An Outline of Luso-Asian Diasporas

This is a revised version of an article that appeared earlier. It is part of an introduction to a manuscript on the history of Luso-Asians and Macanese in Southeast Asia.             

Growing up I often heard the term “Macanese Diaspora” used to describe the migration of the Portuguese from Macau, Shanghai, and Hong Kong to the United States and other countries following the end of the World War II. Later I found that the term “diaspora” was used to explain many other ethnic migrations that were similar to my own experience. Most often the term was used to illustrate the movement across national borders of groups that sought to retain cultural ties to their homeland. The large Indian and Chinese migrations after World War II come to mind. In many cases, a diaspora group seeks to preserve a distinct cultural identity that separates it from other groups in their new home. In other cases, a diaspora group leads a movement to regain cultural relevance, either to highlight a forced migration, as in the case of the Jewish diaspora, or to understand the history of a widely dispersed and unrecognized population.[1]

While these distinctions are useful, my own research has raised many other questions concerning the Macanese diaspora, and suggests that the origins and significance of their migrations over the years have yet to be fully explored.

If we accept that there was and still exists a “Macanese Diaspora”, the circumstances in each location in which the Portuguese first settled outside Europe must be carefully considered. In the past, research has been hampered by a lack of clarity concerning the specific conditions in the societies in which they lived (specifically, the method of colonization and the character of trade), which people were involved (Portuguese, their racially-mixed descendants, known as Luso-Asians, and \ or Macanese), and the significance of these conditions to the economic and social development of Asia. Based on an initial review of empirical sources, we may consider the following characteristics concerning the “Macanese Diaspora”.

Based on my reading of the history, there were, in fact, four principal migrations (and several minor migrations) of Luso-Asians over a five hundred year period that technically began with the departure of Europeans (many “New Christians” of Jewish ancestry) from Portugal around 1489, and later dispersed across Africa, India, and Asia. Following the early exploration of trading routes by Portugal in the early 16th century, the first migration from Lisbon to Goa was closely tied to the Portuguese colonization of western India (1510), and the settlement of numerous port cities in Asia, including Malacca (1512), Indonesia (1522), Siam (1535), and Macau (1553). As the “Portuguese Overseas Empire” (a term employed by historian C.R. Boxer) reached its peak by the late 16th century and began to decline in the 17th century, a second and larger migration of Luso-Asian descendants, later known as “Macanese”, began arriving in Macau by 1557.

Almost three hundred years later following the Opium Wars (1839 – 1860), a third migration began among Macanese workers and their families, who were recruited by the British administration to Hong Kong beginning in 1842. Then following the end of World War II, the fourth and final migration of Macanese dispersed to the United States, Australia, Canada, Brazil, Portugal, and other countries from 1945 to around 1980).[2] There also were secondary migrations that followed early trade routes between Goa, Japan, Macau, and Hong Kong to other destinations, including Vietnam, Cambodia, and Timor. The largest of these migrations was to Shanghai, where about 3,000 Macanese settled beginning in 1859, joining a larger international community that thrived until the Communist Revolution of 1949.

The dates of each settlement vary among the sources, resulting in an overlap in periods. That is, although Macau was settled in the middle of the 16th century, the migration of Luso-Asians from Goa to Macau did not begin in large numbers until the late 17th century, following the decline of Portuguese trade and the persecution of mestizos and indigenous people after the Inquisition was transferred to Goa in 1560. Each date, however, marks the beginning of a specific period of settlement in a new destination. The fact that this particular group of Luso-Asians later identified with Macau, rather than with Goa or Portugal, indicates that a longer period of cultural development took place in Macau, and persists in the identification of many Macanese to this day.

To hold these communities together throughout each migration, there were at least five unique characteristics of Luso-Asian and Macanese culture. They first two were a common devotion to Roman Catholicism, a remnant of long years under Portuguese influence, and a creole language or patois, later called “Maquista”, which was the result of commercial utility and multiple influences from a large number of ethnic trading partners coming through Macau. Another characteristic was a tendency toward large family groups and the related development of local associations created to help new groups of immigrants. A fourth characteristic was a blended cuisine that was nurtured within familial generations, and influenced by multiple cultural contacts through racially mixed marriages. The fifth common trait was an inclination toward business out of a necessity to survive as each new community settled. Commerce among Luso-Asians first began with clandestine trade off the southern coast of China. Then following later migrations, activity settled into small shops and other forms of local commerce in Macau, and later, the creation of more sophisticated products and services that served sectors of Hong Kong’s colonial economy.

The Portuguese in India

To illustrate the origins of Luso-Asian and Macanese culture, let’s briefly outline the Portuguese colonization of India, the point of departure for the Macanese Diaspora. In the process we will discuss the conditions of the Goan trade, the practice of inter-marriage with native people, and the relevance of later Macanese migration to Asia, and specifically to Macau and Hong Kong.

