Western colonialism

Table of Contents

Introduction
European expansion before 1763
- Antecedents of European expansion
  - Early European trade with Asia
  - Technological improvements
- The first European empires (16th century)
  - Portugal’s seaborne empire
  - Spain’s American empire
    - The conquests
    - Spanish colonial policies
  - Effects of the discoveries and empires
    - Europe’s shift to the Atlantic
    - Changes in Europe
- Colonies from northern Europe and mercantilism (17th century)
  - The Dutch
    - Eastern pursuits
    - Western pursuits
  - The French
    - Early settlements in the New World
    - Activities in India
    - Colonization of New France
  - The English
    - English ascendancy in India
    - England’s American colonies
  - Mercantilism
    - The Spanish fleet system
    - French mercantilist activities
    - The English navigation acts
- The old colonial system and the competition for empire (18th century)
  - Slave trade
  - Colonial wars of the first half of the 18th century
    - King William’s War (War of the League of Augsburg)
    - Queen Anne’s War (War of the Spanish Succession)
    - King George’s War (War of the Austrian Succession)
  - The French and Indian War (the Seven Years’ War)
European expansion since 1763
- European colonial activity (1763–c. 1875)
  - The second British Empire
    - Loss of the American colonies
    - Conquest of India
    - Global expansion
    - Policy changes
    - Involvement in Africa
    - The growth of informal empire
    - Anticolonial sentiment
  - Decline of colonial rivalry
  - Decline of the Spanish and Portuguese empires
  - The emigration of European peoples
  - Advance of the U.S. frontier
- The new imperialism (c. 1875–1914)
  - Reemergence of colonial rivalries
    - New acquisitions
    - New colonial powers
    - Rise of new industrialized nations
    - A world economy
    - New militarism
  - Historiographical debate
    - Economic imperialism
    - Noneconomic imperialism
    - Quest for a general theory of imperialism
- Penetration of the West in Asia and Africa
  - Russia’s eastward expansion
  - The partitioning of China
    - The Opium Wars
    - Foreign privileges in China
    - The Open Door Policy
  - Japan’s rise as a colonial power
  - Partition of Africa
    - The Europeans in North Africa
    - The race for colonies in sub-Saharan Africa
- World War I and the interwar period (1914–39)
  - Postwar redistribution of colonies
  - The British Empire
    - Middle East
    - India
    - Africa
  - Overseas France
  - Axis Powers
  - The United States and the Soviet Union
- World War II (1939–45)
  - Asia
  - Middle East
  - Africa
- Decolonization from 1945
  - British decolonization, 1945–56
  - Wars in overseas France, 1945–56
  - The Sinai-Suez campaign (October–November 1956)
  - Algeria and French decolonization, from 1956
  - British decolonization after 1956
  - Dutch, Belgian, and Portuguese decolonization
  - Conclusion

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Key People

Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus

Italian explorer

Charles de Gaulle

Charles de Gaulle

president of France

Cecil Rhodes

Cecil Rhodes

prime minister of Cape Colony

George III

George III

king of Great Britain

William Pitt, the Elder

William Pitt, the Elder

prime minister of United Kingdom

The Red Eminence

Cardinal Richelieu

French cardinal and statesman

William Penn

William Penn

English Quaker leader and colonist

Robert Clive

Robert Clive

British colonial administrator

Hernán Cortés

Hernán Cortés

Spanish conquistador

Leopold II

Leopold II

king of Belgium

Vasco da Gama

Vasco da Gama

Portuguese navigator

John Winthrop

John Winthrop

American colonial governor

Frederick Lugard

Frederick Lugard

British colonial administrator

René-Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle

René-Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle

French explorer

Title page of Richard Hakluyt's The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation

Richard Hakluyt

British geographer

Robert Cecil, 3rd marquess of Salisbury

Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd marquess of Salisbury

prime minister of United Kingdom

Dalhousie, detail of an oil painting by Sir John Watson-Gordon, 1847; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

James Andrew Broun Ramsay, marquess and 10th earl of Dalhousie

governor-general of India

Sir Walter Raleigh

Sir Walter Raleigh

English explorer

Francisco Pizarro

Francisco Pizarro

Spanish explorer

Afonso de Albuquerque

Afonso de Albuquerque

Portuguese conqueror