Product Description

John Thornton is Associate Professor of History at Millersville University of Pennsylvania. This book is intended for undergrad courses in European expansion, slavery and slave trade, African history, colonial history. Military historians.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1546574 in Books
• Published on: 1999-08-26
• Released on: 1999-08-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

From the Back Cover
Warfare in Atlantic Africa, 1500-1800 investigates the impact of warfare on the history of Africa in the period of the slave trade. Although African military history is still in its infancy, the growing interest in the history of Africa more generally has transformed common conceptions about tribalism, primitivism and development. African wars had tended to be dismissed as uncivilized and in need of no special explanation or scrutiny. This book is therefore a unique and important examination of the phenomenon of African warfare, including discussion of:
the relationship between war and the slave trade
the role of Europeans in promoting African wars and supplying African armies
the influence of climatic and ecological factors on warfare patterns and dynamics
the impact of social organization and military technology, including the gunpowder revolution
case studies of warfare in, among others, Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast, Benin and West Central Africa

About the Author
John K. Thornton is Professor of History at Millersville University, Pennsylvania. He is the author of Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800 (Cambridge, 1998).