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The British Empire in India, the Gulf Pearl and the invention of the Middle East
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Crouzet, Guillemette (2019) The British Empire in India, the Gulf Pearl and the invention of the Middle East. Middle Eastern Studies, 55 (6). pp. 864-878. doi:10.1080/00263206.2019.1588121
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WRAP-British-Empire-India-Pearl-Making-Middle-Eas-Crouzet-2019.pdf - Accepted Version - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (580Kb) | Preview |
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/00263206.2019.1588121
Abstract
Genealogies of the term ‘Middle East’ conventionally focus on a juncture around the 1890s, when it gained new geopolitical currency, promoted by various European and American officials with reference to a space centred around the Arabo-Persian Gulf. This article argues instead that the ‘Middle East’ label should be seen as the culmination of a longer process, led less from London than from India. Over the previous century, this consolidation of ‘British’ India as a distinct regional actor was accompanied by the conceptualisation of its borderlands, including that Gulf-centred space. This space become a theatre for economic and political monitoring strategised from India, seeking to transform what was represented as a pirate-infested margin into a pacified buffer zone. Control and exploitation of pearl fisheries, the main economic activity for Gulf populations, was central to these efforts. Imperial strategy around the Gulf pearl was a key tool in founding an informal Indian empire in the Gulf and its hinterlands, in that very space to which the name ‘Middle East’ would subsequently be given.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects: | D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain D History General and Old World > DS Asia H Social Sciences > HF Commerce J Political Science > JC Political theory |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Arts > History | ||||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Middle East -- History -- 19th century, Persian Gulf Region -- History -- 19th century, Great Britain -- Colonies -- Asia -- Economic policy -- 19th century, Geopolitics -- Middle East, Pearl industry and trade -- Great Britain -- Colonies, British -- India -- History -- 19th century | ||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Middle Eastern Studies | ||||||||
| Publisher: | Taylor & Francis | ||||||||
| ISSN: | 0026-3206 | ||||||||
| Official Date: | 2019 | ||||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 55 | ||||||||
| Number: | 6 | ||||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 864-878 | ||||||||
| DOI: | 10.1080/00263206.2019.1588121 | ||||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
| Publisher Statement: | “This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Middle Eastern Studies on 13/04/2019, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00263206.2019.1588121.” | ||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||
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