Empires and Indigenes: Intercultural Alliance, Imperial Expansion, and Warfare in the Early Modern World(Warfare and Culture)

The early modern period (c. 1500–1800) of world history is characterized by the establishment and aggressive expansion of European empires, and warfare between imperial powers and indigenous peoples was a central component of the quest for global dominance. From the Portuguese in Africa to the Russians and Ottomans in Central Asia, empire builders could not avoid military interactions with native populations, and many discovered that imperial expansion was impossible without the cooperation, and, in some cases, alliances with the natives they encountered in the new worlds they sought to rule. Empires and Indigenes is a sweeping examination of how intercultural interactions between Europeans and indigenous people influenced military choices and strategic action. Ranging from the Muscovites on the western steppe to the French and English in North America, it analyzes how diplomatic and military systems were designed to accommodate the demands and expectations of local peoples, who aided the imperial powers even as they often became subordinated to them. Contributors take on the analytical problem from a variety of levels, from the detailed case studies of the different ways indigenous peoples could be employed, to more comprehensive syntheses and theoretical examinations of diplomatic processes, ethnic soldier mobilization, and the interaction of culture and military technology. Contributors: Virginia Aksan, David R. Jones, Marjoleine Kars, Wayne E. Lee, Mark Meuwese, Douglas M. Peers, Geoffrey Plank, Jenny Hale Pulsipher, and John K. Thornton

Table of Contents:
List of Maps 1 Projecting Power in the Early Modern World Wayne E. LeePart I Military, Cultural, and Diplomatic Exchange in the Imperial-Indigenous Encounter 2 Gaining the Diplomatic Edge Jenny Hale Pulsipher 3 The Military Revolution of Native North America Wayne E. Lee 4 Revolution, Evolution, or Devolution Douglas M. PeersPart II Warrior Peoples and Uniform Recruits in Old World Empires 5 Muscovite-Nomad Relations on the Steppe Frontier before 1800 and the Development of Russia's "Inclusive" Imperialism David R. Jones 6 Ottoman Ethnographies of Warfare, 1500-1800 Virginia H. AksanPart III Variations: Types of Indigenous-Imperial Alliances in the Atlantic Empires 7 Firearms, Diplomacy, and Conquest in Angola John K. Thornton 8 The Opportunities and Limits of Ethnic Soldiering Mark Meuwese 9 Deploying Tribes and Clans Geoffrey Plank 10 "Cleansing the Land" Marjoleine Kars Contributors Index

About the Author :
Wayne E. Lee is Bruce W. Carney Distinguished Professor of History at the University of North Carolina. He is author of Waging War: Conflict, Culture, and Innovation in World History and Barbarians and Brothers: Anglo-American Warfare, 1500-1865.

Review :
"Detailed and helpful orienting maps enhance each essay and add to its user-friendliness. In the final analysis, Lee's edited collection represents a critical and provocative intervention in early modern historiography and is deserving of a wide readership, not only for specialists of that era, but also for those concerned with current military and strategic contexts. As Lee pointedly notes, twenty-first-century Western military commanders, even if not engaged in overt empire building, increasingly find themselves in situations where they must engage local indigenous hierarchies and networks in strategic locations with security calculations in mind. If the histories in this volume tell us anything, successful negotiation of these conditions will depend on meeting the expectations of the indigenous peoples on the ground." Jon Parmenter, H-Atlantic, July 2012