Text is extracted from Encyclopedia Britanica Wikipedia and others.
Links to sources are provided.
AN AGE OF SPICES MAPS & SHIPS
In which an ancient appetite for incense in their temples, pepper on their gruel, nutmeg on their custard, cloves for their bad breath and toothache, cinnamon in mulled wine and gold ~ sends Europe on a shopping trip to the Indies. Maps are made. Ships are built. Lives lost. Fortunes made. Millennia of indigenous culture cut from its primal roots and subjugated to Progress. In the name of Empire. And a New World is built in the Forest from old wood.
The spice trade is a commercial activity of ancient origin which involves the merchandising of spices, incense, hemp, drugs and opium. Civilizations of Asia were involved in spice trade from the ancient times, and the Greco-Roman world soon followed by trading along the Incense route and the Roman-India routes. The Roman-Indian routeswere dependent upon techniques developed by the maritime trading power, Kingdom of Axum (ca 5th century BC–AD 11th century) which had pioneered the Red Sea route before the 1st century. By mid-7th century the rise of Islam closed off the overland caravan routes through Egypt and the Suez, and sundered the European trade community from Axum and India.
The Age of Discovery, also known as the Age of Exploration, was a period in history starting in the early 15th century and continuing into the early 17th century during which Europeans engaged in intensive exploration of the world, establishing direct contacts with Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania and mapping the planet. Historians often refer to the Age of Discovery as the pioneer Portuguese and Spanish long-distance maritime travels in search of alternative trade routes to “the Indies”, moved by the trade of gold, silver and spices.
~
REINHOLD BERG ANTIQUE MAPS
In the 10th century both Venice and Genoa began to prosper through trade in the Levant. Over the centuries a bitter rivalry developed between the two that culminated in the naval war of Chioggia (1378–81), in which Venice defeated Genoa and secured a monopoly of trade in the Middle East for the next century. Venice made exorbitant profits by trading spices with buyer-distributors from northern and western Europe. Although the origins of spices were known throughout Europe by the Middle Ages, no ruler proved capable of breaking the Venetian hold on the trade routes. Near the end of the 15th century, however, explorers began to build ships and venture abroad in search of new ways to reach the spice-producing regions. So began the famed voyages of discovery. In 1492 Christopher Columbus sailed under the flag of Spain, and in 1497 John Cabot sailed on behalf of England, but both failed to find the storied spice lands (though Columbus returned from his journey with many new fruits and vegetables, including chile peppers). Under the command of Pedro Álvares Cabral, a Portuguese expedition was the first to bring spices from India to Europe by way of the Cape of Good Hope in 1501. Portugal went on to dominate the naval trading routes through much of the 16th century.
The search for alternative trade routes persisted. Ferdinand Magellan took up the quest again for Spain in 1519 but was killed on Mactan Island in the Philippines in 1521. Of the five vessels under his command, only one, the Victoria, returned to Spain—but triumphantly so, with a cargo of spices.In 1577 the English admiral Francis Drake began his voyage around the world by way of the Strait of Magellan and the Spice Islands, ultimately sailing the Golden Hind, heavily laden with cloves from Ternate Island, into its home port of Plymouth in 1580.For Holland, a fleet under the command of Cornelis de Houtman sailed for the Spice Islands in 1595, and another, commanded by Jacob van Neck, put to sea in 1598. Both returned home with rich cargoes of cloves, mace, nutmeg, and black pepper. Their success laid the foundation for the prosperous Dutch East India Company, formed in 1602. Similarly, the French East India Company was organized in 1664 by state authorization under Louis XIV. Other East India companies chartered by European countries met with varying success. In subsequent struggles to gain control of the trade, Portugal was eventually eclipsed, after more than a century as the dominant power. By the 19th century, British interests were firmly rooted in India and Ceylon, while the Dutch were in control of the greater part of the East Indies.
CLOVES NUTMEG MACE BLACK PEPPER & CINNAMON
AN AGE OF TRADING COMPANIES RAJAHS & LAW
In which fuelled by their success tentative trade routes become the robust conduit for God King and Country bringing Order Industry and Culture to the Forest Island that already has everything it needs.
BORNEO
PLACE NAMES IN BORNEO
SARAWAK
–
The Royalist (not to be confused with many Royal Navy ships of the same name) was a 142-ton topsail schooner – comparable with HMS Pickle, which had brought the news of the Battle of Trafalgar home. She was probably built in Cowes in 1834 as a gentleman’s yacht for Rev F.T.Lane, but purchased by James Brooke in 1836 with money he had inherited from his father. He intended to use it for an expedition to the East Indies in the course of a circumnavigation of the globe, in preparation for which he cruised in the Mediterranean in 1837. As a vessel of the Royal Yacht Squadron it was permitted to fly the White Ensign and be accorded the same rights as ships of the Royal Navy. When armed, with ‘6 six-pounders, a number of swivels, and small arms in abundance’, it was effectively a private warship and was instrumental in Brooke establishing his foothold in Sarawak from his first visit in 1839 until becoming the first White Rajah of Sarawak in 1841. The Royalist is last heard of in Brunei in September 1843, and is said to have been sold early in 1844.
A MOMENT FOR INDIGENOUS AUTONOMY
In which Rationalism goes head to head with Tribalism in the Forest.
A HISTORY OF BIDAYUH IN KUCHING
NATIVE CUSTOMARY LAND TENURE IN SARAWAK
AN AGE OF FEDERALISM INDIGENOUS RIGHTS & POLITICS
In which Post Colonial Bureaucracy loyally maintains the supply lines to a moribund Old World, continuing to fell the Forest, now in the name of Nationalism, at the cost of Nature, in conflict with the Natural Order and The People.
http://dayakbaru.com/weblog08/2011/05/03/native-land-commission-in-sarawak/
http://www.barubian.net/2011/05/landmark-swak-ncr-land-trial-postponed.html
AND AN END TO THE AGE OF CATS?
29 May 2011
A PLACE TO CELEBRATE 
Leave a Reply