Pirates of Empire: Colonisation and Maritime Violence in Southeast Asia, by Stefan Eklöf Amirell

Abstract

Stefan Eklöf Amirell’s monograph explores the intersections of maritime violence and imperial expansion in South-east Asia, primarily in the period 1850 to 1920. Whereas previous piracy studies have centred on a single colonial power or sub-region, Amirell’s work encompasses five colonial powers (Spain, the USA, the Netherlands, Britain and France) in addition to Asian states (including the Sulu Sultanate and imperial China and Vietnam) and three allegedly ‘pirate-infested’ zones: the Sulu Sea, the Strait of Malacca and Indochina. In the introduction and first chapter, Amirell provides an overview of the history and historiography of regional and global piracy. The remaining three chapters are organised geographically, with each examining the entangled evolution of piracy and colonial rule in one of these piracy zones. The ‘digital revolution’ made this project possible: Amirell’s analysis draws on digitised imperial archives such as Spain’s PARES platform and historical newspaper collections. Amirell demonstrates that the piracy...