The most exhaustive reference work available on this critical subject in world history, focusing on the politics, economy, culture, and society of both colonizers and colonized.

"The history of the last 500 years is the history of imperialism," writes editor Melvin Page. In the Americas, as a result of imperialist conquest, disease, famine, and war nearly wiped out a population estimated in the tens of millions. Africa was devastated by the slave trade, an integral part of imperialism from the 1400s to the 1800s. In Asia, even though native populations survived, native political institutions were destroyed. Imperialism also forged the two most important ideologies of the last five centuries—racialism and modern nationalism.



In more than 600 essays presented in this three-volume encyclopedia, Page and other leading scholars—historians, political scientists, economists, and sociologists—analyze the origins of imperialism, the many forms it took, and its impact worldwide. They also explore imperialism's bitter legacy: the gross inequities of global wealth and power that divide the former conquerors—primarily Europe, the United States, and Japan—from the people they conquered.









600 entries covering ideologies, religions, theory, geography, imperial nations, colonies, colonized regions, ethnic groups, individuals, and treaties



Contributions from an international team of academic experts in history, political science, economics, sociology, and other social sciences



A collection of documents representing each imperial power as well as primary sources relating to multiple empires and areas of the world to provide a deeper understanding of the processes of colonialism, which encompassed virtually the entire globe



Extensive chronologies of various imperial empires (Austro-Hungarian, Belgian, British, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Ottoman, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Russian, and United States) provide context for the diverse entries