The Hadhramis, the Hadhramaut and European Colonial Powers in the Indian Ocean 1

The Indian Ocean is a region of communities linked inextricably through trade. One of these communities is the Hadhramis of the South Arabian coast who participated in that trade as both merchants and sailors. Chaudhuri has demonstrated that the Indian Ocean emerged as a region of communities linked by trade well before a similar network was forged to link communities on different sides of the Atlantic. ² The intrusion of the Atlantic system into the Indian Ocean network from the start of the sixteenth century with the expansion of first mercantile and then industrial capitalism, and the onset of European colonialism, profoundly affected Indian Ocean commercial communities and patterns of trade. In contrast to many other significant trading communities, like the Gujaratis, Bengalis, and Javanese, the Hadhrami homeland was not incorporated into a European empire until relatively late. Thus a study of their adaptation to shifts in the trading structure of the Indian Ocean provides significant insights into the intricacies of the relationship between European powers, notably the British, and local communities.