The Company Fortress : Military Engineering and the Dutch East India Company in South Asia, 1638-1795 / Erik Odegard.
2020
UG432.S683 O44 2020eb
Linked e-resources
Details
Title
The Company Fortress : Military Engineering and the Dutch East India Company in South Asia, 1638-1795 / Erik Odegard.
Author
Odegard, Erik.
ISBN
9400603800 (electronic book)
9789400603806 (electronic bk.)
9087283466
9789087283469
9789400603806 (electronic bk.)
9087283466
9789087283469
Published
Leiden : Leiden University Press, [2020]
Language
English
Description
1 online resource (xiii, 292 pages)
Call Number
UG432.S683 O44 2020eb
System Control No.
(OCoLC)1204135909
Summary
The remains of Dutch East India Company forts are scattered throughout littoral Asia and Africa. But how important were the specific characteristics of European bastion-trace fortifications to Early Modern European expansion? The Company Fortress takes on this question by studying the system of fortifications built and maintained by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in present-day India and Sri Lanka. It uncovers the stories of the forts and their designers, arguing that many of these engineers were in fact amateurs and their creations contained serious flaws. Subsequent engineers were hamper.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Formatted Contents Note
Frontcover
Table of Contents
Abbreviations
Introduction
Fortification and Urban Design
The Military Revolution and its Effects on European Expansion: Fact or Fiction?
Method, Sources, and Structure
Chapter 1. Artillery Fortification at Home and Abroad
The Italian Invention
Adaptation in the Netherlands: The "Old Dutch System"
French Developments in Defense and Siege Warfare
Menno van Coehoorn and the New Dutch System
The Trace Moderne of Cormontaigne-Ramecourt
Beyond the Bastion
Other Influences: Indo-Portuguese and Indian Military Engineering
Conclusion
Chapter 2. "A Company of Commerce, but also of State" The VOC in South Asia
A Federal Company
A Multitude of Monopolies : The Company and its Commercial Policies in Asia and Europe
Soldiers, Sailors, Engineers: The Company's Armed Forces
Conclusion
Chapter 3. The Van Goens System: Building the Fortifications, 1650-1675
Controlling Territory and Commerce
A Typology of the VOC's Forts in South Asia
Rebuilding the Fortifications
Conclusion
Chapter 4. Criticism and Construction: Debating and Building the Forts, 1675-1700
Criticizing van Goens's Vision
Designing the New Naarden in India: Van Reede At Negapatnam
The Malabar Coast, 1670-1717
Conclusion
Chapter 5. Mughal Decline and the Company: from Chowghat to Bedara 1717-1759
New Fortifications in Bengal and Coromandel
Bengal, 1757-1759: A New Fort and Disaster at Biderra
Conclusion
Chapter 6. After Bedara: Attempting to Improve Defenses, 1759-1780
Engineers in India and on Ceylon
Debating the Model Fortress: Negapatnam, 1760-1762
Ceylon from the War with Kandy to the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
Malabar 1760-1780: The Breakdown of Neutrality
Conclusion
Chapter 7. A Plague of Engineers: Ceylon 1780-1789
War: The Fourth Anglo-Dutch War in Asia, 1780-1784
The Beginning of the Post-War Debates
Criticizing Reimer
The Exact Science of Fortification: French Plans For Colombo, Galle, and Trincomalee
Reimer's Rebuttal
Conclusion
Chapter 8. The Military Committee: The Generality Intervenes, 1787-1792
Colombo
Cochin
Galle
Trincomalee and Oostenburg
Conclusion
Chapter 9. Fall of a Fortress
The Fall of the System
The British Verdict
Conclusion
The Military Evolution of the South Asian States
Appendix 1. Some Remarks on Terminology and Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Archival Sources
Printed Primary Sources
Literature
Index
Maps and Images
Tables
Backcover
Table of Contents
Abbreviations
Introduction
Fortification and Urban Design
The Military Revolution and its Effects on European Expansion: Fact or Fiction?
Method, Sources, and Structure
Chapter 1. Artillery Fortification at Home and Abroad
The Italian Invention
Adaptation in the Netherlands: The "Old Dutch System"
French Developments in Defense and Siege Warfare
Menno van Coehoorn and the New Dutch System
The Trace Moderne of Cormontaigne-Ramecourt
Beyond the Bastion
Other Influences: Indo-Portuguese and Indian Military Engineering
Conclusion
Chapter 2. "A Company of Commerce, but also of State" The VOC in South Asia
A Federal Company
A Multitude of Monopolies : The Company and its Commercial Policies in Asia and Europe
Soldiers, Sailors, Engineers: The Company's Armed Forces
Conclusion
Chapter 3. The Van Goens System: Building the Fortifications, 1650-1675
Controlling Territory and Commerce
A Typology of the VOC's Forts in South Asia
Rebuilding the Fortifications
Conclusion
Chapter 4. Criticism and Construction: Debating and Building the Forts, 1675-1700
Criticizing van Goens's Vision
Designing the New Naarden in India: Van Reede At Negapatnam
The Malabar Coast, 1670-1717
Conclusion
Chapter 5. Mughal Decline and the Company: from Chowghat to Bedara 1717-1759
New Fortifications in Bengal and Coromandel
Bengal, 1757-1759: A New Fort and Disaster at Biderra
Conclusion
Chapter 6. After Bedara: Attempting to Improve Defenses, 1759-1780
Engineers in India and on Ceylon
Debating the Model Fortress: Negapatnam, 1760-1762
Ceylon from the War with Kandy to the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
Malabar 1760-1780: The Breakdown of Neutrality
Conclusion
Chapter 7. A Plague of Engineers: Ceylon 1780-1789
War: The Fourth Anglo-Dutch War in Asia, 1780-1784
The Beginning of the Post-War Debates
Criticizing Reimer
The Exact Science of Fortification: French Plans For Colombo, Galle, and Trincomalee
Reimer's Rebuttal
Conclusion
Chapter 8. The Military Committee: The Generality Intervenes, 1787-1792
Colombo
Cochin
Galle
Trincomalee and Oostenburg
Conclusion
Chapter 9. Fall of a Fortress
The Fall of the System
The British Verdict
Conclusion
The Military Evolution of the South Asian States
Appendix 1. Some Remarks on Terminology and Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
Archival Sources
Printed Primary Sources
Literature
Index
Maps and Images
Tables
Backcover
Source of Description
Online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on July 14, 2022).
Series
Colonial and global history through Dutch sources.
Available in Other Form
Print version: Odegard, Erik. Company Fortress : Military Engineering and the Dutch East India Company in South Asia, 1638-1795. Leiden : Leiden University Press, ©2020
Linked Resources
https://emu.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&AN=3368305
https://emu.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/j.ctv30hx3tf
https://emu.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/j.ctv30hx3tf
Record Appears in
Books > E-books
All Resources
All Resources