Arming the Periphery: The Arms Trade in the Indian Ocean during the Age of Global Empire

Arming the Periphery is a major historical study of the global arms trade, revolving around the transfer of small arms from metropolitan Europe to the turbulent frontiers of Indian Ocean societies across the 'long' nineteenth century (c.1780-1914). While industrialization modernized arms production, imperialism globalized arms procurement and proliferation. The new weaponry enabled both the expansion and limitation of European colonial authority, against the changing temper of indigenous state formation and warfare. This new study utilizes core-periphery and cross-cultural approaches in order to draw on sources relating to economic and imperial history; historical and contemporary surveys of weapons technologies and production; and works on the military and cultural usage of firearms, colonial warfare, and the arms transfer system.