The Political Economy of Empire in the Early Modern World

Sophus A. Reinert; Pernille  Røge

Book | 2013

The Political Economy of Empire in the Early Modern World

Abstract

This volume recasts our understanding of the practical and theoretical foundations and dynamic experiences of early modern imperialism. The imperial encounter with political economy was neither uniform across political, economic, cultural, and religious constellations nor static across time. The contributions collected in this volume address, with undeniable pertinence for the struggles of later periods, the moral and military ambiguity of profits and power, as well as the often-jealous interactions between different solutions to the problem of empire. The book presents a powerful mosaic of imperial theories and practices contributing to the creation of the modern world and to the most pressing concerns of our time.

Keywords: political economy; early modern imperialism; Economy; Government and Politics;

Format: Print

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Reinert, Sophus A. and Pernille Røge, eds. The Political Economy of Empire in the Early Modern World. Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

The continent of Europe seemed in the spring of 2015 to be in a weaker position relative to other world regions than it had in centuries. Though comparatively small, it had long played a disproportionate role in world history, to the extent that the modern world system of states itself in large parts had been created in the wake of European imperialism. This case examines the deep history of Europe’s so-called “Great Divergence,” the means by which it achieved “modern economic growth” and conquered large parts of the known world, and the consequences of this moment for the past, present, and future of capitalism.

In the fall of 2018, Serbia found itself at a crossroads yet again. Following the Balkan Wars of the 1990s and the collapse of Yugoslavia, the country had embarked on a slow and arduous process of accession to the European Union (EU). This had been further hampered by the country’s tortuous relations to its breakaway province of Kosovo, one of several regions fighting for political independence at a time when the continent itself was seeking greater economic and political integration in the form of the EU. Support for the EU accession was falling in Serbia, however, also in light of the increasing presence in the country of Russian and Chinese interests and investments. But would the country eventually have to pick a side amidst the rapidly changing geopolitics of the early twenty-first century?

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The Political Economy of Empire in the Early Modern World

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