Leonard Blussé
Biographic Data
| ID | 612374 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Leonard Blussé |
| GIVEN NAMES | Leonard |
| FAMILY NAME | Blussé |
| SIGNATURE | BLUSSÉ L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Leiden University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6248-8943 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 59 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 96 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 56 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 3 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1978 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
The Origin and Rhythm of Dutch Aggression against the Estado da India, 1601-1661
it is a commonplace that the VOC, or Dutch East India Company, reduced the Estado da India Oriental to a minor entity between 1602, the year of its formation, and 1661, but it is surprising that neither Dutch nor Portuguese historians have taken an especially close look at precisely how this rivalry began and what strategic pattern the Dutch attackers followed
Navigational Practices and the Use of the Leeboard on Shallow Draft Riverine and Coastal Craft in the Yangzi and Rhine Estuaries: A Short Essay in Comparative Nautical History
Both in the shallow Yangtze and Rhine deltas, flat-bottomed sailing craft made use of leeboards to prevent the drift of the ship when reaching or sailing close-hauled. Without a doubt, the leeboard was invented earlier in China, but contrary to what is often suggested, the Dutch leeboard was not adopted from the Chinese example. Its invention should be considered an independent act, a case of convergence. The leeboard was introduced in the Low Co…
Angelie Sens, De kolonieman. Johannes van den Bosch (1780-1844), volksverheffer in naam van de koning
Three Men in a Boat? How the Suminokura, Caron, and the Zheng Experienced the Regime Changes in East Asia (1600–1670): An Essay in Global Microhistory
This article, originally presented as a public lecture at the occasion of the Fukuoka Prize Ceremony in September 2019, approaches from biographical and microhistorical perspectives the careers of three early-modern protagonists, Suminokura Ryōi, François Caron, and Zheng Zhilong, who were all involved in the maritime trade of the Eastern Seas. It shows how these Japanese, Dutch, and Chinese entrepreneurs became entangled with the epochal changes…
Towards a Hybrid Seagoing Ship: The Transfer and Exchange of Maritime Know-How and Shipbuilding Technology Between Holland and Japan Before the Opening of Japan (1853)
The Chinese Annals of Batavia, the Kai Ba Lidai Shiji and Other Stories (1610-1795)
In The Chinese Annals of Batavia, the Kai Ba Lidai Shiji and Other Stories (1610-1795) Leonard Blussé and Nie Dening open up a veritable treasure trove of Chinese archival sources about the autonomous history of Chinese Batavia. The main part of this study is devoted to the annotated translation of a unique historical study of the Chinese community of Batavia (Jakarta) written by an anonymous Chinese author at the end of the 18th century, the Kai…
The Kai Ba Lidai Shiji 开吧历代史记 An autonomous history of the Chinese community of Batavia/ Jakarta in the VOC period
This essay critically examines the Kai Ba Lidai Shiji (Annals of Batavia), a Chinese history of Batavia which was written by an anonymous Chinese author around 1794 as part of the rather large corpus of Chinese archival sources about the history of the Chinese community of Batavia/Jakarta. A short introduction about earlier authors who have dealt with the text is followed by comments on the composition, structure and historical value of this uniq…
On the Eighteenth Century as a Category of Asian History: Van Leur in Retrospect
The starting point of this volume is the scathing attack, far-reaching in its consequences, launched in 1942 by J.C. van Leur on the views then current on the character and significance of the 18th century as a category in Asian history. His denial of European pre-eminence in Asian waters represented a direct attack on colonial historiography. The essays here derive from an international conference held 50 years later, to assess the impact of van…
Of Hewers of Wood and Drawers of Water: Leiden University’s Early Sinologists (1854–1911)
The Leiden school of Sinology was basically a one-teacher training institution for Chinese interpreters in the service of the Dutch colonial government, and it comes as no surprise its main contribution lay in the practical study of Chinese overseas communities in the Dutch East Indies and their relationship to their homelands in China, the coastal provinces of Guangdong and Fujian. A general history of the Dutch corps of Chinese interpreters in …
