Across the globe, the 19th century signaled the high renaissance of Western Imperialism, with England, France, and other European nations ruling more and more territory. With all their power, it may have seemed that the Europeans pressed forward unchecked, but it was not so: native militias often defeated those who would possess their homelands, sometimes quite spectacularly. Maintaining control of overseas empires began to put an enormous strain on the home economies of all imperial powers--and when the Great War loomed, they looked increasingly fragile. From the great African land rush and the Russian advance over Central Asia to British expansion and American imperialism, this gripping story, told by one of the world's great experts on the subject, captures civilizations clashing and fighting between peoples of radically different mentalities, political organizations, and contrasting technological capabilities.