Distant Drums

Distant Drums reveals how the colonies were central to the defense of the British Empire and the command of the oceans that underpinned it. Now in paperback, Distant Drums blends sweeping overviews of the nature of imperial defense with grassroots explanations of how individual colonies were mobilized for war, drawing on the author's specialist knowledge of the Indian Ocean and colonies, such as Bechuanaland, Ceylon, Mauritius, and Swaziland. This permits the full and dramatic range of action involved in imperial warfare to be viewed as part of an interconnected whole, from policy-makers and military planners in Whitehall to chiefs recruiting soldiers in African villages. After examining the martial reasons for acquiring colonies, the book considers the colonial role in the First World War. It then turns to the Second World War, documenting the recruitment of colonial soldiers, their manifold roles in British military formations, and the impact of war upon colonial home fronts. It reve