Contents: Introduction; Part I Economics and Politics in the Rise of Empires: 1760-1830: The first age of global imperialism, c.1760-1830, C.A. Bayly; Gentlemanly capitalism and British expansion overseas I. The old colonial system, 1688-1850, P.J. Cain and A.G. Hopkins; The industrial revolution and British imperialism, 1750-1850, J.R. Ward; Napoleon, Charlemagne, and Lotharingia: acculturation and the boundaries of Napoleonic Europe, Michael Broers. The Mid-19th Century to the ’New imperialism’: The imperialism of free trade, John Gallagher and Ronald Robinson; A French imperial meridian 1814-1870, David Todd; The Portuguese empire, 1825-90: ideology and economics, Valentim Alexandre; Dilemmas of empire 1850-1918: power, territory, identity, Dominic Lieven. Part II Modern Empires and Economic Transformations: Development, Underdevelopment, and Globalization: The ’reversal of fortune’ thesis and the compression of history: perspectives from African and comparative economic history, Gareth Austin; Economic history and modern India: redefining the link, Tirthankar Roy; Crises of accumulation, coercion and the colonial state. The development of the labour control system, 1919-29, Bruce Berman and John Lonsdale. Modern Empires and Economic Transformations: Metropolitan Economies: Colonial trade and economic development in France, 17th to the 20th centuries, Olivier Pétré-Grenouilleau; The importance of slavery and the slave trade to industrializing Britain, David Eltis and Stanley L. Engerman; The economics of Japanese imperialism in Korea, 1910-1939, Mitsuhiko Kimura. Part III Politics of Empires: British settler discourse and the circuits of empire, Alan Lester; ’When men are weak’: the imperial feminism of Frieda von Bülow, Lora Widlenthal; Colonialism and human rights, a contradiction in terms? The case of France and West Africa, 1895-1914, Alice L. Conklin. Part IV Technologies of Rule: Politics, Governance and Militarism: Neo-traditionalism and the