This book explores China's ambition to build itself into a maritime power. Despite having a continental coastline of 18,000 kilometers and territorial waters that cover an area one-third the size of its land mass, China has traditionally been considered a continental power. However, Beijing is currently trying to change this historical situation through two national strategies. This book will use the world-island and sea-power theories to explore the development of China’s maritime power from historical and geopolitical perspectives. Using fieldwork, in-depth interviews, and comprehensive data collection, this book will present a series of compelling examples and vivid stories to help readers understand China’s maritime strategies, with interest for China scholars, historians and economists alike.

This book, originally published in 1983, demonstrates the importance of seaports in the growth of less-developed countries. The author focuses on the character of port activity within the context of transport systems and regional economic planning. General principles of port development are illustrated by detailed reference to one Third World port group, that of the Indian Ocean coasts of Kenya and Tanzania. The objective is not merely to illustrate the character of one specific group of ports, but to demonstrate methods of analysis and to underline the crucial role of ports in the development process.

Connecticut - a state that is often overlooked, but is full of fascinating stories, hidden treasures and unique gems. This book invites you on an exciting journey of discovery, from the coastal towns of Long Island Sound to the verdant hills of Litchfield Hills. From the historical roots in Hartford to the spiritual center at Yale University in New Haven. There's a lot more to Connecticut than meets the eye. It is not only a land of hedge funds and high society, but also a land of rich history, art, natural wonders, and cultural diversity. This non-fiction book takes you on a journey through known and hidden treasures in Connecticut, from Mystic Seaport to Yale University, and takes you into a world full of surprises and curiosity. We will explore the awe-inspiring maritime history of Mystic Seaport, unveil the intellectual splendor of Yale University, and uncover the lesser-known but equally remarkable treasures in its collections. We'll visit historic sites in Hartford, walk in the footsteps of Mark Twain, and explore the extravagant Gillette Castle. But Connecticut isn't just history and culture. We'll also embark on adventurous hikes along the Appalachian Trail, explore the quaint coastal towns like Essex and Old Saybrook, and discover the burgeoning wine industry on the Connecticut Wine Trail. In this book, we'll look at the diversity of Connecticut, from the culinary delights of New Haven to the natural beauty of Litchfield Hills. We will explore art and culture in Bridgeport and share mysterious experiences in Mystic. We'll also look ahead to the future of the state and explore innovation and renewal in Connecticut. Immerse yourself in this fascinating land of contrasts, where tradition and modernity, history and future merge. There's more to Connecticut than you might have thought, and we invite you to explore this state's well-known and hidden gems. Join us on this journey of discovery from Mystic Seaport to Yale University, and let Connecticut inspire you.

On the Swahili coast of East Africa, monumental stone houses, tombs, and mosques mark the border zone between the interior of the African continent and the Indian Ocean. Prita Meier explores this coastal environment and shows how an African mercantile society created a place of cosmopolitan longing. Meier understands architecture as more than a way to remake local space. Rather, the architecture of this liminal zone was an expression of the desire of coastal inhabitants to belong to places beyond their homeports. Here architecture embodies modern ideas and social identities engendered by the encounter of Africans with others in the Indian Ocean world.

Compares twentieth-century literature from a network of British colonial cities, tracing a new, peripheral history of urban modernism.

Colonial architecture and urbanism carved its way through space: ordering and classifying the built environment, while projecting the authority of European powers across Africa in the name of science and progress. The built urban fabric left by colonial powers attests to its lingering impacts in shaping the present and the future trajectory of postcolonial cities in Africa. Colonial Architecture and Urbanism explores the intersection between architecture and urbanism as discursive cultural projects in Africa. Like other colonial institutions such as the courts, police, prisons, and schools, that were crucial in establishing and maintaining political domination, colonial architecture and urbanism played s pivotal role in shaping the spatial and social structures of African cities during the 19th and 20th centuries. Indeed, it is the cultural destination of colonial architecture and urbanism and the connection between them and colonialism that the volume seeks to critically address. The contributions drawn from different interdisciplinary fields map the historical processes of colonial architecture and urbanism and bring into sharp focus the dynamic conditions in which colonial states, officials, architects, planners, medical doctors and missionaries mutually constructed a hierarchical and exclusionary built environment that served the wider colonial project in Africa.

Gaining prominence as a seaport under the Ottomans in the mid-1500s, the city of Mocha on the Red Sea coast of Yemen pulsed with maritime commerce. Its very name became synonymous with Yemen's most important revenue-producing crop -- coffee. After the imams of the Qasimi dynasty ousted the Ottomans in 1635, Mocha's trade turned eastward toward the Indian Ocean and coastal India. Merchants and shipowners from Asian, African, and European shores flocked to the city to trade in Arabian coffee and aromatics, Indian textiles, Asian spices, and silver from the New World. Nancy Um tells how and why Mocha's urban shape and architecture took the forms they did. Mocha was a hub in a great trade network encompassing overseas cities, agricultural hinterlands, and inland market centers. All these connected places, together with the functional demands of commerce in the city, the social stratification of its residents, and the imam's desire for wealth, contributed to Mocha's architectural and urban form. Eventually, in the mid-1800s, the Ottomans regained control over Yemen and abandoned Mocha as their coastal base. Its trade and its population diminished and its magnificent buildings began to crumble, until few traces are left of them today. This book helps bring Mocha to life once again.

Ouidah, an indigenous African town in the modern Republic of Benin, was the principal pre-colonial commercial centre of its region, and the second most important town of the Dahomey kingdom. It served as a major outlet for the export of slaves for the trans- Atlantic trade. Between the seventeenth and the nineteenth centuries Ouidah was the most important embarkation point for slaves in the region of West Africa known to outsiders as the 'Slave Coast'. Exporting over a million slaves, it was second only to Luanda in Angola for the embarkation of slaves in the whole of Africa. The author's central concerns are the organization of the African end of the slave trade, and the impact participation in the trade had on the historical development of the African societies involved. It shifts the focus from the viewpoint of the Dahomian monarchy, represented in previous studies, to the coast. Here is a well documented case study of pre-colonial urbanism, of the evolution of a merchant community, and in particular the growth of a group of private traders whose relations with the Dahomian monarchy grew increasingly problematic over time. North America: Ohio U Press