Manuel Barcia, "Pirate Imperialism: Trade, Abolition, and Global Suppression of Maritime Raiding, 1825–1870" (Yale UP, 2026)

About this episode

The episode discusses how imperial powers used the suppression of piracy as a justification for territorial expansion and enforcing imperialist agendas in the 19th century.

In the middle decades of the nineteenth century, imperial powers around the world came into direct confrontation with local resistance in the form of maritime raiding. From the Atlantic basin to the western Mediterranean Sea, the Persian Gulf and the east coast of Africa, and Southeast Asia and China, imperial powers claimed that progress was being held back by the barbarity and greed of pirates, who repeatedly attacked imperial vessels. The suppression of piracy, justified under the banner of spreading civilization and free trade and abolishing slavery and the slave trade, provided both western and non-western powers with a back door for territorial expansion and the enforcement of imperialist agendas. In Pirate Imperialism: Trade, Abolition, and Global Suppression of Maritime Raiding, 1825–1870 (Yale UP, 2026), Professor Manuel Barcia tells the story of these conflicts, showing how imperialist powers frequently used anti–maritime raiding efforts as excuses to cement western supremacy in various parts of the world, while simultaneously resorting to violent means that were indistinguishable from the methods of those they accused of being pirates. This interview was conducted by…

People in this episode

Host: Marshall Poe

Guest: Manuel Barcia

Topics covered

• imperialism
• maritime raiding
• slavery
• trade
• colonialism
• 19th century history

Keywords

• piracy
• imperial powers
• maritime raiding
• civilization
• free trade
• slavery
• territorial expansion

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Yale UP

Books & works: Pirate Imperialism: Trade, Abolition, and Global Suppression of Maritime Raiding, 1825–1870

More episodes of New Books in Critical Theory

• Jeffrey R. Di Leo et al. eds., "Theory as World Literature" (Bloomsbury, 2025) · June 12, 2026 · 32 min
• Don Thomas Deere, "The Invention of Order: On the Coloniality of Space" (Duke UP, 2026) · June 11, 2026 · 46 min
• Natalia Rogach Alexander, "Growing People: The Enduring Legacy of John Dewey" (Columbia UP, 2025) · June 10, 2026 · 52 min
• Arlene W. Saxonhouse, "Athenian Democracy: Modern Mythmakers and Ancient Theorists" (U Notre Dame Press, 2026) · June 10, 2026 · 58 min
• Joanna Stalnaker, "The Rest Is Silence: Enlightenment Philosophers Facing Death" (Yale UP, 2025) · June 9, 2026 · 1h 8m
• Javier Arbona-Homar, "Explosivity: Following What Remains" (U Minnesota Press, 2025) · June 8, 2026 · 1h 6m