A Gentle Man of Many Talents: An Interview with Nicholas Tarling
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Gang Zhao. The Qing Opening to the Ocean: Chinese Maritime Policies, 1684–1757
Globalization theory has forced many historians of Asia to rethink the continent's recent, and increasingly also the not-so-recent, past. This applies as well to historians of Chinese maritime trade. This subject has traditionally been studied by students of John King Fairbank, largely on the basis of archival documents from the Chinese bureaucracy and within the framework of China's tributary relationship with the surrounding world. Yet as early…
Peeking into the Empires: Dutch Embassies to the Courts of China and Japan
In the 1660s the renowned publishing company of Jacob van Meurs in Amsterdam published three richly illustrated monographs that fundamentally changed the European perceptions of the empires of China and Japan. It all started with the publication in 1665 of the travel notes and sketches that Joan Nieuhof had made ten years earlier, while travelling in the retinue of two Dutch envoys to the Manchu court in Peking. With no less than 150 copper print…
Port Cities Of South East Asia: 1400–1800
"In 2008 for the first time the majority of the planet's inhabitants lived in cities and towns. Becoming globally urban has been one of mankind's greatest collective achievements over time and raises many questions. How did global city systems evolve and interact in the past? How have historic urban patterns impacted on those of the contemporary world? And what were the key drivers in the roller-coaster of urban change over the millennia - market…
Networks of empire, forced migration in the Dutch East India Company - By Kerry Ward: Book Reviews
Junks to Java: Chinese Shipping to the Nanyang in the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century
Junks to JaVachinese Shipping to the nanyang in the Second half of the eighteenth century Leonard BlussThe sea is the most extensive of all things.In the southeastern islands barbarians live in great numbers, infinitely far away between the clouds and the waves.Therefore men of letters did not go there in the past.Now that the virtue and splendor of the emperor has spread everywhere, the maritime world is tranquil.Every year ships sail to faraway…
Studying Southeast Asia in and for Southeast Asia. An Interview with Anthony Reid
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The archives of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the local institutions in Batavia, Jakarta
Visible Cities: Canton, Nagasaki, and Batavia and the Coming of the Americans
The eighteenth century witnessed the rise of the China market and the changes that resulted in global consumption patterns, from opium smoking to tea drinking. In a valuable transnational perspective, Blussé chronicles the economic and cultural transformations in East Asia through three key cities—Canton, Nagasaki, and Batavia
The Deshima Diaries: Marginalia 1740-1800
English translation of the marginalia, or marginal notes, that were added to the text of the Deshima Diaries from the 1670's onwards in order to provide the Dutch chief of Deshima with a quick reference to the notes of his predecessors. This volume covers the marginalia from the 1740-4800 diaries. Providing the general public, and especially those who have neither a command of Dutch nor of Japanese access to a fascinating period of Japanese histo…
A Glimpse behind the Screens: Some Remarks on the Significance of the Deshima Dagregisters for the Study of Tokugawa Japan
Some Remarks on the Significance of the Deshima Dagregisters for the Study of Tokugawa Japan.T he Dutch resident merchants who lived from 1641 until 1860 on the isle of Deshima in Nagasaki Bay cannot boast of much popularity among Western students of Japanese culture; indeed they are the frequent targets of scathing comments.The original criticism was directed at the obsequiousness of the Company officials.Knocking their heads and crawling over m…
The Archives of the Kong Koan of Batavia
The archive of the Kong Koan constitutes the only relatively complete archive of a “diaspora” Chinese urban community in Southeast Asia. The essays in the present volume offer important and new insights into many different aspects of Overseas Chinese life between 1780-1965. The Kong Koan of colonial Batavia was a semi-autonomous organization, in which the local elite of Jakarta’s Chinese community supervised and coordinated its social and religio…
I didn't get into history to avoid math or physics’: An Interview with Patricia Seed, Professor of Rice University
