Series Editor: A.J.R. Russell-Wood, The John Hopkins University, USA

'An Expanding World is an important enterprise...the...volumes in An Expanding World should become a standard collection for any academic library. The invaluable bibliography, the variety of themes, and the historical problems will engage students of all levels, undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral, in many aspects of early modern and world history for years to come.'
Sixteenth Century Journal

'...this series will reflect open, not closed, minds... If you are going to teach seriously in this field...the whole series is to be strongly recommended, especially if the periodical holdings of your institutional library are poor... There are no easy answers in imperial history, but this series is a good introduction to some of the major questions.'
Bruce Lenman, Eighteenth-Century Life

'The Expanding World series represents a superb overview and compendium of knowledge...Ashgate Publishing is to be commended for its development of this series and its comparative themes which helps us to understand the complex world around us.'
Russell M. Magnaghi, Terrae Incognitae

'... the volumes in this series deal with an ambitious set of themes in a systematic and stimulating fashion.' 
The Mariner's Mirror

'What is new here is a resolutely global and multicultural approach, both in the subject matter and choice of authors... [these articles] add up to a changed interpretation of the global encounters...although the materials are intended for specialists and libraries, they will eventually contribute to changing the angle of vision in textbooks and trade books.'
T.J. Knight, Colorado State University, USA

Forming an integrated reference library of 31 volumes, An Expanding World brings together essays and articles from a wide range of sources to present a broad-based overview of the European presence beyond Europe, European interaction with non-Europeans, and experiences of peoples of other continents, religions and races in relation to Europe and Europeans in the early modern period. Each volume in the series is edited and introduced by a recognized authority, whose task has been to survey the existing literature and to select those essays which they regard as significant contributions to an understanding of the field in question. Priority was given to articles originally appearing in scholarly journals and collective volumes, making this series a key source for hard to find material. In addition, the introduction to each volume enables readers to assess the importance of the topic and to place it in the wider context of European activity overseas, while the bibliographies suggest avenues for further enquiry. The volumes cover broad themes of commerce, resource exploitation, government, societies, cultures, technology and the sciences in cross-cultural and transoceanic contexts. All volumes in the series are printed on acid-free paper, are clothbound and measure 244 x 169 mm.

All 31 volumes in this series are now available.

A number of the themes of this series are developed further in the Ashgate/Variorum series, The Pacific World.