Ebook: Three victories and a defeat: the rise and fall of the first British Empire, 1714-1783

List of Illustrations; List of Maps; Note on Dating and Quotations; Acknowledgements; Introduction; I. IMPERIAL APPRENTICESHIP; 1. A Part of the Main: England in Europe, 1558-1697; 2. Marlborough Country: Britain and the Empire, 1697-1714; II IMPERIAL OPPORTUNITIES; 3. Imperial Restoration, 1714-1715; 4. Britain's New European Empire, 1716-1717; 5. Preventive War in the Mediterranean and the Baltic, 1718-1719; III IMPERIAL CHALLENGES; 6. A Protestant Empire, 1721-1724; 7. The Return of Charles V, 1725-1726; 8. The Resurgence of France, 1727-1732; IV. IMPERIAL VISIONS.;"Here is revisionist history at its bracing best - conceived on an epic scale and achieving originality and analytical rigor without foregoing the pleasures of narrative."--Christopher Clark.