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Four Hundred Years On: The Public Commemoration of the Founding of the VOC in 2002
In our Age of the Discovery of Space, many people still enjoy commemorating the Age of Global Exploration and Discovery. In 1992, the 500th anniversary of Columbus' epic voyage to the Caribbean islands off the American continent was celebrated in Spain and America, and in 1998 and 2000 Portugal also commemorated its Age of Descobrimentos in Africa, South America and Asia. Various campaigns are underway in China to celebrate in 2004 the 600th (!) …
Bridging the Divide: 400 Years the Netherlands-Japan
In Memory of Ashin Das Gupta and Charles Boxer
Recently Itinerario has lost two of its oldest and staunchest friends and subscribers. Ashin Das Gupta (1932) passed away in 1998 and just before this issue was due to go to press we were informed by Professor Dauril Alden that Charles Ralph Boxer (1903) had died at the great age of 96
Maritime Asia, 1500-1800: The Interactive Emergence of European Domination
Visible Cities: Canton, Nagasaki, and Batavia and the Coming of the Americans
The eighteenth century witnessed the rise of the China market and the changes that resulted in global consumption patterns, from opium smoking to tea drinking. In a valuable transnational perspective, Blussé chronicles the economic and cultural transformations in East Asia through three key cities—Canton, Nagasaki, and Batavia
Batavia, 1619–1740: The Rise and Fall of a Chinese Colonial Town
The rise and fall of a Chinese colonial town within Batavia was closely related to the transmutation in Batavia's function as a capital. In the early seventeenth century it was founded as the headquarters to a — mainly inter-Asian — maritime trading East Indies Company at war with the Iberian enemy. As the staple town to the Company, “ het magazijn van derzelven producten ”, it served both strategic and mercantile goals. From the late seventeenth…
No Boats to China. The Dutch East India Company and the Changing Pattern of the China Sea Trade, 1635-1690
By 1690 the Supreme Government of the Indies in Batavia agreed that, financially speaking, it was no longer wise to continue the direct trade between the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and China. It was argued that the vessels so far used for the China trade could be better deployed in the Indian Ocean
Chinese Century. The Eighteenth Century in the China Sea Region
Blussé Léonard. Chinese Century. The Eighteenth Century in the China Sea Region. In: Archipel, volume 58, 1999. L'horizon nousantarien. Mélanges en hommage à Denys Lombard (Volume III) pp. 107-129
Chinese Trade to Batavia during the days of the V.O.C
Blussé Léonard. Chinese Trade to Batavia during the days of the V.O.C. In: Archipel, volume 18, 1979. Commerces et navires dans les mers du Sud. pp. 195-213
The Role of Indonesian Chinese in Shaping Modern Indonesian Life: A Conference in Retrospect
Long before anyone could imagine that the Republic of Indonesia and the People's Republic of China would reestablish diplomatic relations in August 1990, the idea was conceived to convene a conference on the cultural heritage and the social and economic roles of the Indonesian Chinese. This idea was brought to fruition in the symposium on the Role of the Indonesian Chinese in Shaping Modem Indonesian Life, which was held at Cornell University in …
Peeking into the Empires: Dutch Embassies to the Courts of China and Japan
In the 1660s the renowned publishing company of Jacob van Meurs in Amsterdam published three richly illustrated monographs that fundamentally changed the European perceptions of the empires of China and Japan. It all started with the publication in 1665 of the travel notes and sketches that Joan Nieuhof had made ten years earlier, while travelling in the retinue of two Dutch envoys to the Manchu court in Peking. With no less than 150 copper print…
Labour takes Root; Mobilization and Immobilization of Javanese Rural Society under the Cultivation System
In the production of tropical export crops, the factor labour has always overshadowed the two other factors, land and capital. In the days prior to the mechanisation of agriculture, that is to say, far into the second half of the 19th century, the factor capital almost coincided with labour. “Des bras, des bras, toujours des bras” as the saying went among the planters of the Mascareignes. However, it would be wrong to suggest that before the indu…
Port Cities Of South East Asia: 1400–1800
