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Asia-Pacific in the Making of the Americas: Toward a Global History

Large Map of Asia

"This... map embraces all of Asia. The Middle East is very well formed, although the Caspian Sea has the egg-like form it maintained on maps until the 1730s. The Arabian Peninsula is well defined, based on Portuguese sources, and India takes its form after the maps of the Dutch adventurer, Jan Hugyen van Linschoten (1596), which, in turn, borrowed from Portuguese sources. Southeast Asia and the Indonesian Archipelago are derived from charts made for the Dutch East India Company (the VOC), while China is derived from Jesuit sources, although Korea is an oddly elongated peninsula. The geography of the region would remain an enigma to Europeans until the early 18th Century. Japan's Honshu and Kyushu are recognizable, although the area further to the northeast remains a vast mystery. True to the ‘Carte à Figures’ style, which was the hallmark of the great contemporary period of Dutch Baroque cartography, the map is surrounded on three sides by registers of fine vignettes. Along the top of the map are views of Farmagusta (Cyprus), Rhodes (Greece), Damascus, Jerusalem, Aden and Hormuz (Persia). Along the left side of the map are depictions of people in local costume including Syrians, Arabs, Armenians & Persians, Indians, and Sumatrans. On the left side are depictions that include Javanese, Moluccans & Bandans, Chinese, Russians and Tartars. The map is further embellished by a fine title cartouche and ships and sea monsters in the seas. The map was originally conceived by Jodocus Hondius the Younger, as a part of an exceedingly rare Appendix to the Hondius-Mercator Atlas (1630), of which this edition included an extra panel of text at the bottom. The present edition was issued by Hondius’s brother-in-law, Jan Jansson, as part of Atlas Novus (1638). The Jansson edition is distinguishable by the appearance of Jansson’s imprint, within a cartouche, to the upper right, and the removal of the bottom text panel, which was considered to be too cumbersome for inclusion in a folio atlas. The map was originally conceived by Jodocus Hondius the Younger (1594-1629), whose eponymous father played a large part in the rise of Amsterdam as the dominant cartographic production center in the 17th Century. The present edition of the map is by Jan Jansson (1588-1664), who married Jodocus the Younger’s sister Elizabeth. He transformed the Hondius firm into a powerhouse of geographical publications. Jansson most notably published the Atlas Novus (1638), and the Atlas Major (1660), the 11 volumes of which included a town atlas, a hydrographic atlas, an atlas of the ancient world, and Andreas Cellarius’s incomparable celestial atlas. Jansson’s works were rivaled only by those of his arch-nemesis Joan Blaeu. The present map is one of the finest depictions of Asia from the apogee of Dutch cartography. It is also scarce, appearing on the market infrequently." From The Barry Ruderman Antique Maps, co.

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2. Hennepin's Nouvelle France, 1783 Louis Hennepin, 1783. Map of North America and the northern part of South America from New France to New Spain. Cartographic elements include Indian settlements, the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River, part of the Mississippi River, locations of missions and forts, sea banks or shoals, and lines of latitude and longitude. Decorative cartouche includes allegorical figures. An angel holding a shield with a cross smites a fallen man who holds snakes. At right, a redeemed man and woman rise up toward cross and the triumph of Louisiana. One female figure holds the royal French coat of arms, another holds a banner with "Louis." John Carter Brown Library
3. Indias Ocidentales, 1601 (1575) "Descripcion de las Yndias del occidentals." Madrid, 1601, in Historia general de los hechos de los castellanos en las islas i Tierra Firme del Mar Oceano escrita por Antonio de Herrera coronista mayor de Su Md: de las Indias y su coronista de Castilla ... Decada primera" Map of the western hemisphere with the northwestern part of North America unfinished and showing part of western Iberian pennisula and Africa, part of China, Japan, part of New Guinea, and some of the Solomon islands. Includes the Line of Demarkation. Only four known surviving examples.
5. Carta Hydrographica y Chorographica de las Yslas Filipinas — Sangley Details Detail of Carta Hydrographica y Chorographica de las Yslas Filipinas (1734), by Pedro Murillo Velarde. The Philippines was a vital part of the Spanish Empire, and the map shows the maritime routes from Manila to Spain and to New Spain. There are twelve engravings on the sides depicting different ethnic groups living in the archipelago and cartographic descriptions of particular cities or islands. From the National Library of Spain.
