Military Transition in Early Modern Asia, 1400-1750: Cavalry, Guns, Government and Ships

299 Pages·2014·2.581 MB·English

by  Kaushik Roy

Preface
Today, West Europe is no longer the foremost dominant power block in the
world. USA remains the world’s sole superpower, especially in military terms;
however, its economy is decelerating slowly but steadily. The economic and
military rise of China, and to a lesser extent India, and the increasing discontent
in the Islamic block of countries across the Afro-Asian region make it necessary
to have a multicultural, rather than Eurocentric, history in general and military
history in particular. With the relative decline of West Europe, it makes sense
now to analyse how and why West Europe became dominant (militarily in
our case) during the early modern era. Hopefully, this work will provoke, on the
one hand, regional specialists to come up with military studies of different parts
of premodern Asia and, on the other hand, proponents of the global history
approach to initiate further studies on the comparative and interlinked history
of warfare in Eurasia.
Acknowledgements
I wrote this book in two distinct climatic zones of Eurasia. The first part was
written in the picturesque, wintry, snowy, sparsely populated town of Aarhus
in Denmark and the second part was finished in my hometown, the hot, dust-
sprinkled, densely populated, lively city of Kolkata in India. I have accumulated
many debts of gratitude in writing this volume. First and foremost, thanks
to Professor Jeremy Black, who encouraged me in the first place to write
this monograph. Then, correspondence with Professor Steven Wayne Lee
put me on track. Discussions in several evenings at Kolkata, in the house of
my teacher Professor Rajat Kanta Ray, were enlightening indeed. Thanks to
Professor Sabyasachi Bhattacharya for clarifying some of the economic issues.
My friend Vasileios Syros deserves credit for bringing certain materials to my
notice. Among my Indian students, thanks to Moumita, Arka and Dipanjan for
locating some of the books I required. I taught a course in the Global History
Programme at Aarhus University, Denmark, in the autumn of 2012 and the
present book is based partly on that course. Thanks to Jeppe, my friend and the
course coordinator, and among the students especially Ida, Soren, Marko and
Byron, who never failed to ask critical questions. In early February 2012, in a
seminar at the Department of History and Culture, Aarhus University, I spoke
about the failure of China and India to catch up with the West in the eighteenth
century: special thanks to my friend Professor Niels Brimnes and Haagen for
raising some critical issues. A portion of the book was published in a 2012 issue
of International Area Studies Review. I acknowledge my debt to Professor Scott
Gates, the editor of this journal, and the unknown referees for forcing me to
rethink some of the statements that I had earlier made rather rashly. I have not
forgotten the unknown referees of Bloomsbury for their valuable comments,
and certainly Claire at Bloomsbury deserves praise for supporting the project
when I discussed it with her in 2011. Lastly, very special thanks to my wife, who,
despite a demanding university teaching career, kept the ‘home fires burning’.
Kaushik Roy
Kolkata, 2014
List of Abbreviations
C3I Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence
COIN Counter-insurgency
EIC East India Company
GDP Gross domestic product
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
ORBAT Order of battle
RMA Revolution in military affairs
List of Maps
Southern Central Asia x
Constantinople, 1683 xi
Central Asia and China, circa 1600 xii
Mughal–Safavid Frontier, circa 1640 xiii
Manchu and Mughal Empires, circa 1700 xiv
Deccan, circa 1750 xv
x Maps
Miles
0 100 200 300 400 500
Aral Sea River Jaxartes(Syr Darya)
C
a KIZIL KUM
s
pia The Red Sands
n
S • T•ashkent
ea Khira River O K•hokand
xus(ABo•khara Sa•markand PAMIRS
mu
River Atrek •Merv Darya)
N
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DESERT Hera•t Hari Rud Kabul• Pesha•war
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•Kirman A NI •
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C
U
L GREAT
Persian Gulf BAND INDIAN
Gwadur K•aSIrachi DESERT
Arabian Sea
DESERT OF OMAN
Southern Central Asia
Maps xi
Bosphorus
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4th MSti.l iRtaormy aGnautes tFhoer uBmul lof CGonatteo socfa tlhioen JHualirabnBoausri loicfa HBoarubcoouleron
Forum of Harbour of
Arcadius Contoscalion
Gate of Rhegion Harbour of
3rd Military Gate TRIUMPHAL WAY GAeatme iolifa Sntus Eleutherius Sea of Marmora
0 ½ 1
Miles
Constantinople, 1683
xii Maps
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ralea SOGDI Sam RCIANABalkh(Bactria)ZUBAC SDIVA al Asia and
AS MA FA ntr
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Maps xiii
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HHeerraatt SS aa ff ee KKddoohh LLKKOOaaGGbbuuAAGGllRRhhaannAAddeewwaakk KKhhKKyyPPaabbaabbeessuussrr ll PPeesshhaawwaarr
SSAAFFAAVVIIDDSS GGhhaazznnii PPAAKKTTIIKKHHOOSSTT KKuurrrraaKKoohhaatt BB
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Mughal–Safavid Frontier, circa 1640
xiv Maps
M A DS
S T E T U RP K EPS T AEN N OMONGOLIA of SJaepaan
N
NISTA CHINA Yellow
H A
AFG TIBET MANCHU EMPIRE Sea
NEPAL CEhaisnta
Sea
INDIA
MUGHAL MYANMAR
Arabian
South
sea EMPIRE
China Sea
Bay of Bengal APPROXIMATE
BOUNDARY
N
I
NDIAN OCEAN 0 1000 cm
Manchu and Mughal Empires, circa 1700
Maps xv
N arm a d a
•Pannan Mahanadi
•
Nasik• A•janta PauruH•AL E Udaygiri
• Bhokardan G R
M • M U M PI
A E
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HT Krishna Na•garjuna • •Dh•arMamasaakuolitpaatnam
R Konda •Ghantasala
A
•Bhattiprolu
Tungabhadra Pennar
ARABIAN BAY
SEA OF
BENGAL
Kaveri•
Kodumanal
•
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•Uraiyur MARATHA
•Sittanavasa
Kodangallur • ATTACKS
Madurai•
Korkai•
Deccan, circa 1750