Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T17:16:39.623Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Western Arms in Maritime Asia in the Early Phases of Expansion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

P. J. Marshall
P. J. Marshall
Affiliation:
King's College, London
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

To a general reading public the history of the European empires still seems to be virtually synonymous with their military power and with stories of battles in tropical climes; by contrast, academic historians of imperialism now show little interest in purely military history. Campaigns and battles were no doubt frequently the means by which European power came to be exerted over other parts of the world, but, especially from the early nineteenth century onwards, their outcome was generally predictable. If the Europeans were prepared to make adequate efforts, their ultimate success was not usually in doubt. Defeats occurred often enough at the hands of Africans or Asians, but where it seemed worthwhile to do so, at least until the Russo—Japanese War, these defeats were sooner or later avenged. Historians' debates have therefore tended to concentrate not on the means of expansion but on the motives for it: why Europeans should have wished to exert their power or why they should have been drawn into doing so in certain situations. Books on battles are left to decorate that somewhat improbable piece of furniture, the coffee table.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , February 1980 , pp. 13 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Reprinted in European Culture and Overseas Expansion (Harmondsworth, 1970).Google Scholar

2 Ibid., p. 109.

3 Ayalon, David, Gunpowder and Firearms in the Mamluk Kingdom (London, 1956).Google Scholar

4 Parry, V. J., ‘La manière de combattre’, in Parry, V. J. and Yapp, M. E., War, Technology and Society in the Middle East (London, 1975), p. 256.Google Scholar

5 ‘The Passing of Empire: the Mughal Case’, Modern Asian Studies, ix (1975), 390,Google Scholar

6 ‘The Military Revolution 1560–1660’, Essays in Swedish History (London, 1967), p. 218.Google Scholar For recent comment, see Parker, G., ‘The “Military Revolution”, 1560–1660—a Myth?’, Journal of Modern History, xlviii (1976).Google Scholar

7 Parry, and Yapp, , War in the Middle East, pp. 18–19.Google Scholar

8 Culture and Expansion, p. 98.Google Scholar

9 Panikkar, K. M., Asia and Western Dominance. A Survey of the Vasco Da Gama Epoch of Asian History 1498–1945 (London, 1953), p. 12.Google Scholar

10 Steensgaard, N., Carracks, Caravans and Companies (Copenhagen, 1972), pp. 81–95.Google Scholar For a different opinion see Roelofsz, M. A. P. Meilink, Asian Trade and European Influence in the Indonesian Archipelago (The Hague, 1962), p. 119.Google Scholar

11 Godinho, V. Magalhães, L'économie de l'empire portugais aux xve et xvie siècles (Paris, 1969), p. 619.Google Scholar

12 Capitalism and Material Life, 1400–1800, trans. Kochan, M. (London, 1973), pp. 294–5.Google Scholar

13 Serjeant, R. B., The Portuguese off the South Arabian Coast (Oxford, 1963), p. 3.Google Scholar

14 Datta, P., ‘Guns in Mughal India’, Bulletin of the Victoria Memorial, ii (1968), 30.Google Scholar

15 Inalcik, H., ‘The Socio-Political Effects of the Diffusion of Fire-arms in the Middle East’,Google ScholarParry, and Yapp, , War in the Middle East, pp. 202–6.Google Scholar

16 Ibid., p. 205.

17 Guilmartin, J. F., Gunpowder and Galleys (Cambridge, 1974).Google Scholar

18 Ibid., pp. 10–12.

19 Diffie, B. W., Winius, G. D., Foundations of the Portuguese Empire 1415–1580 (Minneapolis, 1977), p. 240.Google Scholar

20 Hess, A. C., ‘The Evolution of the Ottoman Seaborne Empire in the Age of the Oceanic Discoveries’, American Historical Review, lxxv (1970).Google Scholar

21 Roelofsz, Meilink, Asian Trade and European Influence, p. 134.Google Scholar

22 On Acheh, see ibid. and two articles in the Journal of South East Asian History (1969) by A. Reid, ‘16th-century Turkish Influence in Western Indonesia’ and C. R. Boxer, ‘A note on Portuguese Reactions to the Revival of the Red Sea Spice Trade and the Rise of Acheh’.

