Military Capability and the State in Southeast Asia’s Pacific Rimlands, 1500–1700
of political protection. Besides providing men for battle and compul-
sory work, the clients in this system presented tribute to their overlords.
The population numbers of these monarchies were at least a few tens
of thousands. However, compared with the states elsewhere in Asia,
the ones Lorge has in mind, which were often labeled as “gunpowder
empires” covering the more urbanized plains of Asia’s mainland, such
numbers were not impressive. Compared to the river valleys of East and
South Asia, Southeast Asia was simply a low population density area. In
the Pacific Rim region, the best examples of overlord-vassal states were
Maguindanao and Ternate. Because of the commercialization through
overseas trade contacts, they were the most developed “harbour prin-
cipalities”, a variation on the “riverine coastal state” in the Malay world.
Trade, whether export or transit, enabled a surplus to be generated and
taxes to be levied. During the course of their development, harbour
principalities, whether early state or overlord-vassal state, embraced
Islam, with their rulers adopting the title of sultan.^16
Militarily speaking, the Islamic court-like harbour principalities
possessed the most extensive apparatuses. Their armed forces, however,
were far from “modern” armies or fleets, with “modern” meaning stand-
ing forces of specialized units of professionals trained in violence, often
using gunpowder devices paid for by a treasury. Nevertheless, echoes
of “modernity” were found in these states, for instance Manila’s gun
foundry, Ternate’s royal guard, and Maguindanao’s impressive number
of artillery. Unsurprisingly, the most developed technology in warfare
was to be found in the most advanced state formations. Of course, it
was also these state formations that could mobilize the biggest armies
or fleets. But in the end, even the armed forces of these most developed
political entities, were just conglomerates of bands of warriors or sailors,
taking part in war on their own account, by carrying their own weapons
amongst other things. The proportion of handguns and numbers of light
artillery pieces was such that firearms’ technology was still, to speak in
- Scott, Parchment Curtain, 129, 132–35, 139-41; K. R. Hall, Maritime Trade and
State Development in Early Southeast Asia (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press,
1985): 1–3, 9–12; Renée Hagesteijn, Circles of Kings: Political Dynamics in Early
Continental Southeast Asia (Dordrecht: Foris, 1989): 7–8; H. J. M. Claessen and
J. G. Oosten, “Introduction”, in H. J. M. Claessen and J.G. Oosten (eds), Ideology
and the Formation of the Early States (Leiden: Brill, 1996): 3–7; Wolters, History,
Culture and Region in Southeast Asian Perspectives, 27, 32–34.