6. Merchants Eating In a Boat
7. 1634 Japanese Red Seal Ship As the Japanese increasingly ventured on voyages for trading purposes nearing the seventeenth century, Red Seal ships became more common. Red Seal ships were military merchant sailing ships that were armed and carried red-sealed permits from Tokugawa Ieyasu, the Japanese ruler of the time. The seals allowed for a controlled system of foreign trade as well as protection against pirates. Tokyo Naval Science Museum.
9. The Life of St. Francis Xavier : Apostle of the Indies and Japan by Daniello Bartoli, 1608-1685. Bartoli, a 17th century Italian Jesuit writer, zealously describes St. Francis Xavier's travels to the Indies and Japan on galleons on a mission to convert foreigners to Catholicism. A description of St.Francis Xavier's 1549 voyage to Japan begins on page 326, Book the Third. Here, Bartoli refers to letters sent by St.Francis while in Japan and his ultimately successful efforts to spread Catholicism there. Bartoli writes on the saint's humility, skill with learning foreign languages (a skill he attributes to God) and the positive responses he received while preaching christianity. Translation of his Vita di S. Francesco Saverio della Compagnia di Gesù apostolo delle Indie.
12. Sangley Rebellion "Rare first edition of an important relation describing the 1639-40 revolt of ethnic Chinese Filipinos (Sangleyes) against Spanish colonial powers at the port of Calamba, located some 55 kilometers south of Manila. This organized conspiracy, sometimes called the Second Chinese Insurrection (the first Sangley rebellion occurred in 1603), had been coordinated to begin on Christmas Eve of 1639: Sangley insurgents (some 45,000 Sangleys lived in and around Manila at the time) corresponded with a Chinese pirate named Yquan Sanglus, agreeing that he should surprise the Spanish colonists and capture their galleons arriving from New Spain. Governor Sebastián Hurtado de Corcuera’s (d. 1660) soldiers, supported by two companies of Sangley mestizos, one company of Japanese troops and additional fighters from among the indigenous and free black population, easily put down the revolt during January and February of 1640. The present document is rich with details and records that 5 million pesos worth of damage had been done in the rebellion, that the Spanish sank 11 of 20 Sangley ships, killed 650 Sangley sailors in the initial skirmish and several thousand infantrymen in the weeks that followed. Sangley prisoners questioned by the Spaniards confessed that their leader had offered large rewards, including a Spanish woman as a wife, to any who should bring him a Spanish head. A total of 7783 Sangley fighters surrendered to colonial authorities on 24 February 1640, the peace largely brokered by Jesuits and Augustinians, some of whom had themselves participated in the battle. "
15. Francisco Felipe Faxicura Hasekura Rokuemon Tsunenaga was baptized as Francisco Felipe Faxicura on February 17, 1615 in Spain by King Philip III's personal chaplain. Shown in the top right is Hasekura's coat of arms: a crowned shield depicting a Buddhist swastika overlapping two intersecting arrows on an orange background. His coat of arms is seen in various places, including on his ship, San Juan Bautista. This image found in a German translation of: Historia del regno di Voxu del Giapone, first published Rome, 1615, found in the John Carter Brown Library or online at https://archive.org/details/relationvndgrndt00amat .
19. Manila Bay, 1685
20. Chinese Merchants
21. Planta de las Islas Filipinas, 1699
23. Historia general, 1601
24. 1618 Chinese Map of the Philippines Dong Xi yang kao 東西洋考 (On the eastern and western oceans), 1618, by Zhang Xie 張燮, 1574-1640. "...is the most comprehensive Ming description of the countries of Southeast Asia." ( Wilkinson, Chinese History, a Manual, p. 747. "...a maritime geography of south Asia...deals with the history, topography, products, and trade of the lands of southeast Asia, including the Philippines, the Moluccas, Brunei (on the north coast of Borneo), ...Indo-China, Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, southwest coast of Borneo, a total of thirty-eight countries; discusses China's relations with Japan and the Dutch 紅毛番 ...revenue, navigation (with compass directions and distances and rhymed rules for weather prediction), and to a certain eunuch revenue collector Gao Cai, who exacted tribute from merchants...until his recall to Peking in 1615....documents and official communications between the Chinese court and various countries including Japan" -- Cf. Dictionary of Ming Biography: 77-78 (courtesy of The Ricci Institute Library). Nineteenth-century Chinese facsimile of the first edition from Brown University Libraries, The Gardner Collection.
