Advancing Empire: English Interests and Overseas Expansion, 1613-1688 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017)

I have some doubts about this whole self-promotion thing, but I would like to talk a little about my new book from Cambridge, Advancing Empire: English Interests and Overseas Expansion, 1613-1688, for those who might be interested in the issues that arose from the history of the English Empire: slavery and the slave trade (first and foremost), the character of seventeenth-century imperial development, the formation of ‘early American’ societies, and the relationship between the English state and English overseas interests. This effort attempts to track the progress of English overseas trading and colonisation interests between the establishment of a plantation endeavo(u)r at Jamestown along with a permanent presence in India at Surat and the departure of James II from his throne in the ‘Glorious Revolution’.  In doing so, it calls into question several propositions–notably the false issue, as I see it, of the ‘transition to slavery’ in Anglo-America–that have been formulated, especially from an American perspective.  For further particulars, though, I am afraid I must ask you to read the book.  Meanwhile, I certainly invite critique, complaint, discussion, suggestion, etc. about what I have written and I will be certain to respond. Please use the box provided below to comment early and often; many thanks for your interest. Cambridge have advised that the book will see the light of day on 13 July in the U.K./Europe and on or about 20 July in North America.

Advancing Empire considers English activity in the Americas as well as in ‘Guinea’ (West Africa) and in the Indian Ocean; the concerns of the pursuers of these opportunities quickly and inevitably came to entail the securing of labo(u)r and so direct English involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade began as early as 1626 (probably earlier but I couldn’t find any evidence) and was in full throttle within the ensuing decade. This commerce became an important aspect of the global rivalry between the English and the (‘insolent’) Dutch that constituted a primary feature of the seventeenth-century history of the English Empire as well as of English history in general.

The Anglo-Dutch competition, which triggered three wars that punctuated extended periods of friction, stemmed from encounters in Asia, especially in modern Indonesia, over access to the spice trade. It then spread, in accordance with the expansion of the interests of these nations, to the Gold Coast, the Caribbean, and North America.  Supporters of aggression against the Netherlanders seized control of the English state in the beginning of 1642 at the outset of the English Civil Wars (1642-51) and used their circumstances to ratchet up this hostility. Along with their counterparts and clients in America and Asia, they managed to keep anti-Dutch sentiment at the forefront of English policy through the Commonwealth (1649-53, 1658-60) and Protectorate (1653-8) regimes until the invasion of the Dutch Republic by the armies of Louis XIV in 1672 changed the dynamic (‘Rampjaar‘). By this time, the ‘labour problems’ had been sorted and the East India Company had established itself at Madras and Bombay (Chennai and Mumbai today). In the same period, the English government (Charles II now king) began to take a deeper interest in overseas affairs as part of its reaction to the ‘Exclusion Crisis’ (from 1674) and the ‘Popish Plot’ (1678-83).  This, though, was encouraged by the ‘private’ interests that continued to prevail in these matters after 1688 although the State remained a largely reactive entity with respect to imperial issues.  Meanwhile, to be sure, an imperial political culture, which incorporated ‘colonial-imperialists’, had formed.

This book has received a very considered review in Reviews in History published by the Institute of Historical Research (London): http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/2246?utm_source=Reviews+in+History&utm_campaign=f60463abfe-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_02_23&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f24f670b90-f60463abfe-580479253