ABSTRACT
All figures are relative: none more so than those concerning imperial forces. It is useless knowing about this battle, or that colonial army, unless we know not only the numbers of Europeans and their allies on one side, but also the number and quality of their adversaries. It is equally futile playing with figures for armies, if we are not told about the populations they policed and protected. This presents a formidable challenge, one exacerbated for places and periods where numbers change at dizzying speed, such as modern Southeast Asia. How many readers know the population for Indonesia-the former Netherlands East Indies-for 1800, 1900 and 1941? How many know the population for the Philippines on these same dates?