Following the conquest of western India by Afonso de Albuquerque in 1511 and the first expeditions to the southern coast of China by his lieutenant Jorge Alvares in 1513, Goa became the administrative core of an empire that stretched from Persian Gulf to Timor. The Indian coastal state soon became a center for international trade in the 16th century, specializing in pepper and textiles that were exported to Lisbon as a direct challenge to the Venetian monopoly that utilized partners in the Middle East. However, structural flaws in the administration of Lisbon’s trade proved to be inherent weaknesses. Portuguese traders became increasingly dependent on local agents and brokers in Goa, who often increased prices, cutting into the profits of the Portuguese administration.[3] Portuguese trade also was rife with corruption, and supported religious conversions and the Estado de India’s exploitation of indigenous people.

There were also logistical problems. Because Portugal’s overseas empire was scattered over such a wide area with a limited number of soldiers, it was vulnerable to attacks by the Dutch and the English. When both countries began to exert pressure on the spice trade in the region, the Portuguese crown shifted much of its resources to Brazil where there was less competition for the abundant sugar, gold, and tobacco. This forced Albuquerque to place military garrisons at strategic locations to secure what was left of Portugal’s possessions in the East, further stretching his man-power. There was also a shift in the focus of the Indian trade to textiles, which were still in demand in Malacca, and to diamonds, precious stones, and slave trading.[4]

Inter-Marriage as Strategic Policy

In light of these conditions, Albuquerque developed specific strategies through which he administered Portugal’s shrinking dominion in the East. First, he personally took control of the trading centers of Ormuz, Malacca, and Goa, making the latter his administrative center. He then built fortresses in India and on the east coast of Africa to serve as bases to protect the trading factories located in each area. Next, alliances were made with native rulers with assurances to each that local customs would be preserved, so long religious conversions to Catholicism continued and tribute flowed to the Portuguese crown. Finally, and most critical to Portugal’s future in the region, Albuquerque conducted the process of colonization by encouraging marriages between Portuguese soldiers and native women. In this way he hoped to use inter-marriage, a common practice employed by the Portuguese in Brazil and Africa, to induce his countrymen to settle into domestic households and form a loyal population.[5]

Albuquerque initially promoted marriages between Portuguese men and the widows and daughters of defeated Muslim soldiers in Malacca if they converted to Catholicism. Marriages were also encouraged with Brahmin and Kshatriya women in India, who were often provided with incentives of land, a house, a horse, cattle, and gold.[6]  The Portuguese crown also sought to address the shortage of European women, as in other colonies, by turning a blind eye to liaisons with other indigenous groups, often with strategic intent.

The Portuguese had already done so among the native Indian populations of Bahia and Pernambuco in Bazil, which supported the Portuguese against the Dutch because of kinship ties through inter-marriage.[7]  [8] In Sri Lanka, marriage between Portuguese and native women resulted in 95% of the Portuguese garrison made up of mixed-race soldiers by the middle of the 17th century.[9]  Creole Portuguese, a by-product of these unions, became so entrenched that the Dutch were unable to replace it with their own language.[10] Even though Dutch was spoken in business and the civil service, many Portuguese speaking families and their servants continued to use creole despite laws forbidding its use.[11]

In Goa, mixed-marriages and liaisons with indigenous women resulted in a significant increase in ‘descendentes’ (those of Portuguese descent) in India. By 1540 the local population with Portuguese ancestry already numbered around 10,000.[12]  Another historian writes that the resulting half-caste population made significant progress toward the problem of inadequate man-power, creating in the process a Luso-Asian community that was strongly Portuguese and Roman Catholic.[13]

English historian Edgar Prestage argued that Albuquerque had little choice in his charge to maintain Portugal’s eastern empire.

As it was impossible to send white women to India, his scheme of mixed marriages seemed the only solution, and it was made practicable by the fact that the Portuguese had no objection to mixing their blood. They had already done so at home with Africans brought home by the early navigators. He could not keep his officers in the East, but he was anxious to maintain there a body of artisans, soldiers, and especially gunners, for his power depended, next to personal valour, on artillery. After his conquest of Goa, he married some hundreds of his men to natives,… and is said to have conducted the ceremony himself.[14]

These strategic policies established the foundation of Luso-Asian cultures in India and Asia beginning in the 16^th century that continue to flourish in the present day.

Conclusion

What did the appearance of mixed-race Portuguese descendants mean for the rest of the world? And what were their specific contributions to the future economic and social development of Asia? Let me conclude by outlining a few key points and suggest some new areas of inquiry.

In the broadest sense, the colonization of India and Southeast Asia by the Portuguese provided Europeans with more realistic impressions of Asia and India, and soon after of Africa and Latin America. Instead of images of giants and wild human aberrations, eye-witness accounts and actual experience led to a new understanding of these foreign lands.[15]

This led to a reevaluation of life in the physical world, which now included information on many new races, languages, customs, plants and foods, new ways of building cities, new technologies, and an expansion of the known world. The innovations of the Portuguese in ship building and navigation, which they learned from the Arabs and the Chinese, led to a revolution in 16th century European science and thought, contributing to the evolution of the world economy from feudalism to trade based capitalism, and to the transition of Europe from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance.