"In 2008 for the first time the majority of the planet's inhabitants lived in cities and towns. Becoming globally urban has been one of mankind's greatest collective achievements over time and raises many questions. How did global city systems evolve and interact in the past? How have historic urban patterns impacted on those of the contemporary world? And what were the key drivers in the roller-coaster of urban change over the millennia - market…
Bridging the Divide: 400 Years the Netherlands-Japan
X. The Run to the Coast: Comparative Notes on Early Dutch and English Expansion and State Formation in Asia
Certain stages of the European expansion process into Asia during the Age of Commercial Capitalism lend themselves well to the comparative historical approach because of the startling similarities and contrasts they offer. The Dutch and English commercial leaps forward into the Orient, for instance, occurred at the same time in the organisational framework of chartered East India Companies - the English East India Company (EIC) and the Dutch Vere…
Brief Encounter at Macao
The real issue at stake is the following: Since 1595 merchants from Holland and Zeeland have sent ships for trading purposes to several islands of the Indies that are not dependent upon Portugal. Now when the crews of these ships as well as the natives that were friendly to them had suffered great losses of lives and possessions due to the mischief of the Portuguese and their henchmen-unreliable and violent people who did not shrink from openly a…
Testament to a Towkay: Jan Con, Batavia and the Dutch China Trade
Among historians, Southeast Asia's Overseas Chinese have never enjoyed much popularity. They are in many respects a “People without a History,” having left behind no substantial deposit of experience and having failed to produce a school of historians to write their own history from an insider's perspective. Apart from their ethnic and cultural background, what distinguishes the hua-chiao from the indigenous peoples of Southeast Asia is the inter…
Le “Modern World System” et l'Extrême-Orient, Plaidoyer pour un seizième siècle négligé
Dans le cadre de la problématique du développement et du sous-développement, l'Extrême Orient forme un chapitre à part, à cause des voies assez remarquables que la Chine, le Japon et la Corée ont empruntées pour la modernisation). C'est l'impérialisme occidental qui a provoqué cette modernisation au cours du processus d'incorporation de l'Extrême-Orient dans l'économie capitaliste dont les Etats-Unis et l'Europe occidentale formaient les axes
The Seventh Conference of the International Association of Historians of Asia. August 22-26, 1977 in Bangkok
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The Source Publications of the Daghregisters (Journals) of Zeelandia Castle at Tayouan (Formosa) 1629-1662
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C.J.A. Jörg, Porcelein als handelswaar, De porceleinhandel als onderdeel van de China handel van de V.O.C. 1729–1794. Leiden1978, viii, 387 pp, 20 ills., tables, bibliography, index. Price: Unknown, (…
C.J.A. Jörg, Porcelein als handelswaar, De porceleinhandel als onderdeel van de China handel van de V.O.C. 1729–1794. Leiden1978, viii, 387 pp, 20 ills., tables, bibliography, index. Price: unknown, (available with the author, address: Kajuit 38, Groningen). - Volume 3 Issue 2
Japanese Historiography and European Sources
The Arsip Nasional of Jakarta
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Histoire et sous-développement: Deuxième colloque historique franco-néerlandais
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Chinese Trade to Batavia during the days of the V.O.C
Blussé Léonard. Chinese Trade to Batavia during the days of the V.O.C. In: Archipel, volume 18, 1979. Commerces et navires dans les mers du Sud. pp. 195-213
Le “Modern World System” et l'Extrême-Orient, Plaidoyer pour un seizième siècle négligé
Dans le cadre de la problématique du développement et du sous-développement, l'Extrême Orient forme un chapitre à part, à cause des voies assez remarquables que la Chine, le Japon et la Corée ont empruntées pour la modernisation). C'est l'impérialisme occidental qui a provoqué cette modernisation au cours du processus d'incorporation de l'Extrême-Orient dans l'économie capitaliste dont les Etats-Unis et l'Europe occidentale formaient les axes
A Baedeker to the Rijksarchief
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Le deuxième colloque historique Indonésie-Hollande —Ujung Pandang, juin 1978
Blussé Léonard, Pelras Christian. Le deuxième colloque historique Indonésie-Hollande —Ujung Pandang, juin 1978. In: Archipel, volume 19, 1980. pp. 19-23
Companies and Trade
Batavia, 1619–1740: The Rise and Fall of a Chinese Colonial Town
