Home > Catalogue > Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie orientale > 57 | Supplemento | 2021 > From Matchlocks to Machine Guns: The Modernisation of the Tibetan Army’s Firearms Between Local Production and Import (1895-1950)

Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie orientale | Vol. 57 | December 2021

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Research Article

From Matchlocks to Machine Guns: The Modernisation of the Tibetan Army’s Firearms Between Local Production and Import (1895-1950)

Alice Travers    Centre de recherche sur les civilisations de l’Asie orientale; Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Paris, France    

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abstract

Between 1895 and 1950, the Tibetan government took several steps to improve the firearms and artillery of its troops, setting up local factories and negotiating with foreign powers to purchase arms manufactured abroad. These imports were directly related to the political relationship with these countries and required the introduction and diffusion of new knowledge and techniques among Tibetan troops. Based on Tibetan and English sources, this article discusses some of the challenges met by the Tibetan government in this process and gives an overview of the variety of modern firearms that the Tibetan army used in the early twentieth century.

Published
Dec. 10, 2021
Accepted
July 27, 2021
Submitted
March 17, 2021
Language
EN

Keywords: Matchlocks • British Raj • Small arms • Arsenal • Younghusband Expedition • Tibetan history • Weapons • Firearms • Artillery • Qing China • Arms imports • Arm production • British India • Tibet

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/AnnOr/2385-3042/2021/02/006

Copyright: © 2021 Alice Travers. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.