This volume investigates the mechanisms of British global expansion and the consolidation of imperial power between the Glorious Revolution of 1689 and the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars. Edited by P. J. Marshall, the text synthesizes contributions from an international cohort of historians to analyze how trade, warfare, and migration transformed Britain into a dominant global force. The work argues that despite the significant loss of the American colonies, the structural foundations established during this period enabled the subsequent growth of the British Empire in the nineteenth century.

Scholars and students of imperial history recognize this volume as a standard reference work for the eighteenth-century British Empire. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose and the comprehensive nature of the research presented by the contributors.