TITLE: The European Colonial Empires in Asia and Africa
SPEAKER: William Louis
EVENT DATE: 07/12/2010
RUNNING TIME: 67 minutes
DESCRIPTION:
Historian William Roger Louis surveys the differences and similarities in European colonial empires from the 19th century to the post-World-War-II era. By 1914, Europe controlled some 85 percent of the world's surface. The British Empire alone extended over one quarter of the globe. There were profound contrasts, however, among the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, French, German, Italian and British colonial systems, with regard to political and religious cultures and social and economic organizations. The legacy of empire in different regions endures to the present.
Speaker Biography: At the Library's John W. Kluge Center, Louis holds the Chair in the Countries and Cultures of the North. He is the Kerr Professor of English History and Culture at the University of Texas, where he recently was chosen professor of the year. He is also an honorary fellow of St. Antony's College at the University of Oxford and a past president of the American Historical Association (AHA). Louis is director of the association's National History Center. He served on the Historical Advisory Committee of the U.S. Department of State from 2001 to 2008.
