'Defending British India against Napoleon: The Foreign Policy of Governor-General Lord Minto, 1807-13'
Author: Amita Das, Aditya Das
Reviewer: Greg Mole
"Napoleon made his name through decisive battles, from Marengo and Ulm to Austerlitz and Jena. It was his diplomacy, however, that most frightened officials in the British East India Company (BEIC). With the conclusion of the 1807 Treaties of Tilsit and Finkenstein, which guaranteed peace with Russia and Persia respectively, Napoleon secured a corridor from which to strike at British interests on the subcontinent. The European battlefield became threateningly global. Standing in his way was a newly appointed—and, until now, understudied—civil servant: Lord Minto, the governor-general of India from 1807 to 1813....The result is a panoramic retelling of how Britain frustrated Napoleonic ambitions while simultaneously turning the Indian Ocean into a “British Lake.”"