Research & Article

Iberians were the first people in Europe to interact directly with Siam. Centuries elapsed between the time the first information about Siam was received in the Iberian Peninsula and the period when their rulers perceived this Asian territory in a more or less coherent framework. This work studies the changes in their perception of the Kingdom of Siam as it evolved from the earliest mythical references, in a long process that was neither uniform nor reliant merely on the receipt of data. Focusing on these early perceptions, this study notes the Iberians’ different reactions to this new knowledge, the role of individuals and how the parallelprocess of their own budding national identities affected the outcome.