Dimming the Seas around Borneo
Contesting Island Sovereignty and Lighthouse Administration amidst the End of Empire, 1946–1948
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13014609 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Darlene R Saunders (0000-0003-2836-3906, Chinese University of Hong Kong, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 181-207 |
| Publication date | 2019-04-15 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | TRaNS Trans -Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2051-364X • E-ISSN: 2051-3658 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/trn.2019.5 |
| OpenAlex | W2938449712 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 20 |
This article examines issues of island sovereignty and lighthouse administration in maritime Southeast Asia in the context of post-war decolonisation. It does so by demonstrating how lax and complacent colonial governance in British North Borneo led to the construction of a lighthouse on contested island territory. By the late 1940s these islands became the focal point of a regional dispute between the Philippines, North Borneo's colonial government, and the United Kingdom. While lighthouses were, in the colonial mind-set, deemed essential for illuminating the coasts and projecting order onto the seas, the Philippine government sought to renege on colonial-era obligations and wrest a new sense of post-colonial legitimacy. The legacy of the Turtle Island transfer was therefore significant in recalibrating imperial lighting in the Sulu Sea, as well as giving rise to a Philippine post-colonial authority that was characterised by an acknowledgement of indigenous Suluk maritime heritage. Similarly, it reflected an extension of previous instances of transnational disputes in the region, where the island shoal had been simultaneously claimed and administered by the United States, the United Kingdom and the historical Sulu Sultanate. While the lighthouse remained destroyed, and the seas dimmed, by mid-1948 the Turtle Islands had attained a new post-colonial and transnational status. Utilising a range of archival sources, memoirs and published material, this article sheds light on an under-examined period of Southeast Asian history
Administration (probate law · Ancient history · Archaeology · Colonialism · Context (archaeology · Decolonization · Economic history · Empire · Ethnology · Geography · Government (linguistics · Indigenous · Legitimacy · Political science · Politics · Sovereignty · Asian Studies and History · Australian History and Society · History · Law · Socioeconomic Development in Asia
Islam, Gender, and Social Change
The Anglo‐Spanish‐German Treaty of 1885
Rogue Empires
The United States and Malaysia
The ‘Migrated Archives’ and a Forgotten Corner of Empire
Philippines Urged to Survey Outlying Neglected Islands
Borneo in Fragments
The national or the social? problems of nation-building in post-world war II Philippines
American Activity in North Borneo, 1865-1881
Under Chartered Company Rule (North Borneo 1881–1946)
The History of the Philippines
Infrastructural Globalization
Indigenous Trade and European Economic Intervention in North-West Borneo c.1860–1930
The Politics of the Forest in Colonial Malaya
Hantu' and Highway
Under Chartered Company Rule (North Borneo 1881-1946)
Sulu and Sabah. A Study of British Policy Towards the Philippines and North Borneo from the Late Eighteenth Century
Legal Spaces of Empire
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,2 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2021 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |