Empire: A Very Short Introduction

When I first started reading this book, I found myself to be quite lost. I felt so confused because the author seemed to be jumping from topic to topic, where I guess I was hoping to have a chronological history of the topic. After reading for a while, however, his organization began to make more sense to me. This is a great book for putting history in perspective. I was all of a sudden able to understand why some countries hate others so much. A lot of this seems to be a result of imperialism and colonization. So many times it was due to the empire building done by European countries.

Stephen Howe describes many of the effects of imperialism on the conquered peoples, their culture, economy, and religion, as well as how some groups of show more people suffered genocide at the hands of the conquerors. He explained how most countries that were forced into colonialism often did not have a choice because the imperial forces had much greater military technology. He also pointed out some of the arguments or justification of colonizing other nations, such as the fact that "almost all colonized areas developed more rapidly than they would have done if they had remained independent." This book was filled with historical facts and many thought provoking ideas, and would be great for aiding discussion in a college history course. show less

Good and quite up-to-date concerning modern European imperialism; fails to take into account however that from a world historical point of view empire is predominantly a premodern and non-European phenomenon.

A brief introduction to empire as a historical phenomenon and as a political process. It examines the impact of empires on the world as it unfolds today.