Watchtowers in the Eighteenth-Century Philippines

Material Representations of Colonial State Power

Bibliographic Data

ID23474285
AuthorsEberhard Crailsheim (0000-0003-1387-9993, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, corresponding author)
Year2023
Pages45-69
Publication date2023-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenueFormative Modernities in the Early Modern Atlantic and Beyond (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherSpringer Nature Singapore (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/978-981-19-8417-4_3
OpenAlexW4320718414
ISBN9789811984174
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited20

The symbolic dimension of defensive structures has received rare historiographical attention. This chapter fills part of this gap by analyzing a widespread defensive structure in the Spanish colonial Philippines: watchtowers. These constructions were recurrent constituents of the coastal warning system and played a fundamental role in the defense against raiders from neighboring islands. After presenting the Philippine setting and contextualizing the Spanish-Asian colony, this chapter traces the development of these watchtowers in the eighteenth century and, in particular, the circumstances of their creation and usage. Tentative ideas will be presented in regard to possible semantic aspects of the watchtowers, going beyond their mere functionality. In doing so, it will become evident that watchtowers played an essential role as material manifestations of the colonial state in the Philippines.

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Colonialism · Dimension (graph theory) · Geography · Historiography · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Sociology · State (computer science) · State formation · Computer Science · Historical Studies on Spain · History · Law · Philippine History and Culture

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Open DOILibgenOpen Access