23 See Macleod, N., De Oost Indische Compagnie als Zeemogendheid in Azie, 2 vols (Ryswick, 1927);Google ScholarMilo, T. H., De Invloed van de Zeemacht op de Geschiednis der Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (The Hague, 1946).Google Scholar

24 de Jongh, D., Het Krijgswezen onder de Oostindische Compagnie (The Hague, 1950), p. 56.Google Scholar

25 de Reus, G. C. Klerk, Geschichtlicher Ueberblick der Administrativen Rechtlichen, und Finanziellen entwicklung de Niederlandisch-Ostindischen Compagnie (Batavia, 1894), pp. 113–14.Google Scholar

26 Bernier, F. B., History of the Late Revolution in the Empire of the Great Mogol, 2 vols (London, 1676), II, 154.Google Scholar For Mughal military resources in general, see Sarkar, J. N., Military History of India (Calcutta, 1960).Google Scholar

27 De, Jongh, Krijgswezen, p. 90.Google Scholar

28 Translation of his report to the Company, 4 February, 1670, India Office Records, I/3/58.Google Scholar

29 A New Account of India and Persia, ed. Cooke, W., 3 vols (London, 1909–1915), I, 267.Google Scholar

30 Relations of Golconda in the early seventeenth century, ed. Moreland, W. H. (London, 1931), p. 36.Google Scholar

31 Willis, J. E., Pepper, Guns and Parleys: The Dutch East India Company and China 1622–1687 (Cambridge, Mass., 1974), p. 23.Google Scholar

32 Schrieke, B., Indonesian Sociological Studies, 2 vols (The Hague, 1957), II, 99;Google Scholar see also Ricklefs, M. C., Jogjakarta under Sultan Mangkubumi (London, 1974), pp. 10–26,Google Scholarde Graaf, H. J., Geschiedenis van Indonesie (The Hague, 1949), pp. 205–7.Google Scholar

33 Arasaratnam, S., Dutch Power in Ceylon 1658–87 (Amsterdam, 1958).Google Scholar

34 Ovington, J., A Voyage to Suratt in the Year 1689 (London, 1696), p. 208.Google Scholar

35 Lockhart, L., ‘Nadir Shah's Navy’, Proceedings of the Iran Society, I (1936), 5.Google Scholar

36 Ibid., 13–14.

37 ‘Account of the Marine Forces of the Several Indian Powers’, India Office Records, G/29/16.Google Scholar

38 Boxer, C. R. and de Azevedo, C., Fort Jesus and the Portuguese in Mombasa (London, 1960).Google Scholar

39 A Faithful Narrative of the Capture of the Ship Derby (London, 1738).Google Scholar

40 Gupta, A. Das, Malabar in Asian Trade 1740–1800 (Cambridge, 1967).Google Scholar

41 Geschiedenis van Nederlandsch Indië, III, ed. Stapel, F. W. (Amsterdam, 1939), 366–369.Google Scholar

42 Ricklefs, , Jogjakarta, p. 245.Google Scholar

43 De, Jongh, Krijgswezen, pp. 151–65.Google Scholar

44 Ricklefs, , Jogjakarta, p. 255.Google Scholar

45 Winstedt, R., A History of Johore (London, 1932), p. 63.Google Scholar

46 Furber, H., Rival Empires of Trade in the Orient, 1600–1800 (Minneapolis, 1976), pp. 140–4.Google Scholar

47 Figures in Chaudhuri, K. N., The Trading World of Asia and the English East India Company 1660–1760 (Cambridge, 1978), pp. 509–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

48 Letter to Clive, 25 August 1752, Hill, S. C., Bengal in 1756–7, 3 vols (London, 1905), I, xxxiii.Google Scholar

49 e.g. de Silva, C. R., The Portuguese in Ceylon 1617–38 (Colombo, 1972), p. 188.Google Scholar

50 De, Jongh, Krijgswezen, pp. 61–73.Google Scholar

51 de Bruin, C., Travels into Muscovy, Persia and part of the East-Indies, 2 vols (London, 1737), II, 101–2.Google Scholar

52 Records of Fort St. George. Despatches to England 1746–51 (Madras, 1932), p. 26.Google Scholar

53 Martineau, A., Dupleix et l'Inde Française, 4 vols (Paris, 1920–1928), III, 65–9.Google Scholar

54 Bryant, G. J., ‘The East India Company and its Army 1600–1778’, London Ph.D. thesis, 1976, pp. 299–300.Google Scholar

55 Munro's, Major H. evidence, 3 April 1767, British Library, Add. MS. 18469, f. 46.Google Scholar

56 Drphrase, Bryant's, ‘East India Company Army’, p. 245.Google Scholar

57 A History of the Military Transactions of the British Nation in Indostan, 2 vols (London, 1763–1778), I, 74–5.Google Scholar

58 Fort St. George to Directors, 6 August 1751, India Office Records, Home Miscellaneous, 93, p. 15.Google Scholar

59 Col. Munro's, H. evidence, Reports from Committees of the House of Commons, 12 vols (London, 1803–1806), III, 169.Google Scholar

60 Oldham, C. E. A. W., ‘The Battle of Buxar’, Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society, xii (1926).Google Scholar

61 SirCoote, E. to East India Company, 12 December 1769, India Office Records, Home Miscellaneous, 101, p. 444.Google Scholar

62 Fort William—India House Correspondence, vii (1773–1776) ed. Patwardhan, R. P. (New Delhi, 1971), 539, 590.Google Scholar

63 Pemble, J., ‘Resources and Techniques in the Second Maratha War’, Historical Journal, xix (1976).Google Scholar