Originally published in 1949, and as a third revised edition in 1966, this is a fascinating, lucid and comprehensive survey of the complicated succession of colonial empires in east and west. The book begins with an analysis of the scientific knowledge and technical limitations of trade, exploration and discovery in the age of the Renaissance. It describes in turn the Portuguese and Spanish discoveries, the organization of their empires for trade and government, the attempts of the Northern Europeans to penetrate through America or find markets and sources of supply in it, and the struggle of the Dutch with their rivals in the East and of the English with their rivals in the West.