26. Signature of Luis de Encio
28. Large Map of Asia "This... map embraces all of Asia. The Middle East is very well formed, although the Caspian Sea has the egg-like form it maintained on maps until the 1730s. The Arabian Peninsula is well defined, based on Portuguese sources, and India takes its form after the maps of the Dutch adventurer, Jan Hugyen van Linschoten (1596), which, in turn, borrowed from Portuguese sources. Southeast Asia and the Indonesian Archipelago are derived from charts made for the Dutch East India Company (the VOC), while China is derived from Jesuit sources, although Korea is an oddly elongated peninsula. The geography of the region would remain an enigma to Europeans until the early 18th Century. Japan's Honshu and Kyushu are recognizable, although the area further to the northeast remains a vast mystery. True to the ‘Carte à Figures’ style, which was the hallmark of the great contemporary period of Dutch Baroque cartography, the map is surrounded on three sides by registers of fine vignettes. Along the top of the map are views of Farmagusta (Cyprus), Rhodes (Greece), Damascus, Jerusalem, Aden and Hormuz (Persia). Along the left side of the map are depictions of people in local costume including Syrians, Arabs, Armenians & Persians, Indians, and Sumatrans. On the left side are depictions that include Javanese, Moluccans & Bandans, Chinese, Russians and Tartars. The map is further embellished by a fine title cartouche and ships and sea monsters in the seas. The map was originally conceived by Jodocus Hondius the Younger, as a part of an exceedingly rare Appendix to the Hondius-Mercator Atlas (1630), of which this edition included an extra panel of text at the bottom. The present edition was issued by Hondius’s brother-in-law, Jan Jansson, as part of Atlas Novus (1638). The Jansson edition is distinguishable by the appearance of Jansson’s imprint, within a cartouche, to the upper right, and the removal of the bottom text panel, which was considered to be too cumbersome for inclusion in a folio atlas. The map was originally conceived by Jodocus Hondius the Younger (1594-1629), whose eponymous father played a large part in the rise of Amsterdam as the dominant cartographic production center in the 17th Century. The present edition of the map is by Jan Jansson (1588-1664), who married Jodocus the Younger’s sister Elizabeth. He transformed the Hondius firm into a powerhouse of geographical publications. Jansson most notably published the Atlas Novus (1638), and the Atlas Major (1660), the 11 volumes of which included a town atlas, a hydrographic atlas, an atlas of the ancient world, and Andreas Cellarius’s incomparable celestial atlas. Jansson’s works were rivaled only by those of his arch-nemesis Joan Blaeu. The present map is one of the finest depictions of Asia from the apogee of Dutch cartography. It is also scarce, appearing on the market infrequently." From The Barry Ruderman Antique Maps, co.
32. Ships Near Port
33. Image of a Port
35. Chinese Merchants
37. Image of Ships on the Pacific Ocean
38. Port in Acapulco "The beautiful " birds- eye- view" of Mexico City by Juan Gómez de Trasmonte is extremely well -known as almost the only surviving representation of the city in the seventeenth -century . The origin , intentions and history of esta map are , however , less well- known. In fact , classical texts on the subject are inaccurate or incomplete mostly . Incorporating new cartobibliographic evidence , this article reinterprets Trasmonte 's plan from the point of view of four methodological statements : i ) The map is the territory . ii ) The map is not the territory . iii ) Territories are maps and iv ) The maps is the map . Hopefully , This analysis Contributes some innovative methodological principles for studying historical urban cartography ." From "The map is the City?. A new look at the bird's eye view of Mexico City in 1628 by Juan Gómez de Trasmonte"
39. Descripcion de las Yndias del Ocidentales by Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas
40. The Parían Market, from Itinerario
41. Linschoten's Map of the World
42. The Pacific Ocean with Flying Fish
44. Carta Hydrographica y Chorographica de las Yslas Filipinas — Mestizo Details Detail of Carta Hydrographica y Chorographica de las Yslas Filipinas (1734), by Pedro Murillo Velarde. The Philippines was a vital part of the Spanish Empire, and the map shows the maritime routes from Manila to Spain and to New Spain. There are twelve engravings on the sides depicting different ethnic groups living in the archipelago and cartographic descriptions of particular cities or islands. From the National Library of Spain
45. The San Juan Bautista Originally owned by Date Masamune, an influential feudal lord in the Tokugawa court, the San Juan Bautista carried Hasekura Tsunenaga Rokuyemon, a samurai who led Masamune’s embassy to Spain and Italy, and Sebastián Vizcaíno, a Mexican diplomat. Vizcaíno was demoted to a simple passenger on the San Juan Bautista as Haskeura’s embassy sailed the ocean. A replica of the ship is shown here and found in Ishinomaki, Japan.
