Trade and Dominion - European Oversea Empires in the Eighteenth Century - History of Civilisation

The eighteenth century in Europe was a time of great conflict over trade and colonisation. Between the mid-fifteenth and the mid-nineteenth centuries each of the great maritime nations acquired territory overseas. Five countries stood out above all other in the race for colonies: Portugal, the Netherlands, Spain, France and England. The world grew too small for these competing adventurers who sailed its seas and, although governments and trading companies both expressed a preference for peaceful trade rather than armed and expensive dominion, they often discovered that satisfactory trade was not to be had without conquest and interntational war. As the century progressed, governments became more interested in efficient and rational administration and a more responsible attitude to subject races emerged. However, empire-building continued in different forms, as the jealous commerical imperialism of the eighteenth century gave way to the self-confident industrial imperialism of the nineteenth. Professor Parry has provided a clear and comprehensive outline of the development of the European oversea empires in the eighteenth century - pointing out the factors that contributed to the expanision of European commerical and political influence outside Europe; and describing fully the consequences of this for Europeans themselves and for the peoples of the areas where they operated...