French Empire
The French are often described as latecomers in the world of global Asia and its trade during the early modern period. Standard historical accounts tend to posit that it was only with the creation by Colbert in 1664 of the “Compagnie des Indes Orientales” that France began to capture a
Middle East
In contemporary geopolitics, the Strait of Hormuz, giving access from the Indian Ocean to the waters of the Persian Gulf, constitutes a pinch point of global maritime commerce. Super tankers and flows of oil transit through this narrow passage, dominated by the rugged mountains of the Ras Musandam peninsula. The
Dressed to impress: an English gentleman fashioned in Persia One of the treasures of the art collection of Petworth House, located in Sussex in England, is a fascinating pair of portraits by the Flemish artist Anthony Van Dyck. Painted in Rome in 1622, these depict the Englishman Sir Robert Shirley
During the 1780s the ruler of Mysore, Tipu Sultan, commissioned his lieutenants to open up a string of “factories,” or trading posts. These factories were earmarked for construction at several points inside and outside of India (Official Documents, Relative to the Negotiations Carried on by Tippoo Sultaun, 43). In establishing