46. Schurman Commission Document, 1900 The Schurman Commission, also known as the First Philippine Commission, was formed by President William McKinley on January 20, 1899. The commission was tasked with studying the political climate of the country and make policy recommendations. While the report acknowledged Filipino aspirations for independence, the commission reported that the country was not ready for self-governance. From the University of Michigan Library.
47. Conquest of the Philippines, 1698
49. Map depicting the bay of Acapulco in 1632, detailing Japanese ship Spanish captain Nicolás de Cardona sailed to Acapulco in 1614, the same year as Hasekura. He draws his then surroundings on the map and supplies a legend in his 1632 book, "Descripciones geográphicas e hydrográphicas de muchas tierras y mares del Norte y Sur en las Indias, en especial del descubrimiento del Reino de la California,"or "Geographic and hydrographic descriptions of many northern and southern lands and seas in the Indies, specifically the discovery of the kingdom of California.” The book is written in 1632, but the drawings on the map represent Cardona's catalogue of his surroundings during his 1614 expedition. He depicts a Japanese ship on the bay of Acapulco, believed to be the San Juan Bautista. Takashi Gonoi explains this likeliness in page 53 of "Hasekura Tsunenaga" 支倉常長, Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 2003.
50. Wong Kim Ark’s Departure Statement, 1894
52. Potosi Forma de los ingenios enquese muelen los metales de plata en la Ribera de Potosi el vno de dos Cabeças yelostro de una. Arzáns de Orsúa y Vela, Bartolomé, 1676-1736 (creator); leaf 91 from Historia de la villa imperial de Potosí by Bartholome Arzans de Orzua y Vela. This is a detailed manuscript account, published by Brown University in 1965, of “that mining center where the wealth and poverty, avarice and generosity, religiosity and bitter hatreds, cruelty and intrigues all flourished” (John Phelan, The Hispanic Historical Review 47:4, Nov. 1967).
53. Ships Near Port
56. Juan Correa, "St. Francis Xavier Baptizing" c. 1700
57. Guadalajara Cathedral
58. Parían Market " Market Manila, called the Parian . Juan Francisco de Ravenet and Bunel . Collection of drawings and prints of the Malaspina Expedition 1789-1794 . MN This is the only known drawing of Chinatown Manila, shortly before its demolition was ordered . Many of the characters depicted were the subject of a portrait by the same artist. " Known Drawing, 1521 1898 , Little Manila , Philippines 1521 , Single Drawing, Drawings , Spanish Philippines , Manila , Manila Call

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The Spanish Pancada and Chinese Revolt
From the beginning, Spanish authorities were troubled by the business methods and ethics of the Hokkien traders. Their tendency was to warehouse their merchandize after they sailed up an estuary of the Pasig at high tide, directly into the lagoon in the middle of the Parián where they docked, there to wait patiently for optimal market conditions that would fetch them the best prices; this method required that they hung around Manila indefinitely.[12] (Santamaria, pp. 89-90; Sugaya, p. 113; Salazar, no pagination; pp. 228 in Blair and Robertson translation). If they were unable to sell off by May, in time for the galleons which departed for Mexico in late June, they simply held on to their wares until the following year, gambling that prices would improve. While acknowledging that the Sangleys bargained skillfully and used credit astutely (“Es gente muy plática, e intelijente en la mercancía, … para hazer mejor su negocio; y saben fiar…”) (These people are very sociable, they are intelligent about their wares...in order to make the most of their business and to guarantee…), these tactics frustrated and infuriated the Mexican buyers and Spanish authorities, who accused them of all sorts of bad behavior and motives: “…como jente sin ley ni conciencia, y tan codiciosa, hazen mil fraudes, y engaños en la mercaderías,” (...how people without laws or conscience, and very greedy, make a thousand frauds, and win in the marketplace) thereby encouraging Mexicans to also default on payments and engage in other fraudulent activities, keeping the courts well occupied. He should know, as he was one of the high judges (oidor). (Morga, p. 313)
