HISTOIRE MARITIME
Peter BorschbergM
Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch Plans to Construct a Fort in the Straits of Singapore, ca. 1584-1625
The strategic location of the Island of Singapore is a matter that has aroused academic interest in recent years. This is evident not least from the book Between two Oceans and the learned reactions it has provoked since its publication in 1999. (2) This excellent work traces the perception of Singapore's location as a strategic island and entrepôt since the settlement's initial foundation in the fourteenth century. The present article does not mean in any way to detract from the well-deserved accolades of this important work, but intends to make a contribution toward that historically complex and multi-faceted question of Singapore's strategic location as seen from both unpublished and published sources of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century. This article will attempt to achieve this by identifying and discussing specific plans on the part of the Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch to construct forts in the region surrounding the Straits of Singapore. While
1. At the time of writing this article, the author was attached to the Institut fur Ostasienkunde of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitàt Miinchen, Abteilung Sinologie, under an existing agreement with the National University of Singapore. The author wishes to thank the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Miinchen, the Arquivo Nacional Torre de Tombo, the Biblioteca Nacional de Lisboa, the Biblioteca Nacional and Palacio Nacional in Madrid, Stanford University Library, and the Rijksarchief in The Hague for granting access to their excellent collections of rare prints, manuscripts, and maps.
2. Malcolm H. Murfett, John N. Miksic, Brian P. Farrell & Chiang Ming Shun, Between Two Oceans. A Military History of Singapore from First Settlement to Final British Withdrawal, Singapore : Oxford University Press, 1999.
Archipel 65, Paris, 2003, pp. 55-88
