The European Colonial Empires, 1815-1919

In this synthetic history, Wesseling (emeritus, contemporary history, U. of Leiden, the Netherlands) describes the expansion, organization, and exploitation of continental Europe's colonial possessions, which by the time of World War I had come to encompass most of the earth. He treats the subject in a chronological fashion, first describing the history of the preceding centuries before presenting an examination of the general themes of the 19th century such as demography, economics, administration, and ideology. He provides separate chapters on colonies in Africa and Asia and concludes with a discussion of the colonial aspects of World War I and the Treaty of Versailles. Annotation c2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Hank Wesseling is the General Editor of the series Comparative Studies in Overseas History (9 volumes published) and Consulting Editor of Itinerario. European Journal of Overseas History (now in its 28th year). He is the author or editor of some ten books on imperialism and empire, the most famous one being Divide and Rule. The Partition of Africa, 1880-1914 which was published in France, Germany, the US, Spain, the Netherlands, Brazil and Italy and will also appear in Polish, Swedish, Hungarian and Arabic.