Animals and Warfare in Precolonial South-East Asia
Abstract
Abstract The application of animals in warfare in precolonial South-East Asia was shaped by episodes of state formation, trade, and the impact of foreign gunpowder technology. Changes in the applications of animals in warfare on the ground were in response to technological change, such as the vulnerability of elephants in an age of gunpowder weaponry; economic change, which determined what resources a state could afford to have; and the level of state formation, which determined to what purposes and how far geographically armies would be deployed for military operations. By the end of the nineteenth century, all of these factors had shifted and in the age of European colonial control, the traditional animals applied in the region’s warfare took a back seat.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Global Maritime and Colonial Histories
Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography
Asian Studies and History
Publication details
- Journal / source
- The Oxford Handbook of Warfare in Asia
- Publisher
- Oxford University PressOxford
- Pages
- 33–45
- Publication date
- 10 July 2026
- Language
- EN
- Document type
- Book chapter