In Defence of British India

Great Britain in the Middle East, 1775–1842

Edward Ingram

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9781032457482
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000857092
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

In Defence of British India (1984) illustrates the problems arising from the British need to defend an Indian empire against the fluctuations in the European balance of power, preferably by isolating the empire from the European political system. The strategies devised by Britain to forestall and later to counter the expansion of European empires into the Middle East are known as the Great Game, which began in 1798 in response to the French invasion of Egypt. Later, the British planned an offensive in the Middle East itself as a means by which to defend their Indian empire.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• List of maps
• Notes on references
• I Introduction
• II Great Britain’s Great Game: A Proposal
• III The End of the Spectre of the Overland Trade, 1775-1801
• IV The Role of the Indian Army at the End of the Eighteenth Century
• V The Failure of British Sea Power in the War of the Second Coalition, 1798-1801
• VI Towards Entanglement with Persia, 1799-1801
• VII Lord Mulgrave’s Proposals for the Reconstruction of Europe in 1804
• VIII The Royal Navy at the Strait of Hormuz, 1807-1808
• IX An Excursion to the Kingdom of Kabul, 1807-1809
• X Rules of the Great Game in Asia, 1798-1829
• XI The Struggle over the Persian Mission, 1828-1835
• XII Three Approaches to the Great Game in Asia
• Bibliography
• Index