Geographies of seapower : forging empire in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands

"Geographies of Seapower offers a radical new approach to understanding power at sea. Drawing on previously unseen archival sources, the book reveals how British imperial seapower reshaped the geographies of the Bay of Bengal between 1842 and 1872. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands stood at the crossroads of Victorian imperial ambition and expanding trade networks, but colonial officials saw the Islands as a place of savagery and cannibalism. The East India Company, the Royal Navy, and the Indian Navy were all tasked with transforming the Islands into a British place, both politically and culturally. Through exploration, hydrography, gunboat diplomacy, and the performance of naval force, new geographies were forged and centuries-old patterns of behaviour at sea changed."--