In Climate of Conquest, the author offers a new analysis of the Mughal empire from the vantage of point of war. He eschews the conventional way of writing about war primarily in terms of battles and technologies. Instead, he explores the world of military labour, formation of imperial frontiers, legitimisation of conquest, and influence of environment on military campaigns. What emerges is an interpretation of Mughal empire-building as a highly adaptive, flexible, and accommodative process.

• CONTENTS


• Acknowledgements


• Introduction


• PART I. FIGHTING WARS: CAMPAIGNS, ENVIRONMENT, EMPIRE


• Chapter 1. Environment and the Heterogeneous Conquest of North India


• Chapter 2. Moving East, Moving West: War, Environment, and Imperial Expansion


• PART II. PRODUCING WARS: LOGISTICS, FRONTIER, IDEOLOGY


• Chapter 3. Military Labour, Animals, and the Material Production of War


• Chapter 4. Routes, Forts, Environment, and the Making of Imperial Frontiers


• Chapter 5. Ideology, Empire, and the Cultural Climate of War


• Conclusion


• Bibliography

Pratyay Nath is Assistant Professor and Head, Department of History, Ashoka University. He is a historian of war and empire. Climate of Conquest is his first book.