The rise and fall of a Chinese colonial town within Batavia was closely related to the transmutation in Batavia's function as a capital. In the early seventeenth century it was founded as the headquarters to a — mainly inter-Asian — maritime trading East Indies Company at war with the Iberian enemy. As the staple town to the Company, “ het magazijn van derzelven producten ”, it served both strategic and mercantile goals. From the late seventeenth…
Colloque franco-neérlandais: Quelques réflexions au sujet de La position des femmes dans la société coloniale
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A Brief Introduction to the South Seas Research Institute, University of Amoy, China
During the winter of 1980-1981 I visited China as a guest-lecturer and researcher on the invitation of both the Chinese Ministry of Education and Amoy University. The lecture schedule took me from Peking University to the southeastern coastal province of Fukien where short visits were paid to Fuchou, Ch'üanchou, and Changchou before settling down for a fortnight's stay at Amoy University. This introduction will be solely devoted to the Nanyang In…
The Caryatids of Batavia: Reproduction, religion and acculturation under the V.O.C
It is often claimed that the absence, or bias, of sources makes the writing of a balanced history of women impossible. This kind of reasoning is not new. The same has been propounded about the writing of the history of the proletariat, colonized peoples and other downtrodden groups. When invited to contribute a paper on the women of ancient regime Batavia I was initially strongly reminded of this complaint1. Travel accounts that have come down to…
Companies and Trade: Essays on Overseas Trading Companies during the Ancien Regime
Labour takes Root; Mobilization and Immobilization of Javanese Rural Society under the Cultivation System
In the production of tropical export crops, the factor labour has always overshadowed the two other factors, land and capital. In the days prior to the mechanisation of agriculture, that is to say, far into the second half of the 19th century, the factor capital almost coincided with labour. “Des bras, des bras, toujours des bras” as the saying went among the planters of the Mascareignes. However, it would be wrong to suggest that before the indu…
A visit to the Past: Soulang, a Formosan Village anno 1623
Blussé Léonard, Roessingh Marius P.H. A visit to the Past: Soulang, a Formosan Village anno 1623. In: Archipel, volume 27, 1984. pp. 63-80
An Insane Administration and Insanitary Town: The Dutch East India Company and Batavia (1619–1799)
Testament to a Towkay: Jan Con, Batavia and the Dutch China Trade
Among historians, Southeast Asia's Overseas Chinese have never enjoyed much popularity. They are in many respects a “People without a History,” having left behind no substantial deposit of experience and having failed to produce a school of historians to write their own history from an insider's perspective. Apart from their ethnic and cultural background, what distinguishes the hua-chiao from the indigenous peoples of Southeast Asia is the inter…
Report on the First Cambridge-Delhi-Leiden-Yogyakarta conference: The End of Empire and the Emergence of the New Nations (1930–1950), Delhi, 3–5 January 1985
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In Memoriam Nagazumi Akira, 1929–1987
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X. The Run to the Coast: Comparative Notes on Early Dutch and English Expansion and State Formation in Asia
Certain stages of the European expansion process into Asia during the Age of Commercial Capitalism lend themselves well to the comparative historical approach because of the startling similarities and contrasts they offer. The Dutch and English commercial leaps forward into the Orient, for instance, occurred at the same time in the organisational framework of chartered East India Companies - the English East India Company (EIC) and the Dutch Vere…
Brief Encounter at Macao
The real issue at stake is the following: Since 1595 merchants from Holland and Zeeland have sent ships for trading purposes to several islands of the Indies that are not dependent upon Portugal. Now when the crews of these ships as well as the natives that were friendly to them had suffered great losses of lives and possessions due to the mischief of the Portuguese and their henchmen-unreliable and violent people who did not shrink from openly a…
Pioneers or cattle for the slaughterhouse? A rejoinder to A.R.T. Kemasang
History (40 works) · Political science (31 works) · History (24 works) · Archaeology (22 works) · Asian Studies and History (22 works) · Ancient history (20 works) · Law (19 works) · Geography (17 works) · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories (17 works) · China (16 works)