ABSTRACT
The Routledge History of Western Empires is an all new volume focusing on the history of Western Empires in a comparative and thematic perspective. Comprising of thirty-three original chapters arranged in eight thematic sections, the book explores European overseas expansion from the Age of Discovery to the Age of Decolonisation.
Studies by both well-known historians and new scholars offer fresh, accessible perspectives on a multitude of themes ranging from colonialism in the Arctic to the scramble for the coral sea, from attitudes to the environment in the East Indies to plans for colonial settlement in Australasia. Chapters examine colonial attitudes towards poisonous animals and the history of colonial medicine, evangelisaton in Africa and Oceania, colonial recreation in the tropics and the tragedy of the slave trade.
The Routledge History of Western Empires ranges over five centuries and crosses continents and oceans highlighting transnational and cross-cultural links in the imperial world and underscoring connections between colonial history and world history. Through lively and engaging case studies, contributors not only weigh in on historiographical debates on themes such as human rights, religion and empire, and the ‘taproots’ of imperialism, but also illustrate the various approaches to the writing of colonial history. A vital contribution to the field.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |72 pages
Mapping the Imperial Turn
chapter |13 pages
Facing Empire
chapter |15 pages
An Early Scramble for Africa
part |48 pages
Planning Empire
chapter |13 pages
The Theory and Practice of Empire-Building
part |43 pages
Locations of Empire
chapter |15 pages
Empire at the Floe Edge
chapter |13 pages
Colonialism in Palestine
part |57 pages
People of Empire
chapter |14 pages
Neighbourly Relations
part |62 pages
Imperial Sciences
chapter |14 pages
Imperial Science or the Republic of Poison Letters?
part |63 pages
Imperial Spaces
part |60 pages
Imperial Cultures
part |79 pages
Making and Unmaking Empire