The Dynamics of Global Dominance: European Overseas Empires 1415-1980

About this book

For centuries Europeans ruled vast portions of the world as inhabitants of west European countries sailed to distant continents and took possession of territories whose societies and economies they set out to change. How and why did these farflung empires form persist and finally fall? David Abernethy addresses these questions in this magisterial survey of the rise and decline of European overseas empires. Abernethy identifies broad patterns across time and space interweaving them with fascinating details of cross-cultural encounters. He argues that relatively autonomous profit-making religious and governmental institutions enabled west European countries to launch triple assaults on other societies. Indigenous people also played a role in their eventual subjugation by inviting Europeans to intervene in their power struggles. Abernethy finds that imperial decline was often the unanticipated result of wars among major powers. Postwar crises over colonies unmet expectations empowered movements that eventually took territories as diverse as the thirteen British North American colonies Spains South American possessions India the Dutch East Indies Vietnam and the Gold Coast to independence. In advancing a theory of imperialism that includes European and non-European actors and in analyzing economic social and cultural as well as political dimensions of empire Abernethy helps account for Europes long occupation of global center stage. He also sheds light on key features of todays postcolonial world and the legacies of empire concluding with an insightful approach to the moral evaluation of colonialism.