Warfare & diplomacy in pre-colonial West Africa / Robert S. Smith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smith, Robert Sydney.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

History, Military.

Africa, West--History--To 1884.

Africa, West.

West Africa.

History.

Africa, West--History, Military.

Physical Description:

xii, 164 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

Second edition.

Other Title:

Warfare and diplomacy in pre-colonial West Africa.

Place of Publication:

Madison, Wis. : University of Wisconsin Press, 1989.

Summary:

This is a new edition of this well-known innovative study of the relations of the peoples of West Africa in the precolonial period. It covers a period of some four or five hundred years up to the last decades of the nineteenth century. The author takes a wide range of examples from the histories of those peoples whose levels of political organisation entitle their societies to be called 'states'. Arrangements for the exercise of power differed greatly but in broad terms there were states where the power to make decisions about war and peace were concentrated in the hands of one man or an oligarchy and those states where the power was diffused between members of the community. While it takes account of outside contributions the book is directed primarily to examining what happened between the states before the partition of the area and the establishment of colonies.

Contents:

1 Peace & War 1

2 Peaceful Relations 7

3 West African Wars: their Causes & Consequences 28

4 Armies & Canoe Fleets 42

5 Arms & Armour 64

6 Static Warfare & Fortifications 99

7 Strategy, Tactics & the Battle 120

8 A Summing-up 141

Appendix The Battle of Musfeia, 1823 146.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

0299123308

0299123340

OCLC:

20012978