Bouda Etemad is Professor of History at the Universities of Geneva and Lausanne, and the author of De l'utilité des empires. Colonisation et prospérité de l'Europe, XVIIIe-XXe siècle (Armand Colin 2005).

Introduction

PART I: TOOLS OF EMPIRE AND HUMAN COST OF THE COLONIAL CONQUESTS

Chapter 1. Mortality and Numbers of the First Europeans in the Tropics

• Overseas Necropolises
• White Man's Solitude in the Tropics

Chapter 2. Malaria, Quinine and Colonial Conquests

• The American Phase: The 'Fever Tree'
• The Asian Phase: The Greatness and Misery of the Plantation System
• The African Phase: Quinine and Colonial Conquests

Chapter 3. The Use of Indigenous Troops in Colonial Conquests

• Asia and Africa Conquered by... Themselves
• An Attempt at Quantification
• On Good Human Resources Management
• Empires at Bargain Prices

Chapter [...]opean Losses During the Conquests

• Typology and Assessment of Losses
• Weapons Technologies and European Losses
• Transportation, Communications and the Cost of Empire

Chapter 5. Indigenous Losses During the Conquests

• Military Losses
• Civilian Losses
• Balance Sheet and Perspective

PART II: COLONIAL AREAS AND POPULATIONS A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF EMPIRES

Chapter 6. Measuring the Land and Counting Heads

• The Limitations of the Key Criteria
• Comparative Sizes of the Colonial Empires
• Counting Heads
• Measuring the Land

Chapter 7. The Rate and Scale of Colonisation

• Periodicity
• Major Trends
• Regional Differences
• List of the Colonial Powers

Chapter 8. Comparative Portraits of the Empires I: 1760-1830

• The Spanish and Portuguese Colonies: The First Models
• The Metamorphosis of the English Domain
• The French Domain: A Fragile Structure
• The Dutch Domain: From the Trading Empire to the Java War

Chapter 9. Comparative Portraits of the Empires II: 1830-1880

• British Colonisation: Two Tiers
• 'New' and 'Old' French Colonies
• Java and the Cultivation System

Chapter 10. Comparative Portraits of the Empires III: 1880-1938

• The Old Empire Builders: Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Portugal
• The New Colonisers of Africa: Belgium, Germany, Italy
• The Non-European Colonisers: Japan and the United States

Chapter 11. The Decolonisation Period

• Definition
• The Causes of Decolonisation
• Decolonisation Underway
• After Decolonisation

Conclusion

Appendixes

Sources

Bibliography

Index of Places

Index of Names