Britain secured Gulf hegemony informally, framing piracy as a Wahhabi-fuelled threat to India

Evidence

At the beginning of the nineteenth century however, the Persian Gulf was at the heart of profound political changes that saw a new style of European imperialism and trade emerge.[xviii] Throughout the century Britain began to impose a hegemonic control of the international system of trade. Not through direct control, but instead becoming the ‘steward’ of the oceans.[xix] The Gulf was seen as essential due to its strategic importance in the protection of India from north-western approaches and their booming sea-born commerce. This was perceived by the British as being under threat from Qawasi piracy, supposedly fuelled by Wahhabism.[xx] Scholars note that the factors that motivated British imperialism were dominated by two main theories. — Robin Alexander Plant, Discuss the Relationship Between…, 10

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: ‘the steward of the oceans’ — how informal maritime hegemony, not territorial conquest, built the nineteenth-century Gulf order, with Wahhabism as convenient casus belli.
• DEFINE: Defines the period’s imperial mode: hegemony without direct control, exercised through stewardship of trade routes.