Acceso usuarios
Robert Richmond Ellis
This essay focuses on representations of Cambodia in the early-seventeenth-century writings of the Dominican clerics, Diego Aduarte and Gabriel Quiroga de San Antonio. Aduarte narrates his participation in the first Spanish expedition to Cambodia in 1596, which resulted in the murder of the Cambodian king, Ram I. San Antonio, who never visited Cambodia, recounts the same event. Both writers comment on various aspects of Cambodian life, including religious practice, social relations, and interactions between Asians and Europeans. Whereas Aduarte and San Antonio strive to justify the actions of their compatriots, San Antonio writes with the specific aim of persuading the Spanish monarchy to launch a full-scale invasion of Cambodia. In fact, Aduarte's and San Antonio's conception of war runs counter to the Catholic theological tradition and in particular to the theory of just war elaborated by one of the most eminent Spanish theologians of the sixteenth century, Francisco de Vitoria. Ultimately, however, it is for practical rather than religious reasons that Spain does not attempt to conquer Cambodia.
