Not since 1945 has a general account of the origins of the British Empire been published, as if the demise of the empire had freed us from our imperial past and historians from any obligation to digest it. Of course it has done nothing of the kind, but it does enable the historian today to approach that past in a more critical spirit and to attempt a deeper and more detached analysis than could have been expected a generation ago. The purpose of this work is therefore not merely to recount but to explain the course of English overseas empire: a prolonged pregnancy, culminating in a difficult...
Not since 1945 has a general account of the origins of the British Empire been published, as if the demise of the empire had freed us from our imperia...
Privateering was a form of legal private warfare at sea in which individuals who possessed suitable ships took the opportunity offered by a war to plunder enemy commerce. In this study of privateering during the Elizabethan war with Spain, which was originally published in 1966, Dr Andrews shows that it was closely connected with trade, in particular having a stimulating effect on oceanic commerce and that it was at the time the main form of English maritime warfare. Dr Andrews begins with an account of how privateering became legal and how it was organised. He then examines the various types...
Privateering was a form of legal private warfare at sea in which individuals who possessed suitable ships took the opportunity offered by a war to plu...
