The Philippines was named in 1542 after King Philip II of Spain (who also became King Philip I of Portugal in 1580). According to the Treaty of Tordesillas that preposterously divided the newly discovered lands beyond Europe between Spain and Portugal, this archipelago of over 7,000 islands fell under Spanish claims. However, the first European expedition to reach the Philippines, while sent by the Spanish crown, was led by the Portuguese explorer Fernão de Magalhães, known t

The 37th World Expo is currently being held in Osaka (大阪), Japan, from April to October this year. This is only the fourth World Expo to...

Map of Southeast Asia in Fernão Vaz Dourado's Atlas Universal of 1571 The Portuguese shocked maritime Southeast Asia when Afonso de...

This is the third and final post on José d'Almeida, a Portuguese pioneer of Singapore. Part 1 describes d'Almeida's life prior to...

200 years ago, in 1825, José d'Almeida Carvalho e Silva arrived as a 41-year-old Portuguese physician in Singapore, then only into its...