Naval Power

""This book offers annotated translations of documents touching on Dutch admiral Cornelis Matelieff de Jonge and his voyage to Asia between 1605 and 1608. These translations are aimed at a contemporary English-speaking Asian readership interested in the early modern history of European trade, warfare and expansion in Southeast Asia with a focus on Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. Researchers specialising in early European colonialism, international law, international relations, security studies, and diplomatic history will also find that the documents translated in this volume offer new and unfamiliar perspectives. Materlieff’s business acumen, military and diplomataic prowess as well as his vision of empire all have implications for examining not only European expansion into Southeast Asia, but also into other regions at large, including especially south Asia, Africa and the Americas.
Admiral Matelieff was a director of the Rotterdam Chamber of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) formed in 1602. He was appointed fleet commander on one of the company’s first voyages to Asia. Matelieff’s mission was both commercial and military: he launched a major sea-borne attack on the Portuguese colony of Melaka, arranged for the signing of treaties with the rulers of Johor, Aceh and Ternate, and founded the first Dutch fort on the island of Ternate. His endeavours, however, to open the Chinese market for the Dutch company proved unsuccessful.
Following his return to the Dutch Republic in September 1608, Matelieff penned a series of memorials and letters. In these he advanced recommendations for changing the way the company organized its fleets and conducted business. More importantly he offered  his Dutch contemporaries a vision of empire in Asia. The materials contained in this volume offer important observations of a perceptive analyst who was also determined to grasp the political and economic structures of Asia, and also of inter-state relations in across this vast region. At a time of Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, French and English engagement in Southeast Asia, Matelieff sought to critically assess and strategize on the ways in which Europeans were increasingly engaging with Asian polities and their rulers.
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La ruta comercial conocida como Nao de China, Galeón de Acapulco o Galeón de Manila, se instituyó rápidamente como la base para la consolidación del control político y económico que la corona española buscaba mantener e, incluso, aumentar en las recientemente descubiertas Filipinas. Se trataba de un enclave estratégico de primer orden, ante las ambiciones expansionistas de sus rivales portugueses que, con anterioridad, ya se habían instalado en las cercanas Molucas. Tanto es así, que esta ruta se mantuvo en funcionamiento 250 años, desde 1565 hasta 1815, y se encargó de comunicar los mercados orientales y europeos, conectando puertos estratégicos como Manila, Acapulco o Veracruz,  en los continentes asiático y americano para, desde éste último, enlazar con Europa a través de Sevilla. Se trataba de una ruta comercial que pretendía aprovechar los nuevos territorios imperiales, y el apenas explorado océano Pacífico, para posibilitar la llegada de los productos asiáticos a Europa a través de una nueva vía, frente a las tradicionales terrestres constituidas desde siglos atrás, como la tan famosa Ruta de la Seda, y al reciente descubrimiento portugués del paso que bordeaba África.

Mycenae culture became due to its own merits, the most important one in continental Greece for more than four centuries all along the II Millennium B.C. Its commercial importance due to the fact they took advantage of the minoans exchange routes and their own economic interests made them reach far regions even in Central Mediterranean and the Near East. But all of that must’ve been difficult if they hadn’t encountered a powerful army who support their colonial and commercial adventures. Numerous Lineal B writings, pictorial and archaeological remains are witness to the importance the military world provides to those former Mycenaean. Therefore, in this article we will try to show the diverse aspects related to the Mycenaean army who supported its power in continental Greece in spite of this, neither the reforms taken in 13th century B.C. got that mycenaeans culture survival, when their settlements were destroyed.

"After a long summer replete with tensions and incidents in both the South China and East China Seas, the new year failed to bring renewed hopes for a peaceful resolution to the myriad territorial conflicts casting a shadow on the Asia-Pacific Region. Rather the contrary, renewed incidents, naval rearmament, claims and counterclaims, not always veiled threats to resort to force, and decentralized boycott campaigns and cyberspace clashes. One novelty was the decision by the Philippines to try a new tack in its clash with China, resorting to a tool not previously employed by any of the claimants, namely a request for arbitration under UNCLOS (the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea). Although this gambit was rejected by China, and the ultimate fate of the case is still uncertain, this paper examines the legal positions of Manila and Beijing in the context of their wider dispute, and the far-reaching implications of the case.

The request had to take into account China’s decision to opt out of UNCLOS arbitration on certain issues pertaining to their conflict, above all the exact delimitation of maritime borders. Although the Philippines’ arbitration request did not thus refer to maritime boundaries per se, it is still not  completely clear whether the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) will accept the case. An arbitration tribunal, made up of five judges, has been convened, but has not yet ruled on whether it has jurisdiction. Of particular interest in light of the ongoing China-Japan territorial conflict over Diaoyutai/Senkakus is the fact that ITLOS is headed by a Japanese judge. Although not a party to the South China Sea dispute, Tokyo has provided a measure of support on maritime issues to Manila and Hanoi in recent years. The US and India are also strongly interested in the dispute.

Some see the case as a test of whether international law and tribunals such as ITLOS can contribute to peaceful resolution of outstanding territorial disputes in Asia in a time of profound transformation. It is particularly relevant in view of the disparity in size and military potential between the Philippines and China, although the former is supported by other powers.

The paper examines all these legal issues, within their wider political, economic, diplomatic, and military context."

A native of Bruges (now part of Belgium), Jacques de Coutre was a gem trader who spent nearly a decade in Southeast Asia in the early 17th century. In addition to a substantial autobiography written in Spanish and preserved in the National Library of Spain in Madrid, he wrote a series of memorials to the united crown of Spain and Portugal that contain recommendations designed to reverse the decline in the fortunes of the Iberian powers in Southeast Asia, particularly against the backdrop of early Dutch political and commercial penetration into the region. Translated into English for the first time, these materials provide a valuable first-hand account of the bigger issues confronting the early colonial powers in Southeast Asia, and deep insights into the societies De Coutre encountered in the territory that today makes up Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.

A reading of the schemes on the analysis of risks and threats facing Spain in the main documents of the defense is not a priori consistent with the character of maritime nation our country that give both the defense White Paper, the Strategic Defence Review and more recently the Spanish Military Strategy. Perhaps the approach is too much to list a case no earthly perspective therefore, the implications for security and defense of Spain, and consistently to the Spanish Armada, holds the consideration of this panoply of risks and threats from a maritime and subsequent naval view.

This paper discusses the various strategies used by the United States and its partners to protect and improve maritime security around the globe.  This paper discusses both successes and weaknesses and offers recommendations to improve American maritime security.