Making the Imperial Nation: Colonization, Politics, and English Identity, 1660-1700

How did the creation of an overseas empire change politics in England itself?

After 1660, English governments aimed to convert scattered overseas dominions into a coordinated territorial power base. Stuart monarchs encouraged schemes for expansion in America, Africa, and Asia, tightened control over existing territories, and endorsed systems of slave labor to boost colonial prosperity. But English power was precarious, and colonial designs were subject to regular defeats and failed experime...