The Anglo-Maratha Campaigns and the Contest for India: The Struggle for Control of the South Asian Military Economy [Hardcover]

A history of the last serious indigenous campaign against the formation of the British Raj.This book analyses the Anglo-Maratha Campaigns of 1803 which represented the last serious indigenous obstacle to the formation of the British Raj. It examines Maratha military culture through a battle-by-battle analysis of the campaigns. The author challenges the ethnocentric assumptions that associate Western political ascendancy with 'The Military Revolution' and argues that the real contest for India was not a single decisive military battle but rather the struggle to control the South Asian Military Economy. Victory depended on economics and intelligence rather than superiority in discipline, drill and technology.This book analyses the Anglo-Maratha Campaigns of 1803 which represented the last serious indigenous obstacle to the formation of the British Raj. It examines Maratha military culture through a battle-by-battle analysis of the campaigns. The author challenges the ethnocentric assumptions that associate Western political ascendancy with 'The Military Revolution' and argues that the real contest for India was not a single decisive military battle but rather the struggle to control the South Asian Military Economy. Victory depended on economics and intelligence rather than superiority in discipline, drill and technology.The Anglo-Maratha Campaigns of 1803 represented the last serious indigenous obstacle to the formation of the British Raj. This study examines Maratha military culture through a battle-by-battle analysis of the campaigns. Randolf Cooper challenges the ethnocentric assumptions that associate Western political ascendancy with The Military Revolution and argues that the real contest for India was the struggle to control the South Asian military economy, rather than a single decisive military battle. Victory depended more on economics and intelligence than on superiority in discipline, drill and technology.List of maps; Acknowledgements; A note on tranlD