Sketching configurations of imperial sovereignty through nineteenth-century maritime safety

This article explores the nineteenth-century view that the organization of maritime safety – the ability to control or circumvent the natural forces of waterways and ensure safe navigation and rescue at sea – was one of several ‘standards of civilization’ attributable to western states that would justify a derogation of a state's sovereignty if not met. It investigates this hierarchical understanding by discussing examples of maritime safety in the context of colonialism and informal imperialism. Focusing on three examples of trans-imperial projects at chokepoints of global navigation – Cape Guardafui, Cape Spartel and the Bosporus Strait – the article shows how this standard was an argumentative foundation on which powers could agree to exchange, cooperate and collaborate in response to maritime hazards. These projects show different configurations of sovereignty: the vertical relationship of a hierarchy between sovereign and less than fully sovereign nations as well as the horizontal relationship of a shared sovereignty between empires.