Maratha Naval Challenges to European Proto-Empire in the Early Eighteenth Century

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• Derek L. Elliott (Peterhouse)
• Tuesday 01 February 2011, 17:30-19:00
• Seminar Room N7, Pembroke College.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Ilya Berkovich.

Subscribers to the military revolution thesis believe Europe’s preeminence was a result of technological and bureaucratic precociousness in military affairs that led to the conquest of the globe and the colonial project. However, technological superiority did not always signify the foregone conclusion of European dominance over the polities of India. By adopting guerrilla-style naval tactics and exploiting a comparative advantage in vessels that were light and fast the Marathas became the scourge of the English East India Company and other European powers. Importantly, Maratha naval prowess challenges the notion of technological superiority as a primary explanatory factor in pre-colonial India and throws into further question Eurocentric frameworks of how conquests occurred in the early-modern period.

This talk is part of the Violence and Conflict Graduate Workshop, Faculty of History series.

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• Seminar Room N7, Pembroke College
• Violence and Conflict Graduate Workshop, Faculty of History

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