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Paquette explores empires from the 15th century up to the present in order to answer vital questions that resonate with global politics today.'Empire' and 'Imperialism' are words used by pundits, statesmen and the broader public to make sense of the confusing tangle of modern global politics. It is claimed that the United States has become an 'empire'. Analogies are made to Ancient Rome and Victorian Britain in the hope that history can serve as a guide or provide answers to our questions. But such fanciful comparisons are wide of the mark. They obscure more than they clarify.In seeking clues in the past to solve the puzzles of the present, it is better to shift our gaze to Europe's now defunct overseas empires, the immediate predecessors of America's global dominance. Their legacies continue to shape our modern world and their history can illuminate the debates, quarrels and dilemmas of today's world. The interrogation of the past cannot furnish answers or prescribe solutions, but it can situate our choices in broader context and offers respite from the myopia of the present. It can make us aware of pitfalls, the severity of our predicament, and the consequences of the pursuit of empire.The study of the global ambitions of the US' predecessors - Spain, Britain, Portugal, France and Holland - from the fifteenth century until the end of the twentieth can deepen understanding of today's pressing questions. Why did European nations pursue empire? What did they hope to achieve? What, in fact, did they achieve? What catastrophes did Europe's pursuit of empire have in the non-European world? How and why did Europe's empires collapse? In addition to answering these crucial questions, the book analyzes the United States' experience alongside its European predecessors, placing contemporary world politics against a panorama of five centuries of conquest, colonialism, and the overreaching ambition to transform the globe and its inhabitants in the pursuit of empire.