Over the course of two centuries, the region of the Middle Niger valley of the Western Sudan was dominated by three successive states: the indigenous Segu Bambara state, the Islamic Umarian state, and the French colonial state. In each of these states, warriors were the rulers, and not surprisingly warfare was the primary expression of state power. The survival of each state depended on its ability to reproduce its capacity to make war; in order to do so, the warrior state intervened in the economy. In each of the three states, the interrelationship of warfare, the state, and the economy produced different results. How the state actually intervened in the economy and how this intervention influenced the structure and performance of the economy is the subject of this book. During the 200 years under study, the regional economy of the Middle Niger valley expanded and contracted in response to the state's capacity to provide conditions favorable to commercial development, capital accumulation, and investment. When the Segu Bambara state was able to control the autonomy of its warriors, the state encouraged the expansion of the regional economy. The Umarians, on the other hand, preyed upon producers within the region, and created conditions that discouraged long-term investments. The very success of the French conquest initially encouraged investment, especially in the form of slaves. After 1894, however, conflict between civilian colonial authorities and the French military undermined the economic and social foundations erected by the military. From 1905 to 1914, slaves left their masters and helped once again to transform the structure and performance of the economy.

This edited collection, written by eleven leading specialists, examines the nineteenth-century commercial transition in West Africa: the ending of the Atlantic slave trade and the development of alternative forms of 'legitimate' trade, mainly in vegetable products. Approaching the subject from an African, rather than a European or American, perspective, the case studies consider the effects of transition on the African societies involved. They offer significant insights into the history of pre-colonial Africa and the slave trade, the origins of European imperialism, and longer-term issues of economic development in Africa.

In the Nuba Hills, on the frontiers of the Islamic Sudan, a dynasty of Muslim warrior kings arose in the eighteenth century. Their kingdom, Taqali, survived as an independent state, resisting conquest by larger empires, and coming under external control only during the twentieth century. Janet Ewald has written the first comprehensive account of the origins and development of the Taqali kingdom. Ewald shows how events originating far beyond the Taqali massif allowed local Muslim soldiers to become kings of the Taqali in the eighteenth century and then to hold on to their power. But the nature of that power was shaped by the highland farmers who stubbornly and largely successfully resisted the efforts of the kings to parlay their control over the means of production. In this struggle religion became an ideological weapon on both sides, as the Taqali farmers asserted their local beliefs against their Muslim rulers. Political confrontations also bore unintended economic consequences. Ewald's account of Taqali challenges current views on the impact of Islam, merchant capitalism, and Egyptian military administration in nineteenth-century Sudan.

In 1945, US intelligence officers in Manila discovered that the Japanese had hidden large quantities of gold bullion and other looted treasure in the Philippines. President Truman decided to recover the gold but to keep its riches secret. These, combined with Japanese treasure recovered during the US occupation, and with recovered Nazi loot, would create a worldwide American political action fund to fight communism. This 'Black Gold' gave Washington virtually limitless, unaccountable funds, providing an asset base to reinforce the treasuries of America's allies, to bribe political and military leaders, and to manipulate elections in foreign countries for more than fifty years.

"This group of studies first appeared in a special issue on 'Unfree labour in the development of the Atlantic world' in Slavery & abolition, vol. 15, no. 2 (August 1994), published by Frank Cass"--T.p. verso. Includes bibliographical references and index.

For much of the twentieth century, France recruited colonial subjects from sub-Saharan Africa to serve in its military, sending West African soldiers to fight its battles in Europe, Southeast Asia, and North Africa. In this exemplary contribution to the "new imperial history," Gregory Mann argues that this shared military experience between France and Africa was fundamental not only to their colonial relationship but also to the reconfiguration of that relationship in the postcolonial era. Mann explains that in the early twenty-first century, among Africans in France and Africa, and particularly in Mali--where Mann conducted his research--the belief that France has not adequately recognized and compensated the African veterans of its wars is widely held and frequently invoked. It continues to animate the political relationship between France and Africa, especially debates about African immigration to France. Focusing on the period between World War I and 1968, Mann draws on archival research and extensive interviews with surviving Malian veterans of French wars to explore the experiences of the African soldiers. He describes the effects their long absences and infrequent homecomings had on these men and their communities, he considers the veterans' status within contemporary Malian society, and he examines their efforts to claim recognition and pensions from France. Mann contends that Mali is as much a postslavery society as it is a postcolonial one, and that specific ideas about reciprocity, mutual obligation, and uneven exchange that had developed during the era of slavery remain influential today, informing Malians' conviction that France owes them a "blood debt" for the military service of African soldiers in French wars.