The conference was organized by the international research program "Historical Treaties of Southeast Asia".

Understanding the process of treaty-making

During the late sixteenth and early twentieth centuries, thousands of treaties were concluded between European (and later also US and Japanese) colonizers and Southeast Asian rulers. Many of them became parts of printed collections of treaties that came to serve colonial administrators. As such, their European language versions became legal instruments and tools of imperialism and as such have been studied through the lens of Western imperial expansion. 

– Most of these treaties were bi- or even trilingual. The discrepancies between the different language versions give insight to the complex processes of treaty-making, says Birgit. 

Cross-disciplinary dialogues

The conference, which took place at the University of the Philippines Diliman in Manila on February 29 to March 2, opened for discussing the latest research approaches towards historical treaties within a Southeast Asian academic setting. The conference was relevant in many ways, says Birgit. 

– First, it allowed for elucidating the historical context of treaty-making, second, it encouraged the integration of historical treaties with ongoing legal, political and academic debates, and third, it stimulated new cross-disciplinary dialogues between scholars and students that are likely to reshape the scholarly discourse with new questions, says Birgit.

In addition to representing the Swedish side of the project, Birgit presented a paper on her collaborative research on the treaty between the Sulu Sultanate and Spain of 1836 and participated in a roundtable discussion on the relationship between Colonialism/Imperialism and treaties and the latter’s relevance as sources of modern international law.

Lecture on the "Samurai of the Philippines"

During the trip to the Philippines, Birgit also gave a public lecture at the UP Asian Center about “The Samurai of the Philippines: Exploring the Genealogy of a Popular Trope”. 

– The lecture was well attended and invited stimulating trans-disciplinary discussions between students and faculty of history and area studies. The event was moreover a welcome opportunity to meet former students in person and to catch up with old colleagues and friends, says Birgit. 

Want to know more about the “Samurai of the Philippines”? Read more about the subject and a summary by Birgit Tremml-Werner here: 

The Samurai of the Philippines: Exploring the Genealogy of a Popular Trope

Read more about the project Historical Treaties in Southeast Asia: 

Historical Treaties of Southeast Asia

Birgit Tremml-Werner is an associate professor at the Department of History. Read more about her research: 

Birgit Tremml-Werner