Colonization information

Ok, I don't know if I am placing this in the correct thread, I hope so.

I would like to know if anyone here has read books on colonization and have ones they recommend, rather than me searching and not finding any good ones. I would like to find some books that talk about early colonialism and why nations claimed the areas they did. This information I find very intriguing. I may actually look into getting my PhD in an area that covers this time period. And looks at colonialism in particular.
 
If you want a look at very early colonialism (English, anyway) I quite enjoyed 'Big Chief Elizabeth', which looks at the early attempts at colonising America up to the first successful colony (Jamestown). It doesn't study why the areas were picked in detail (though it does talk about it) but it gives a fascinating look at how the colonies were organised, especially the way they treated the natives in the early period.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Big-Chief-E...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271725669&sr=8-1
 
Anglo colonization is so boring;)

How about, Crossing the Continent by Robert Goodwin

Or Slaves, Subjects, and Subversives by Jane Landers and Barry Robinson

I don't have the books infront of me right now but the very first experiences in colonization like the Canaries, Azores, or the other atlantic islands all show a surprisingly stereotypical development.
 
It's a bit outdated by now, but Alfred Crosby's Ecological Imperialism - The Biological Expansion of Europe 900-1900 is still a good read, and the basics are true.

If you want to look at the Scramble for Africa, you could do worse than read Adam Hochschildt's King Leopold's Ghost as an entry-level drug.

There's a huge body of work out there in English alone, so it is certainly good if you limit your reading early, either to a certain area, time period, or aspect.
 
Is that like Michael Palin’s Across the Andes by Frog?
:)

Maybe, is that book about the lost Narvaez expedition and the consequent trek across the southern now-US back in 1527; while giving abroader context of the Spanish Colonies???
 
Just a question, do these books talk about why for example led to Columbus landing in the Bahamas and not further north or south? Do they cover why the Spanish kept colonizing the areas they did? Thats what I'm most interested in. Where and why Europeans colonized the spots they did. More in depth than the climates were similar to where they came from.
 
Consider "The Epic of Latin America" by John A. Crow. An excellent beginning point for the anglophone :) And as for your first question, you'll find the answer more readily on a map of the Atlantic showing prevailing currents than in a history text ;)
 
Just a question, do these books talk about why for example led to Columbus landing in the Bahamas and not further north or south? Do they cover why the Spanish kept colonizing the areas they did? Thats what I'm most interested in. Where and why Europeans colonized the spots they did. More in depth than the climates were similar to where they came from.

My book (Great Chief Elizabeth) only talks about English colonisation, but it takes talk briefly on the subject of finding a good spot to settle. However, the conclusion could be simplified to "they sailed down the coast and found a bay where they wouldn't be found by ships patrolling the coast.
 
My book (Great Chief Elizabeth) only talks about English colonisation, but it takes talk briefly on the subject of finding a good spot to settle. However, the conclusion could be simplified to "they sailed down the coast and found a bay where they wouldn't be found by ships patrolling the coast.

Your the author of that one?:eek:
 
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