutions of the Dutch Republic into a Malay cultural framework; second, challenges faced by the Europeans in understanding the status and titles of local rulers; third, decoding Malay political values and concepts; and fourth, ways in which local governments and societies were transformed by the Dutch on treating them as republics.