Sara PetzoldAlltag in der Fremde – Hannoversche Soldaten im Dienst der British East India Company 1782–1791
Studien zur Geschichtsforschung der Neuzeit, volume 98
Hamburg 2019, 370 pages
ISBN 978-3-339-10522-6 (print) |ISBN 978-3-339-10523-3 (eBook)
Rezensionen
[...] Eine große Stärke dieser Arbeit ist zweifellos die akribische Auswertung des Quellenmaterials, dessen Möglichkeiten und Grenzen reflektiert diskutiert werden.
[...] leistet die Dissertation mit der Aufarbeitung des bisher kaum erforschten Einsatzes der Kurhannoveraner in Indien einen wichtigen Beitrag sowohl zur Landesgeschichte als auch zur Geschichte der deutschen Kolonialverflechtungen in der Frühen Neuzeit.
[...] Zweifellos liefert das Buch [...] eine dichte und in die Tiefe gehende Beschreibung der Lebenswelt der kurhannoveranischen Soldaten in Südindien, wie sie bislang nicht vorlag und bietet damit die Grundlage für weitere Studien in vergleichender Perspektive, wie sie die Autorin selbst (S. 322) als Desiderat benennt.
About this book deutschenglish
While British troops fought the War of American Indepenance, the British East India Company went out on a limb to recruit enough military personell to boost their territorial expansion. The conflict with the ruler of Mysore, Hyder Ali (and later on, his son and successor Tipu Sultan) threatened these ambitions. Especially difficulties regarding the recruitment of additional troops placed the EIC in a difficult position. Therefore, the Company asked the british King George III. for subsidies from Hanover. Consecutively two hanoveranian regiments served in the army of the British East India Company from 1782 until 1791.
During the years of their service the hanoverian regiments only once got into an extensive combat operation which happened during the Siege of Cuddalore in 1783. Nonetheless, the hanoverians suffered heavy losses due to the adverse conditions of the Indian climate. These losses proved to be disproportionate to the small relevance of their input on the EIC's territorial ambitions. But it is this apparent failure which makes the hanoverian operation that much interesting for a historical analysis. The miliary daily life of the hanoverian soldiers in the East Indies was equally effected by insecurity and multiple life-threatening dangers as well as boredom and faineance. Due to the indian climate's special nature the Hanoverians had to face economical and social problems that turned out to be extremely demanding both physically and psychologically.
This work looks at the hanoverian regiments' daily life in the East Indies and analyses the ways in which the soldiers counteracted the logistic and social challenges they faced. The administration and the acts of internal communication will be subject of this study, as will be the mechanisms of controll and discipline and the soldiers' problems regarding their daily life aside military operations.
Kontaktmöglichkeit
Keywords
AlltagsgeschichteEast India CompanyFrühe NeuzeitGeschichteHannoversche SoldatenMilitärMilitärgeschichteMysore-KriegNiedersächsische LandesgeschichteIhr Werk im Verlag Dr. Kovač
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