Revisiting the Treaty between Spain and Sulu of 1836/37

Abstract This essay focuses on the Sulu-Mindanao-Borneo region in the 1830s and zooms in on the Capitulaciones (Spanish) and the Kapiturasyun (Tausug) of a treaty concluded between the Spanish Crown and the Sultanate of Sulu of 1836/37. It compares the different versions of the treaty texts from the perspective of a system of treaties across the region. Uneven historiographical attention has led to myth-building and a controversy over whether the treaty would have established Spanish sovereignty over the Sulu sultanate. To add nuance to this claim, the study examines the specificities of the treaties together with a large set of complementary sources. A deep, comparative reading sheds light on the motivations, and strategies that accompanied the entire process of planning, negotiating, and ratifying of the treaty and the consequences it had both for directly and indirectly participating parties.