ABSTRACT
This book is a study of English colonialism before settlement in the Americas, arguing against the misconception that European overseas activities in this era constituted what has been considered a non-rapacious age of exploration. In contrast, I deem this period of imperial activity—before colonies were established—to comprise an integral part of a single, grinding, long-term process of English colonization in which Indigenous and African peoples played important roles. Europeans, believing themselves to be superior to all other peoples and cultures they might encounter, considered conquest and domination to be natural outcomes of their activity on the world stage. Because Englishmen knew themselves to be the unchallenged arbiters of what was regular, normal, and civilized, the written descriptions of their interactions with Indigenous and African peoples need to be read carefully.
