History & scholarship

Anders Ljungstedt: the Swedish merchant and diplomat who wrote the first history of Macau in English

Anders Ljungstedt

A Sweden-born merchant, diplomat and historian who lived in Macau for over thirty years. As Sweden's first consul-general in China, in 1832 he wrote the first history of Macau in English — An Historical Sketch of the Portuguese Settlements in China — and was the first to refute, with documents, the claim that China had formally ceded Macau to Portugal, founding English-language historiography of Macau.