This guest lecture presents recent findings from the research programme Historical Treaties of Southeast Asia, which examines treaty-making and cross-cultural diplomacy between indigenous Southeast Asian polities and European colonial powers from the mid-eighteenth to the early twentieth century.

Focusing particularly on the Malay World during the long nineteenth century, the lecture explores how treaties functioned not merely as instruments of imperial domination, but also as arenas of negotiation, accommodation, and strategic agency. By analysing diplomatic encounters across different regional contexts, the speakers highlight the complex interplay between coercion and local political practice.

Image: Conclusion of the so-called Treaty of Laubuan between Brunei and the United Kingdom, 18 December 1846. From R. Mundy, Narrative of Events in Borneo and Celebes, Vol. II (London: John Murray 1848), face p. 295. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Treaty_of_Labuan1846.jpg.

The lecture consists of four short presentations by members of the project, followed by comments from Dr Mulaika Hijjas (SOAS):

· Prof. Stefan Amirell, Linnaeus University: ’Unequal treaties’ and historical agency: A view from eighteenth-century Kedah

· Dr. Maarten Manse, Linnaeus University: Recasting the terms of empire: Treaty-making in Java in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries

· Assoc. prof. Birgit Tremml-Werner, Stockholm University: Coercion and accommodation in treaty making practices viewed from Zamboanga

· Dr. Ariel Lopez, University of the Philippines: New Alliances, Old System: Chiefly negotiations along the margins of the Sulu Sultanate and the Spanish colonial empire, c. 1870−1890

The event is free, open to the public, and held in person only.

For more information, see:
https://www.soas.ac.uk/about/event/historical-treaties-southeast-asia-coercion-and-accommodation-malay-world-during-long