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The European empires as they existed from the Age of Discovery until after the First World War shaped the modern world. So great has been their political, economic and cultural influence that to fully understand contemporary history and events, it is essential to have an understanding of the imperial past. This book is an impressive acheivement. It brings together in one comprehensive volume, all the essential facts and figures relating to the process of empire-building by the European powers. It complements the Longman Companion to European Decolonisation in the Twentieth Century by the same author - together they help to explain why different empires had different philosophies, dissolved in different ways, and left different legacies.Covering all the Empires, including those of Britain, France, Holland and Spain, the many helpful features included in this volume are:# helpful maps # clear and reader-friendly charts and graphs # an extensive Bibliography listing historical writings on empire as well as modern critical works # a Glossary of unfamiliar, or potentially misleading, terms # a Biographical Essay giving concise information about the main protagonistsMuriel Chamberlain is the former Head of the History department at the University of Wales Swansea, where she is now Professor Emeritus. She is an associate editor of the New Dictionary of National Biography and is editor of The Historian.