Recapping the World History Seminar “Native Spies and Imperial Designs across Portuguese Asia: Macau, 1626; Goa, 1634” conducted by Prof. Jorge FLORES on 6 October 2022

Prof. Jorge FLORES, from the Department of History and Philosophy of Sciences, University of Lisbon, was invited by the Centre for Comparative and Public History to deliver a lecture entitled “Native Spies and Imperial Designs across Portuguese Asia: Macau, 1626; Goa, 1634” on 6 October 2022. Prof. FLORES firstly reviewed the previous studies of spies to frame some of the issues and examined the geopolitical context of the colonies of European powers including the Dutch and the Portuguese in the 17th century. Drawing largely on the primary sources and a comparable analysis of pertinent cases, he unveilled the complex issues of agents, networks, and technologies of information of the Portuguese covering from East Africa to East Asia. To be specific, the first case presented a report dedicated to the authorities of Macau by the Chinese convert Salvador Dias concerning the status quo of Taiwan in 1626. The second one, on the other hand, showed a detailed picture of the situation in the Deccan sultanate of Bijapur in 1634. It was prepared by an anonymous Hindu Brahman upon the request of the viceroy of Goa. Overall, the two cases shed light on the intelligence gathering systems and political ethnography of early modern European empires like Portugal in Asia.

World History Seminar (2022-23)

Organisers: Centre for Comparative and Public History, Department of History, CUHK
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