To resolve what they perceived to be a serious problem if not quite a crisis, Spanish authorities devised a system of exchange, called the pancada, that was imposed only on the Hokkien traders by 1593, perhaps earlier. In August 1589, the Emperor, Philip II, sent instructions to Governor Dasmariñas to take control of disposing goods from the Chinese junks: “… no Chinese or foreign ships could sell at retail the goods which they carried to the islands, as is done now; nor could the inhabitants buy the goods, openly or in secret, under severe penalties. The purchase of the said goods was to be discussed by the Council, and as many and so qualfied persons as the business demanded were to be appointed. These persons alone should buy in a lot all the merchandise brought by the ships, and then distribute it fairly among the citizens, Spanish, the Chinese, and the Indians, a the same price at which it should be appraised.” (Philip II, p. 138-39) It forced the Hokkien merchants, immediately upon their arrival, to sell their cargoes of merchandize in bulk and wholesale, and at fixed prices, to a select committee of two or three persons. The committee would then distribute the goods to Mexican merchants in proportion to the amount of money they were able to invest. (Cunningham, p. 80; Philip II) The arrangement was meant to give all the Mexican merchants a chance to purpose Chinese merchandize, while preventing the Chinese from demanding exorbitant prices. (Cunningham, p. 80) But of course, such a rigged market robbed the Hokkien merchants of a fair chance of maximizing profits, while limiting the range of exchanges that Mexican merchants could engage in as well. The pancada system was supplemented by the “boleto” (lottery) system whereby available space on board the galleons was allocated to Mexican merchants in Manila.
From its inception, the pancada was highly unpopular and broke down because both Mexican and Hokkien merchants refused to abide by it. Even government officials, not to mention merchants, were inconvenienced because they had specific consignments of goods that were pre-arranged and pre-paid. These consignments were “surreptitiously unloaded and stored” in the Parián; others simply arranged to make their purchases before official prices were fixed, usually paying a higher price in exchange for choice merchandize. So both Mexican and Hokkien merchants conspired to end the practice by ignoring or circumventing it, even if the law remained in the books for some time. It also did not work to diminish the number of Chinese who chose to reside more or less permanently in the Parián. Concludes Filipina historian Milagros Guerrero, attempts to implement this flawed arrangement “had, if anything, strengthened Chinese hold on the commerce as well as on the economic life of the country.” She adds: “The increase in the number of Chinese in the city due to the junk trade was as inevitable as it was significant.” (Guerrero, p. 24; Bernal 1966, p. 45)
By contrast, Mexican authorities contrived to control prices in their favor, while trying to dissuade growing numbers of Sangley, who might number two thousand or more at high season, from tarrying long in the Parían. In their estimation the large “infidel” Sangley population posed an imminent danger to social stability and peace. Mincing no words, the ever present and observant Morga explained, “Desto, nacen muy grandes inconvenientes: porque demás que con tanto número de infieles, puede a ver poca seguridad de la tierra, son jente mala y viciosa.” ( In fact, very big obstacles were born: because of these {Sangley} others, there were so many numbers of infidels, and they could lessen the security of the land, [because] they are a wicked and vicious people.) Moreover, so many of them meant they consumed too much available food. “Y por ser tantos y grandes comedores, encareçen los bastimentos, y los consumen.” (Morga, p. 319) (And because there are so many and so many big eaters, they raised the price of the wares and supply and ate it all.)

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^{[12] This lagoon, or pond, was fed by an islet carrying water from the sea.}