Warfare and Diplomacy in Pre-Colonial West Africa PDF
Preview Warfare and Diplomacy in Pre-Colonial West Africa
This book combines detailed technical studies of » the diplomacy and of the land and waterborne warfare of pre-colonial West Africa. The first chapter draws attention to the connexion between these topics as dual aspects of inter- national relations; it then refers to those parts of West African customary law which can be termed international law and finally relates the diverse physical features of the area to the forms taken by both war and peaceful contact between its peoples. Chapter II describes the methods of West African indigenous diplomacy, showing how these resembled and diverged from practice elsewhere. Chapter III analyses the causes and consequences of West African wars, refuting some earlier, simplistic theories, and attempts a classification of their forms. Chapter IV describes the various kinds of armies raised by the West Africans, their organisation and logistics, while the succeeding chapter examines the wide range of weaponry, armour and transport used by these armies and the training undertaken. Chapters VI and VII deal with the strategy and tactics of the wars in relation respectively to defensive opera- tions, involving the construction of elaborate fortifications, and open warfare. The last chapter sums up the book, discussing and in some cases rebutting generalizations advanced by other writers. Throughout the book a considerable body of evidence from many sources is deployed to justify both the factual content and the conclu- sions which are drawn. Determinist and single- cause explanations are explicitly avoided. The result is broadly to show that in pre-colonial times the peaceful relations and the warfare of the West Africans were prompted by motives as complex as elsewhere in the world and were conducted with an expertise and professionalism unsus- pected by the general reader and not fully apprehended by the specialist. The author is Senior Lecturer in the Department of History, University of Ibadan. Cover illustration: The Battle of Musfeia, 1823 _ from Newham and Clapperton (1826). PRICE NET £5-50 IN UK ONLY ¢ ;( 87) fee 2007 PASADENA CITY COLLEGE LIBRARY PASADENA, CALIFORNIA Studies in African History 15 Warfare and Diplomacy in Pre-Colonial West Africa hili: The Rise of a National Language | Whiteley tary in African Politics C oe Ou j Robert S. Smith | Warfare and Diplomacy in Pre-Colonial West Africa oC PN pe (beOt e 2 CASADEI cmt COLLEGE 1 RAR Methuen & Co Ltd c Ee Thle ei aerback ane is 10 the condition that it shall not, Contents Acknowledgements Vil Peace and War II Peacetime relations Ill West African wars: their causes and consequences 4] IV Armies 61 Arms and Armour 89 VI Static warfare and fortifications 127 Vil Strategy, tactics and the battle 154 VIII A summing-up 186 Notes 195 Bibliography Vide, Index 254 771618
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