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Víctor Balaguer Museum and Library

Philippine chain mail

Brass and iron chain mail, from the Philippines, 80×80 cm. Víctor Balaguer Museum and Library.

 

 

Brass and iron chain mail, from the Philippines, 80×80 cm. Víctor Balaguer Museum and Library.

 

 

Brass chain mail with seventy-five plates made of water buffalo (carabao) horn and two iron pectoral plates with brass fasteners. This type of armour imitated the kind that the Spaniards wore during their expeditions to Jolo in 1631. It should be stressed that from the outset, the relationship between the Muslim people who inhabited the southern Philippines and the Spanish colonisers was one of confrontation. This hostility against christians was due not so much to religious motives but rather to the struggle for political and territorial hegemony.

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