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Western Imperialist Armies in Asia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 June 2009
Extract
The European conquest of Asia is one of the major historical movementsof our time. Pannikar calls this the age of Vasco DeGama, Parry writesof the rise of European Hegemony, and McNeill sees it as part of an evenbroader historical process that he calls the rise of the west. For all observers it was truly a conquest, a violent and bloody struggle in which Europe gained the ascendence through superior military might.
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References
1 Pannikar, K. M., Asia and Western Dominance (London: George Allen & Unwin, New Ed., 1959).Google Scholar
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11 One event in this conflict provides a preview of future events. This was the easy manner in which the French dealt with the army of the Nabob. In several ac-tions “the cavalry of the Nabob was swept aside in the face of the French advance.” Against the disorganized native cavalry charge the French “troops kept their ranks and reserved their fire” (Dodwell, , p. 122; see note 12). All indications point to the fact that the Nabob's troops were as well-armed as the French. Thus the traditional military proved a poor match for European discipline and determination. This was one of the first times that a European organized army faced an Indian army, and the ease of the French victory came as something of a surprise.Google Scholar
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17 Ibid., p. 182.
18 Ibid., pp. 161–2.
19 Ibid., p. 187.
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36 Singh, Kushwant, Ranjit Singh: Maraharjah of the Punjab (London: GeorgeAllen & Unwin 1962), pp. 56, 58, 93.Google Scholar
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46 On the Dutch in Indonesia see among others, Hyma, Albert, A History of the Dutch in the Far East (Ann Arbor: George Wahr Publishing Co., 1953);Google ScholarPalmier, Leslie H., Indonesia and the Dutch (London: Oxford University Press, 1962);Google Scholar and DeKlerck, E. S., History of the Netherlands East Indies (Rotterdam: W. L. & J. Brusse, N.V., 1938).Google Scholar
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49 On France see especially, Herbert, I.Priestley, France Overseas Through the Old Regime, and France Overseas: A Study of Modern Imperialism, both published in New York by Appleton, 1939 and 1938, respectively.Google Scholar
50 There are interesting modern parallels of this rule. The two successful warsagainst the Communist insurgency of 1948ff, in Malaya and the Philippines, weremarked by a radical reorganization of military and political operations. In bothcases political and economic reform were combined with extensive decentralizationof military operations to provide an effective counter-insurgency campaign. Criticalaccounts of military and political operations in Vietnam from 1945 through 1970agree that neither the French nor the Americans learned these important lessons ofreorganization.
51 Janowitz, Morris, The Professional Soldier (Glencoe: The Free Press, 1960), pp. 21–38 calls attention to the persistent internal organizational tension in themilitary establishment between three different types of leaders: the fighter and themanager, who have been recognized by others, and to which he adds the technolo-gist. He argues that however much organizational imperatives may demand man-agers, the martial spirit continues to give the military its distinctive character andeven to mold the orientations of the managers. A new managerial leadership maywell emerge, but the military can never dispense with heroic leadership. It seems tome quite possible to accept this argument while still recognizing that a change fromthe aggregate of heroes to the organization of roles has constituted one of the majorrevolutions in military history.Google Scholar
52 On the Philippines war see Wolff, Leon, Little Brown Brother (Manila: Ereh-won, 1960).p-53Google Scholar For a brief interpretation of the larger historical role of metropolitan powersin the decline of empires see Ness, Gayl D. and Ness, Jeannine R., “MetropolitanPower and the Decline of Overseas Empires, “ paper rzead at the American Socio-logical Society Meetings, New Orleans, August 1972.Google Scholar
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