Colonial Chaos in the Southern Red Sea A History of Violence from 1830 to the Twentieth Century

Today, the countries bordering the Red Sea are riven with instability. Why are the region's contemporary problems so persistent and interlinked? Through the stories of three compelling characters, Colonial Chaos sheds light on the unfurling of anarchy and violence during the colonial era. A noble Somali sultan, a cunning Yemeni militia leader, and a Machiavellian French merchant ran amok in the southern Red Sea in the nineteenth and twentieth century. In response to colonial hostility and gunboat diplomacy, they attacked shipwrecks, launched piratical attacks, and traded arms, slaves, and drugs. Their actions contributed to the transformation of the region's international relations, redrew the political map, upended its diplomatic culture, and remodelled its traditions of maritime law, sowing the seeds of future unrest. Colonisation created chaos in the southern Red Sea. Colonial Chaos offers an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the relationship between the region's colonial past and its contemporary instability.

Introduction; 1. Sultan Uthman's Salvage Agreements; 2. The Beginning of the End of Diplomacy; 3. The New Rules of International Engagement; 4. Undercover Colonialism, Coups, and Chaos; Conclusion; Appendix.

Nicholas W. S. Smith received his PhD in African history from Northwestern University, Illinois, where his research won awards including an International Dissertation Research Fellowship from the SSRC. His research was funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council and was nominated for the Royal Historical Society History Today prize. He has written several articles, including for the Journal of Eastern African Studies and Routledge Series on Indian Ocean and Trans-Asia. He is currently qualifying as a maritime solicitor in the UK.