Why did the Roberts Treaty of 1833 have a Portuguese translation annexed to it?
score:17
The Portuguese were the first westerners to reside in (then) Siam (now) Thailand. The Portuguese embassy is the oldest embassy in the kingdom, and now a monument. Do mind that the relations go back 500 years. As such they enjoyed, at that time, a special status. By the time this treaty was signed, it was purely honorary. By then Portugal was no longer an important power.
Upvote:6
Portugal had trading relations in Southeast Asia going back to the 16th century. The main Portuguese outpost was Macau, off the coast of China, but Siam was also an important "port of call."
Either the Thais or the Americans (or both) may have felt more comfortable in Portuguese than in the other party's language.
Upvote:6
Courtesy of the Library of Congress, here are some excerpts from a transcript of the Roberts Treaty of 1833:
This Treaty is concluded on wednesday the last of the fourth month of the year 1194 called Pimarông chattavasok (or the year of the Dragon) corresponding to the twentieth day of March, in the year of our Lord 1833. One original is written in Siamese, the other in English; but as the Siamese are ignorant of English, and the Americans of Siamese, a Portuguese & a Chinese translation are annexed, to serve as testimony to the contents of the Treaty. The writing is of the same tenor & date in all the languages aforesaid: it is signed on the one part, with the name of the Chau-Phaya Phraklang, and sealed with the seal of the Lotus flower of glass; on the other part it is signed with the name of Edmund Roberts, and sealed with a seal containing an Eagle and stars.
ARTICLE X. If hereafter any foreign Nation, other than the Portuguese, shall request and obtain His Majesty's consent to the appointment of Consuls to reside in Siam, the United States shall be at liberty to appoint Consuls to reside in Siam, equally with such other foreign Nation.
More post
- 📝 What happened to Iraq's debts after the US toppled the government in 2003?
- 📝 Why did Al Smith win six "Dixiecrat" states, and very little else?
- 📝 Did early nineteenth century commoners know their royalty?
- 📝 Did "music pendants" exist in the 1800s/early 1900s?
- 📝 Of which countries was Ludwig von Mises a citizen?
- 📝 How long ago was the yo-yo first used as a weapon?
- 📝 The original Lord Haw Haw's life in exile (Ireland)
- 📝 Which company offered this aircraft interior in the 60s?
- 📝 Has any medieval army ever fought 3 or more distinct battles on the same day?
- 📝 What was the reason behind the Reinheitsgebot (beer purity law)?
- 📝 Why did the GHQ not promote English during the occupation?
- 📝 Was there a revised English version of General Order 1 re: the division of Korea?
- 📝 Why was metal armor phased out after gun powder was weaponized?
- 📝 Has there ever arisen a nation-state without violence/war/extreme subordination?
- 📝 Where could I find a map of the communes for Bavaria region before 1930?
- 📝 Were there any notable historic figures that weren't racist by modern standards?
- 📝 What does King Henry III have on his lap in this illustration from a Matthew Paris chronicle?
- 📝 Are historians required to memorize or be knowledgeable of every significant event in history?
- 📝 What was life like in Korbach, Hesse, Germany during the 1700s?
- 📝 How close did Germany come to interdicting Soviet oil shipments from the Caucasus in 1942?
- 📝 At what age did girls start wearing corsets in 1880s-1890s Britain?
- 📝 Was there a precursor to the Bolshevik Party?
- 📝 Is there any way to get a list of Germans who were interned in American camps during WWII?
- 📝 What did English people really say when knighting someone?
- 📝 How much more productive was Aegyptus in comparison to Africa Proconsularis in classical antiquity?
- 📝 Have any of the Presidents of France taken advantage of its co-princeship of Andorra in a significant way?
- 📝 Where was Canterbury College (Oxford) located?
- 📝 How did Lincoln legitimize the constitutionality of his Emancipation Proclamation?
- 📝 Chancery vs Common Pleas vs Exchequer vs King's Bench
- 📝 What is the number of slaves imported from Africa to the Americas by non-British countries?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Why did the Roberts Treaty of 1833 have a Portuguese translation annexed to it?
- 📝 Why did the Soviet Union have multiple airplane manufacturers?
- 📝 Why did Bayer lose aspirin and heroin trademarks under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles?
- 📝 Why did Stalin and the Soviet leadership have Leon Trotsky assassinated?
- 📝 Why did the Monitor and Merrimac (aka Virginia) have such radically different designs?
- 📝 Why did the film "The Longest Day" have the "cricket" training scene if the Allies received no intelligence about the hedgerows in Normandy?
- 📝 Why did the USSR have two sources of currency?
- 📝 Why did Stephen Ambrose believe that the election of Aaron Burr would have led to the end of the USA?
- 📝 Why did the Spanish take the island of Annobon in the Treaty of El Pardo in 1778?
- 📝 Why did the British have so few destroyers going into World War II?
- 📝 Why did helmets have this metal thing between the eyes?
- 📝 Why did Russians have guns towards the end of the Mongol Yoke, but not the Mongols?
- 📝 Why did the British take Hong Kong instead of any other of the later treaty ports?
- 📝 Did the Portuguese and the Spanish have slaves on European soil working for them?
- 📝 Why did some colonies of the British Empire have their own currencies?
- 📝 Did Germany have treaties imposed upon it after WWII that mirrored the weight of the Treaty of Versailles?
- 📝 Why did Jefferson have to 'Stretch the Constitutional Breaking Point' for the Louisiana Purchase?
- 📝 Why did Empress Elizabeth and Catherine the Great of Russia have such different policies toward Frederick the Great?
- 📝 Why did the Streltsy in Russia have no summer uniform?
- 📝 Why did the Portuguese permit an Italian commercial agent to accompany Vasco da Gama on the 4th Portuguese India Armada?
- 📝 Why did the Allies let Hitler break the Treaty of Versailles?
- 📝 Why did the southern states have to be readmitted?
- 📝 Why did the US have a plan for the event of war against Britain in the 1920s?
- 📝 Why did the Portuguese colonies stay united whereas the Spanish ones split up?
- 📝 Why did the United States under the Articles of Confederation have a hard time getting funding?
- 📝 Why did Germany have so many important scientists and thinkers around the turn of the 20th century?
- 📝 Why did India sign the Indo-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation?
- 📝 Why did Jews have the support of the merchants in the push for Emancipation in England?
- 📝 Why did Charles the Bold have long fingernails?
- 📝 Why did Mussolini say that people are not really free if they don't have access to the ocean?