The Company Fortress by Erik Odegard - 9789087283469

The Company FortressMilitary Engineering and the Dutch East India Company in South Asia, 1638-1795\nAuthor(s): Erik Odegard\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Leiden University Press, Netherlands\nImprint: Leiden University Press\nISBN-13: 9789087283469, 978-9087283469\nSynopsis\nThe remains of Dutch East India Company forts are scattered throughout littoral Asia and Africa. But how important were the specific characteristics of European bastion-trace fortifications to Early Modern European expansion? The Company Fortress takes on this question by studying the system of fortifications built and maintained by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in present-day India and Sri Lanka. It uncovers the stories of the forts and their designers, arguing that many of these engineers were in fact amateurs and their creations contained serious flaws. Subsequent engineers were hampered by their disagreement over fortification design: there proved not to be a single 'European school' of fortification de.