ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book deals with the importance of a nexus of ideological and administrative structures that Europeans transferred from Europe to the Americas, adapting and transforming them under the force of the new environments. It examines the manner in which the Spanish crown deployed institutions and administrative forms as it struggled to centralize and bring under its control processes of overseas conquest that had been set in motion by individuals. The book explores the importance of a process of imperial mimesis to English expansionists, as they wished to emulate Spain’s successes in bringing the lands and peoples of the Americas under its administrative and financial control. It also examines the actions taken by the later Stuart monarchs to foster the slave trade and promote the development of their Caribbean colonies after the Restoration.
