I am passionate about history, especially the history of geographical explorations and colonialism.
When the fifth centenary of the first trip around the world (1519-1522) is commemorated, the ultimate goal of which was to reach the Moluccas Islands and obtain access to the spices of these islands for the Spanish crown, the documentary The Odyssey of the Spices is presented. This historical documentary, off approximately 55 minutes, is […]
Written by : Fransisco Soarez Pati, S.H Email: fransisco78@gmail.com O Arbiru is the name of a Portuguese flagged cargo ship with a deadweight of 400 tons. In the 1973 period when the Timor Leste was still an Overseas Province (Ultramarinas Provincia) under the rule of the Portuguese colonial government, this overseas province was led by […]
Written by : Francisco Soarez Pati, S.H Email: fransisco78@gmail.com Photos by Fransisco Soarez Pati, S.H The Portuguese was the first Europeans country to conquer a number of areas in the Nusantara. The territory that was conquered by the Portuguese was then captured by the Dutch by war, negotiation, deceit, fighting and buying and selling under […]
Written by Fransisco Soarez Pati, S.H Email: fransisco78@gmail.com Photos by Fransisco Soarez Pati, S.H Paga is a sub district in Sikka district, Flores island on East Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia. This area is still included in the Lio ethnic area, which borders with Ende District in the west part. The local mythology tells that Paga […]
Colloquium on the Manila Galleon and the Spice Route, organized by the Indonesian Hidden Heritage Creative Hub, with the collaboration of the embassies of Spain, the Philippines and Mexico in Indonesia. Saturday 20 May 2023 – Museum Bahari – Jakarta – Indonesia
Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. The fortress of Nossa Senhora dos Remédios is the most important fortification of the entire defensive system built on the island of Fernando de Noronha (Brazil) by the Portuguese in the eighteenth century and is located on a hill between the Bay of Santo António […]
Written by Geoffrey A. P. Groesbeck San Rafael de Velasco, the second oldest mission settlement in the Chiquitania, was established in 1696 by the Jesuit missionaries Juan Bautista Zea and Francisco Hervás (each of whom later co-founded two other missions). It was settled largely as what was then anticipated as an eventual way stop along […]
Written by Geoffrey A. P. Groesbeck Santa Ana de Velasco, founded in 1755, holds the distinction of being the only Chiquitos mission founded by one individual, the Jesuit missionary Julián Nogler. It is also is the only settlement that has its original church almost wholly intact (restoration on it is ongoing), which also happens to […]
Written by Geoffrey A. P. Groesbeck San José de Chiquitos, the third-oldest Jesuit mission in the Chiquitania and one of the prettiest, was founded in 1697 by Felipe Suárez (who later co-founded San Miguel de Velasco to the north) and Dionisio Avila. Relocated in 1706, it was its new location that made it the most […]
Written by Geoffrey A. P. Groesbeck San Ignacio de Velasco was founded in 1748, primarily for the benefit of the local Ugaraño peoples, by Jesuits Miguel Areijer and Diego Contreras. It was settled in part by the inhabitants of a former reducción, San Ignacio de Zamucos, which was destroyed three years earlier. One of the […]
Written by Geoffrey A. P. Groesbeck Concepción was first established as the mission of La Inmaculada Concepción in 1699, although this settlement lasted only until 1704. It was re-established in 1709 (a date that some historians incorrectly claim as its founding), and incorporated the nearby ephemeral mission of San Ignacio de Boococas in 1712. Concepción […]
Written by Geoffrey A. P. Groesbeck San Javier (originally San Francisco Xavier de los Piñocas), the earliest permanent Jesuit mission in the Chiquitania, was founded by the missionaries José de Arce and Antonio de Rivas on 31 December 1691. It was rebuilt three times (in 1696, 1698, and 1705-6) before assuming its present form in […]
Written by Geoffrey A P Groesbeck Introduction There is much still to discover regarding the early history of the Jesuit missions (reducciones1) of Chiquitos2 (1691-1767). By now it has been reasonably well documented3, albeit in greater detail in Spanish and German than in English. Over the last three decades, scholarly research on these missions’ individual […]
Written by Geoffrey A P Groesbeck Introduction It is a simple fact that no comprehensive history of the Jesuit missions of Chiquitos1 exists in English.2 There are numerous accounts in Spanish, most of which rely primarily upon two secondary sources dating from the nineteenth century: D’Orbigny’s recollections of his travels in the region between 1831 […]
Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. Situated on the Arguin island (today Mauritania), this was the first fort the Portuguese built in Africa. The fort remained under Portuguese control between 1445 and 1633. The Arguin area was explored by the Portuguese around the years 1442-1444 by Gonçalo de Sintra (1442), Dinis Dias (1442), […]
Written by Marco Ramerini. The island of Saint-Martin (Sint Maarten) is an island of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean. The island is located between the islands of Anguilla and Saint-Barthélemy and has the distinction of being divided between France and the Netherlands. This division dates back to the treaty signed by the two countries […]
Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. Fernando de Noronha was discovered by the Florentine Amerigo Vespucci in 1503. In 1504 the Crown granted the archipelago as a “capitania hereditária” to a Portuguese lord, Fernão de Noronha, from whom it takes its name. The archipelago was occupied by two other European nations […]
Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. THE PORTUGUESE CONQUEST At the time of the Portuguese arrival in the Asian seas, Malacca thanks to its strategic position on the strait bearing the same name, was a remarkable trading center for the trade and shunting of spices. At that time, Malacca was ruled […]
Written by Marco Ramerini. English text revision by Dietrich Köster. On 14 January 1641 the Dutch took possession from the Portuguese of the fortress of Malacca with the help of their ally the Sultan of Johore. The Dutch had treaties with the Johore Sultans to get rid of the Portuguese. The Malays were confident of […]
Written by Marco Ramerini. On this page I want to write about an interesting book that has just been published. The book tells the story of the spice islands and focuses on the fortifications that Europeans built on these islands to control their trade. The story narrated in Simon Pratt’s book begins with the first […]