Seasonal Sedition: The Environmental Limits of Gunrunning across the Arabian Sea, 1899–1914

Abstract: In recent years, historians have increasingly drawn attention to the myriad weaknesses that plagued colonial empires during the second half of the nineteenth century. One of these shortcomings was the ease with which contraband traversed their borders. In this regard, environmental knowledge has been highlighted as critical in helping smugglers to skirt attempts at regulation and repression. The challenges faced by these smugglers, however, have received less attention. Using gunrunning in the Arabian Sea as an analytical lens, the following article contends that smuggling networks evolved in response to environmental vulnerabilities as much as advantages. Topography, seasonality, and climate all imposed spatial and temporal constraints on gunrunning operations. In turn, these pressures influenced how imperial authority was contested and upheld along colonial frontiers.