From the late 1400s to the mid-1900s, the world's great powers engaged in a virtual feeding frenzy of conquest, colonization, and often ruthless exploitation of less developed regions and populations. Only in 1970 did the United Nations outlaw colonialism. This volume documents the rise and fall of the great colonial empires in North and South Amercia, Africa, the Far East, and the Pacific region, and explores how many of the political and cultural problems the world faces today were created by the imperial and colonial practices of the past.

This book further qualifies the postcolonial thesis and shows its limits. To reach these goals, it links text analysis and political history on a global comparative scale. Focusing on imperial agents, their narratives of progress, and their political aims and strategies, it asks whether Enlightenment gave birth to a new colonialism between 1760 and 1820. Has Enlightenment provided the cultural and intellectual origins of modern colonialism? For decades, historians of political thought, philosophy, and literature have debated this question. On one side, many postcolonial authors believe that enlightened rationalism helped delegitimize non-European cultures. On the other side, some historians of ideas and literature are willing to defend at least some eighteenth-century philosophers whom they consider to have been “anti-colonialists”. Surprisingly enough, both sides have focused on literary and philosophical texts, but have rarely taken political and social practice into account.

Chunjie Zhang's Transculturality and German Discourse in the Age of European Colonialism examines German-language texts in the context of Europe's colonial expansion to reveal non-European influence on German thinking.

Colonial Encounters in The Age of High Imperialism is the first book in the new HarperCollins World History Series, edited by Michael Adas. This title examines the world-transforming experience of Western imperialism during the period from 1870 to 1914. Case studies focusing Specifically on Belgium and the Congo, Hawaii and the United States, and India and Britain examine the experiences of both colonizers and colonized, men and women, elite officials and faceless laborers. An introductory overview makes the study of imperialism relevant for today's students by showing them how the past relates to the present. Chapter-ending conclusions summarize important material, and suggested in-depth readings direct students to sources for further exploration. The case studies provide detailed examination of particular places and moments and invite comparison with imperialism in other parts of the world. Discussions of broader topics and larger issues, such as population redistribution, the spread of technology, military invasion, and the role of guns and medicine build upon the case studies.

The nineteenth century was Europe's colonial century. At the beginning of the period, the only colonial empire that existed was the British Empire. By the end of the century the situation was completely different and Europe's colonial possessions had come to constitute a large part of the world. The French had acquired an immense colonial empire and the Dutch had extended their control over Indonesia. Germany and Italy, unified only in the latter half of the century, had claimed their place under the sun. Even the tiny Kingdom of Belgium had acquired a huge colonial territory in Africa: the Belgian Congo. This is the first book to describe the whole process of colonization from conquest to pacification, and to analyze it in the light of administrative, cultural and economic developments. The European Colonial Empires discusses a uniquely long period instead of merely focussing on the shorter, accepted age of classical imperialism. Wesseling argues that European colonial expansion can be understood only by putting it into this long-term perspective and by comparing the differences between the colonies in Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Caribbean. This book redresses the balance that privileges the British colonial and imperial experience. It emphasizes the continental European experience while relating developments to the British enterprise.