More narrowly, Portuguese colonization in Asia through accommodations with Imperial China and its vassal states, incorporated local customs through unions with indigenous people. This introduced new types of goods and products that were previously unknown. These included teas, spices, precious stones, textiles, exotic fruit, porcelain, silk, and drugs, which were facilitated and supplied beginning around 1600 by Luso-Asian merchants. Given the shortage of men and resources, these merchants and their offspring were literally the only way that the high volume of trade and wealth coming from Portugal’s Asian empire could have been sustained.

Finally, the success of the Asian trade using Portuguese methods of accommodation provided a template for social relations that developed in Macau, which were later adopted to some degree by the British in Hong Kong. Policies that emphasized incorporation through cultural acceptance (at least in theory), rather than conquest, suggested a different style of colonization in Macau, contrasting sharply with more repressive policies in Portuguese Goa, Dutch Indonesia, and British India. This led to less conflicted alliances, particularly when the English arrived in Macau to seek advice and entre’ to long standing relations with the Chinese, and eventually establish their own trade in the Far East.

In many respects, the settlement of Macau and the emergence of the Macanese, who were creoles with ties to many outposts in Asia, was largely responsible for laying the foundations of the China Trade. It was they who inherited Albuquerque’s maritime empire in the Far East after 1600, and maintained lucrative trade relations with Japan and China.

It was also these same mixed-race Portuguese who re-established trade with China after the fall of the Ming dynasty in 1644 and the rise of the Manchus. And it was under the guidance of the Macanese in Macau that the British East India Company and the great number of private traders from many other nations in the 18th century first encountered the resources of Asia.

By the middle of the 19^th century, following the end of the Opium War, many young Macanese translators, clerks, bookkeepers, and compositors followed the British to Hong Kong as the China Trade entered its next phase. Further research on the Macanese in this new setting will shed light on their long forgotten contributions to the early development of Hong Kong. Only then will the significance of the “Macanese Diaspora” be understood in the context of Asia’s rise as an emerging region.

Further Reading: Luso-Asians and the Origins of Macau’s Cultural Development

Notes

[1] For a more thorough discussion of  “diaspora” and its recent uses, see Roger Brubaker, “The ‘diaspora’ diaspora”, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 28, No. 1, January 2005, p. 1-19.

[2] For an example from the experience of the Chinese in Hong Kong during this period, see John M. Carroll, Edge of Empires: Chinese Elites and British Colonials in Hong Kong, Cambridge, 2005, and especially, Ch. 1, “Colonialism and Collaboration: Chinese Subjects and the Making of British Hong Kong”, pgs.16-36.

[3] Philomena Sequeira Anthony, Liberty Goods and Private Trade: Some Reflections on the liberty and subtlety in the 18^th century Indio-Portuguese trade, p. 21-40, in Goa and Portugal: History and Development, Borges, Pereira, Stubbe (eds.), New Delhi, 2000.

[4] Anthony, op. cit.

[5] Edgar Prestage, The Portuguese Pioneers, London, 1933, p. 299-300 (as quoted by J.P. Braga in The Portuguese in Hong Kong and China, Hongkong, 1944).

[6] A.J.R. Russell-Wood, The Portuguese Empire: 1415-1808, Baltimore, 1992 p. 187-188.

[7] Mark Meuwese, Brothers in Arms, Partners in Trade: Dutch-Indigenous Alliances in the Atlantic World, 1595-1674, the Netherlands, 2012, p. 129. One Dutch account related the details of a strategic marriage between the cousin of the Portuguese governor of Bahia and a Tupi woman in the 16th century. It states:

One of the sons born of this relationship became an influential “Indian King” in the region with a large fighting force of warriors. Portuguese colonial officials eagerly sought out the friendship and services of the chief of mixed descent and his Indians.

Many Jesuit missionaries also became valuable go-betweens in both marriage and war, some able to mobilize warriors quickly against Dutch invaders in 1624.

[8] Meuwese, op. cit.

[9] John Holm, Pidgins and Creoles, Cambridge, 1989, p. 288-89.

[10] Holm, op. cit.

[11] Holm, op. cit.

[12] Genevieve Escure and Armir Schwegler, Creoles, Contact and Language Change: Linguistic Interpretations, Philadelphia, 2004, p. 5-6.

[13] Charles Alfred Fisher, Southeast Asia: A Social, Economic and Political Geography, Great Britain, 1964, p. 128.

[14] Prestage, op. cit.

[15] For example, see the descriptions and illustrations by Europeans of early Chinese by Toby Lester in “The Description of the World”, pgs. 65-82 in his work The Fourth Part of the World, New York, 2009.