In September 1782, a violent and partly successful mutiny of Balinese slaves shocked the Dutch East India Company (VOC). This article will reconstruct the history of the mutiny of the Mercuur, tracing its significance in the context of slavery, labour, war, and the series of “Asian mutinies” that occurred in the 1780s. The revolt of the Balinese sheds light on the development of amok as a tradition of resistance. The purpose of calling amok cannot only be explained as a direct, impulsive response to perceived injustice or violation of codes of honour. It functioned as a conscious call to arms, signalling the start of collective and organized resistance. The Balinese mutiny was both similar to and different from other European and Asian forms of revolt.

This essay details the relationship between anti-impressment collective actions, the American Revolution, and the age of revolution. Naval impressment represented the forcible coercion of laborers into extended periods of military service. Workers in North American coastal communities militantly, even violently, resisted British naval impressment. A combination of Leveller-inspired ideals and practical experience encouraged this resistance. In turn, resistance from below inspired colonial elites to resist British authority by contributing to the elaboration of a political discourse on legitimate authority, liberty, and freedom. Maritime laborers stood on the front lines in the struggle for freedom, and their radical collective actions helped give meaning to wider struggles around the Atlantic world.

This article focuses on the diverse body of seafarers from the Indian Ocean region known as “lascars”. Very little is known about mutiny amongst those employed aboard European merchantmen during the age of sail. Private voyage journals and other sources offer scattered glimpses of demonstrations, strikes, and assaults on officers. Lascars used such tactics to air grievances, resist unpopular orders, and extract concessions from their superiors. They also took part in more serious forms of mutiny, in which they murdered captains, commandeered ships, and expropriated cargoes. The depositions taken in connection with such incidents provide an unparalleled window on to their working lives. Labour intermediaries known as serangs and tindals feature prominently in these various disturbances. The unique position they occupied enabled them to undermine European officers and even depose captains. Their involvement in shipboard uprisings serves as a reminder of the ways in which mutiny could be staged, manipulated, and controlled.

Between 1787 and 1868 a total of 830 convict vessels left the British Isles bound for the Australian penal colonies. While only one of these was seized by mutineers, many convicts were punished for plotting to take the ship that carried them to the Antipodes. This article will explore the circumstances that shaped those mutiny attempts and the impact that they had on convict management strategies.

The 104 identified piratical incidents in Australian waters between 1790 and 1829 indicate a neglected but substantial and historically significant resistance practice, not a scattering of unrelated spontaneous bolts by ships of fools. The pirates’ ideologies, cultural baggage, techniques, and motivations are identified, interrogated, and interpreted. So are the connections between convict piracy and bushranging; how piracy affected colonial state power and private interests; and piracy's relationship to “age of revolution” ultra-radicalism elsewhere.