ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the different types of coercive institutions which were constructed by the Western imperialists to crush the indigenous insurgencies in order to maintain their rule over the colonies. In fact, Britain had the biggest colonial empire among all the European powers. T.R. Moreman and Thomas Mockaitis assert that British COIN especially in the twentieth century was relatively humane because English common law dictated that disorders were to be suppressed with minimum force and in practice close civil-military cooperation characterised such small wars. The Dutch like the British found out that for fighting in Asia, the European soldiers in general were inferior to the indigenous people. The French paid huge subsidies to garrison and develop their unproductive colonies which accounted for less than 10 per cent of the French overseas trade by 1900. The difference between colonial warfare and European war in terms of tactics and operational goals was evident to the French military officers.
