ABSTRACT
The modern era saw significant innovations in maritime and military technologies, ushering in an era of European imperialism across oceans and deep into distant continents. This disrupted or destroyed many forms of indigenous government, inaugurated colonial government and yet also rebounded back upon the European monarchies, forcing them to revise their own ideas and practices. This is the main theme of Chapter 6. The examples considered are the Incan and the Spanish-American empires, the decline of the Mughal empire and the rise of British colonial rule in India, the establishment of colonial government in Aotearoa New Zealand, and the French domination of Algeria following the invasion in 1830. This leads us to consider how trans-continental imperialism has shaped modern ideas about sovereignty, international law, nationhood and race. The effects on forms of government, indigenous and metropolitan, are looked at reflexively; imperialism rebounded back upon government at centre, as well as causing inestimable damage at the peripheries.
