The East India Company and the island of Johanna (Anjouan) during the long eighteenth century

Abstract

For just over 230 years the East India Company’s maritime operations were supported by a far-flung network of islands, ports and watering points across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. These places provided supplies to company ships and safe havens in times of danger. The island of Johanna, or Anjouan, in the Mozambique Channel was one such place and this article considers how it came to be a key component within the company’s maritime system. The article also examines why the company chose not to exert direct control over the island when it had the opportunity to do so at the end of the eighteenth century. It is concluded that Johanna formed an important part of the flexible and durable maritime infrastructure that underpinned the territorial empire constructed by the company in India from 1750 onwards.