Description
Shedding light on the historical origins of violence, trafficking, piracy and civil unrest in Somalia, Yemen and Djibouti.
About the Author
Nicholas W. S. Smith received his PhD in African history from Northwestern University, Illinois, where his research won awards including an International Dissertation Research Fellowship from the SSRC. His research was funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council and was nominated for the Royal Historical Society History Today prize. He has written several articles, including for the Journal of Eastern African Studies and Routledge Series on Indian Ocean and Trans-Asia. He is currently qualifying as a maritime solicitor in the UK.
Reviews
'Colonial Chaos is an important work of international, imperial, and Indian Ocean history. It defamiliarizes concepts like democratization and diplomacy by thoroughly interrogating their colonial genealogies, revealing them to be just as much terms of redistribution and accessibility as they were terms of violence and chaos.' Wilson Chacko Jacob, Concordia University
'This is a remarkable revisionist history of colonialism and violence in the Red Sea. Drawing on meticulous research that stitches together three colonial archives, Smith reads not merely against the grain but transcends these archives to reveal the anarchist tactics that undergird the colonial civilizing mission.' Johan Mathew, Rutgers University, New Brunswick
'This stridently argued book traces the creation of a new style of diplomacy and law-making on the fringes of European imperialism. It shows that this new international order emerged not from the desks of imperial strategists or legists but was forged in the fundamentally violent contestation over maritime space.' Sebastian Prange, University of British Columbia
'Shines a light on how the East India Company transformed the Horn of Africa and Red Sea into a zone of unfettered anarchy ... Based on archival research, 'Colonial Chaos' documents in enlightening detail the period after the British takeover of Aden in 1839 and the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, showing how local rulers were diminished and turned against one another in Somalia ... By examining the imperial roots of violent competition, Smith challenges complacent modern notions that Yemen and Somalia were predetermined to become zones of unfettered anarchy.' Samir Puri, International Institute for Strategic Studies
Book Information
ISBN 9781108845663
Author Nicholas W. Stephenson Smith
Format Hardback
Page Count 256
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 521g
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 158mm * 18mm