European Monarchies & Colonialism

This book presents a comparative history of the role of monarchs in European colonialism, with chapters on the Belgian, British, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Swedish royal houses. This volume offers a comparative discussion, seeking to identify connections and parallels, as well as contrasts, from early modernity to present-day public debates. Almost all of the European states under discussion here embarked on colonialism as monarchies. The authors in this volume emphasise that across time and place, monarchs supported colonialism in its early stages, including slavery — and none were actively, let alone decisively supportive of abolitionism in their own colonies. Monarchs retained their colonial mindset until the end; not one king or queen anywhere in Europe was known for even silently sympathising with the struggle for independence in the colonies until well after the Second World War.