Wednesday 24 March 2021 at 5.15pm

Dr Andrew MacKillop: 'The more mischief the better for us': Scots and Irish officers and predatory imperialism in South Asia, c.1740 to c.1820

Abstract: The engagement of Irish and Scottish society with Britain's armed forces in the 'long eighteenth' century is well known. However, the process of participation in the three armies of the United English East India Company remains underexplored. The paper argues that the distinctive Scottish and Irish contributions to the Asia hemisphere of British expansion is an historicised example of military migration as the mobilisation of 'low'- and 'high-value' human capital. The result was military profiteering on a hitherto unrecognised scale, which, in turn, impacted both societies in very different ways. 

Zoom details from Rachel Chin.

Image for Andrew MacKillop's seminar

First published: 16 February 2021

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