This magisterial survey of the rise and decline of European overseas empires asks how and why these empires were formed, persisted, and eventually fell. In a discussion that encompasses European and non-European actors as well as the economic, social, cultural, and political dimensions of empire, David B. Abernethy explains Europe's long occupation of global center stage and throws new light on today's postcolonial world and the legacies of empire. Book jacket.

Acknowledgments vii
Part I WESTERN EUROPE AND THE WORLD
Ceuta, Bojador, and Beyond: Europeans on the Move 3(15)
Why Did the Overseas Empires Rise, Persist, and Fall? 18(27)
Part II PHASES OF IMPERIAL EXPANSION AND CONTRACTION
Phase 1: Expansion, 1415-1773 45(19)
Phase 2: Contraction, 1775-1824 64(17)
Phase 3: Expansion, 1824-1912 81(23)
Phase 4: Unstable Equilibrium, 1914-39 104(29)
Phase 5: Contraction, 1940-80 133(42)
Part III ACCOUNTING FOR IMPERIAL EXPANSION
Western Europe as a Region: Shared Features 175(31)
Western Europe as a System of Competing States 206(19)
The Institutional Basis for the Triple Assault 225(29)
Non-European Initiatives and perceptions 254(23)
Part IV CONSOLIDATING POWER
Sectoral Institutions and Techniques of Control 277(23)
Sources of Colonial Weakness 300(25)
Part V ACCOUNTING FOR IMPERIAL CONTRACTION
Colonialism as a Self Defeating Enterprise 325(20)
The International Dimension: War as the Catalyst for Independence 345(18)
Part VI CONSEQUENCES OF EUROPEAN OVERSEAS RULE
Legacies 363(24)
The Moral Evaluation of Colonialism 387(22)
Appendix. Spatial and Temporal Dimensions of the Overseas Empires 409(8)
Notes 417(46)
Bibliography 463(42)
Index 505