Islands in a Cosmopolitan Sea

A History of the Comoros

Bibliographic Data

ID9321886
AuthorsIain Walker (0000-0003-1852-4681, Max Planck Society, corresponding author), Iain S Walker (0000-0001-9667-1797, corresponding author)
Year2019
Pages272
Publication date2019-06-27
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueIslands in a Cosmopolitan Sea (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/oso/9780190071301.001.0001
OpenAlexW2980150273
ISBN9780190071301
Open LibraryOL28895392M
LanguageEN
Citations received11

Many people today have never heard of the Comoros, but these islands were once part of a prosperous regional trading economy that stretched halfway around the world. A key node in the trading networks of the Indian Ocean, the Comoros prospered by exchanging slaves & commodities with Arab & Indian merchants. By the 16th century, the archipelago served as an important supply point on the route from Europe to Asia. The 20th century brought the establishment of French colonial rule & a plantation economy. Today, the island nation suffers chronic mismanagement & relies on remittances from a diaspora community in France. Iain Walker traces the history & unique culture of these enigmatic islands, from their first settlement by Africans, Arabs and Austronesians, through their heyday within the greater Swahili world, to their decline as a forgotten outpost of the French colonial empire

Ancient history · Archaeology · Archipelago · Colonialism · Development economics · Diaspora · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Empire · Geography · Government (linguistics · Independence (probability theory · Indian ocean · Political science · Politics · Settlement (finance · Sovereignty · State (computer science · Swahili · African history and culture studies · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Law · Comoros · Geology · Oceanography

Tools

Open DOILibgen