Introduction: Imperial overview
The Ottoman Empire: a resilient polity
Spain: the genealogy of modern colonialism
Portugal: Empire-building in the Old World and the New
The Netherlands: a small country with imperial ambitions
Scandinavia: an outsider in European imperialism
Britain: ruling the waves
France: empire and the Mère-Patrie
Austria-Hungary: the making of Central Europe
Belgium: the single-colony empire
The United States: empire as a way of life?