From Empire to Federation

Abstract

Lords of All the World is a comparative analysis of the history of the ideologies that shaped the Atlantic empires of Spain, France and Britain from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. It recounts the evolution of a conception of “empire”, drawn originally from an interpretation of the ancient Roman vision of a single, multi-ethnic political community in which both the citizens of the metropole and the colonists (and in some cases the colonized) shared a common political identity and were bound by a common rule of law. It charts, too, the process by which the understanding of empire as a community initially based on conquest gave way to one based upon development and commerce. From this there emerged a perception of “empire”, as in effect, a form of federation, a transformation which determined the final evolution of the independence movements in both North and South America.

Keywords

• empire
• federation
• ideology
• conquest
• commerce