Cantonment

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Cantonment, Florida is town north of Pensacola, Florida. See also Canton and Cantonist

A cantonment is a temporary or semi-permanent military quarters.[1] The word cantonment is derived from the French word canton meaning corner or district.[2] In Southern Asia, the term cantonment also describes permanent military stations.[1] Cantonments can be found in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, South Africa, Ghana and Sri Lanka. In United States military parlance, a cantonment is an essentially permanent residential (i.e. barracks) section of a fort or other such military installation. See, for example Fort Hood.


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[edit] Campaigning

During a campaign, cantonments are places of encampment formed by troops for a more permanent stay, or while in winter quarters.[1] For example at the start of the Waterloo campaign in 1815, while the Duke of Wellington's headquarters were in Brussels, most of his Anglo-allied army of 93,000 were cantoned to the south of Brussels.[3]

[edit] List of Permanent Cantonments

[edit] Ghana

[edit] British India

Many cities in the Indian subcontinent, such as Ahmedabad, Belgaum, Bangalore, Ambala, Kanpur, Bathinda, Delhi, Pune, Sialkot and Rawalpindi, contained large cantonments of the former British Indian Army.[4]. While in the 18th and 19th Century cantonments in India were viewed as semi-permanent, by the turn of the 20th Century they became permanent garrisons, and were further entrenched as such via the military reforms of Lord Kitchener in 1903 and the Cantonments Act of 1924.[5]

[edit] India

India currently has 63 cantonments in 17 different states, not including smaller 'sub-cantonments' in the same regional area. The vast majority of Indian cantonments are spread across Northern, Northwestern and Northeastern India since the nation does not face any terrestrial military threats in the South. China and Pakistan lie beyond India's northern and western borders, both having proven themselves to be hostile to Indian strategic interests, and often acting in concert. The British Indian Army too was positioned for threats from across India's northern frontiers, as when the Great Game was in play in the 19th Century. The vast majority of modern Indian Army cantonments date from the British era, though all have been modernized, expanded and reconfigured to suit modern warfare, training requirements and inter-service considerations. A few have, over the decades, also been dissolved and/or combined with other cantonments.

They include:

[edit] Pakistan

[edit] Bangladesh

  • Dhaka Cantonment
  • Mirpur Cantonment
  • Savar Cantonment
  • Chittagong Cantonemnt
  • Khagrachari Cantonemnt
  • Rangamati Cantonment
  • Jessore Cantonment
  • Khulna Cantonment
  • Rajshahi Cantonment
  • Bagura Cantonment
  • Rangpur Cantontment
  • Sayedpur Cantonment
  • Ghatail Cantonment
  • Mymensing Cantonment
  • Sylhet Cantonment
  • Mainamati (Comilla) Cantonment
  • Zamuna satu(Tangail)cantonment

[edit] Sri Lanka

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Oxford English Dictionary cantonment
  2. ^ Oxford English Dictionary cantonment and canton, v.
  3. ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica Eleventh Edition Waterloo Campaign
  4. ^ Maya, Jayapal. Bangalore: The Story of a City. East West Books (Madras) Pvt. Ltd
  5. ^ a b c Sheikh, M. O. Lahore Cantonment http://www.geocities.com/momers_termpapers/ss153LahoreCantonment.htm
  6. ^ Sarhad Conservation Network® Reports: Book on Peshawar Cantonment Launched
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