Send a Gunboat!

As the nineteenth century progressed, the Industrial Revolution changed British naval power and made it more effective in inshore and riverine waters. Sail gave way to steam, and the “wooden walls” yielded to iron and steel ships. By the 1840s, paddlewheel gunboats mounting six 32-pounders were serving on distant stations. They proved effective, within their limits of speed and seaworthiness, in those locations where checking piracy, controlling unruly populations such as gold-seekers, and policing native tribes were the requirement. In the early nineteenth century, flag officers on distant stations requisitioned Congreve rockets and 9-pounder fieldguns — the former to terrorize recalcitrants ashore, the latter to be used by shore or landing parties. As the century wore on, Maxim guns came into use, and even armoured trains, for the purposes of coercion and bombardment. For work on rivers, including the Nile, gunboats could be sent out from British ports in parts and then assembled on the spot. The coming of the railways made British control of rivers and lakes an extension of dominance on and over the seas. Pax was spread and made more effective by technology. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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• Gunboat Frontier

  Dwight L Smith, Barry M Gough•The American Historical Review•1985

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• The tools of empire

  Daniel R Headrick, D Headrick•The tools of empire•1981

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