C. R. Boxer (1904–2000)

Charles Ralph Boxer is one of the foremost historians of early Portuguese history. I will admit from the start that I only read the Asia-related chapters of this work (although it also covers Portuguese colonies in Africa and the Americas), so my comments are limited to those chapters.

For anyone seeking information on the role of the church in the Portuguese colonies of Asia, this is the first place to turn, especially Chapters III and X ("Converts and Clergy in Monsoon Asia 1500-1600" and "The Crown Patronage and the Catholic Missions"), which discusses "the indissoluble union of the Cross and the Crown". As Boxer details it, Portuguese rulers were granted Padroado real (royal patronage of the Church overseas) privileges, which gave them the right to be the patron of the Roman Catholic church overseas in part because the Papacy was preoccupied with the "rising tide of Protestantism" on the one hand, and the "Turkish threat in the Mediterranean" on the other. In short, "God was omnipresent as well as Mammon". No one covers this topic better than Boxer, who details the arrival of the first Portuguese missionaries, the arrival of the Jesuits in Goa in 1542 and their subsequent settlements in Malacca, Macao and Nagasaki, and the Church's activities that reached its peak of insensitivity in 1567 when the most heinous bans and prohibitions were thrust upon local communities to turn them towards conversion to Christianity.

To my mind, one of the more interesting aspects of Portugal's expansion into Asia was (as Boxer so perfectly points out, "despite the cultural myopia"), the role Portuguese men of the cloth played as cultural links between Asia and Europe. The letters and notes of its early missionaries brought news of Asia to Europeans, and influenced Asian art and its culture as can be seen in the ivory carvings of Christian images made in Sri Lanka and Philippines that found their way to Europe, as well as the Chinese porcelains portraying such scenes as the Christian Crucifixion now seen in European museums. The European art Jesuit priests introduced to Akbar's Mughal court can still be seen today in Indian miniatures. Matteo Ricci introduced western science to China.

This excellent work is now out of print but can be found in major university and metropolitan libraries. It is worth seeking out if one is interested in Asian or Portuguese history, art history, or the history of the Catholic Church as a missionary religions.… (mer)

In an amazing turn-around, a small group of suppressed water logged people become a great nation of sea-farers, beating many others at their game. The United Provinces of the Netherlands reached an agreement with their Spanish lords to end many years of domination. The union of these provinces, despite tensions, appeared to have diverted the energy and lust for freedom into a strong sence of independence. This book covers the 200 or so years of the Dutch Republic, as it reached into the East Indies (Ceylon, India, Formosa (Taiwan), China, Japan, and Indonesia, and into the Americas.

The independence from Spain was strongly linked to their opposition to the Roman Catholic Church, and the relief they found through Calvinism. That they carried out the Calvinist way of life though is another matter. As the author writes, it's as if they believed that the 10 commandments were not for life below the equator. Although the central authorities in the Netherlands expected people to live a Christian life, they appeared to be powerless to control those in far-flug places. Not only did they often mistreat the inhabitants, they also behaved quite badly towards each other.
This book provides lots of information on society at the time, in the Netherlands, and in most of the countried in which they operated. The focus is on the relationships that people had with each other. It is replete with references to sources. The author is very fair, often commenting on sources that are exaggerated.

One note on the index - it is quite poor. Whilst it covers some 10 pages, it is incomplete. For example, Cape Town/Kaapstad or South Africa are not listed, but this settlement is covered well in a whole chapter in the book - the only index references are listed under Cape of Good Hope; German workers according to the index is first found on page 72, although some 20 pages earlier this matter is covered in more detail; Groningen is not listed, although it is mentioned throughout the book.… (mer)