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A comprehensive study of the connection between Calvinist missions and Dutch imperial expansion during the early modern period \"A tour de force offering the reader the best study of global Calvinism in the realms of the Dutch East India Company.\"-Ronnie Po-Chia Hsia, editor, Calvinism and Religious Toleration in the Dutch Golden Age Calvinism went global in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as close to a thousand Dutch Reformed ministers, along with hundreds of lay chaplains, attached themselves to the Dutch East India and West India companies. Across Asia, Africa, and the Americas where the trading companies set up operation, Dutch ministers sought to convert \"pagans,\" \"Moors,\" Jews, and Catholics and to spread the cultural influence of Protestant Christianity. As Dutch ministers labored under the auspices of the trading companies, the missionary project coalesced, sometimes grudgingly but often readily, with empire building and mercantile capitalism. Simultaneously, Calvinism became entangled with societies around the world as encounters with indigenous societies shaped the development of European religious and intellectual history. Though historians have traditionally treated the Protestant and European expansion as unrelated developments, the global reach of Dutch Calvinism offers a unique opportunity to understand the intermingling of a Protestant faith, commerce, and empire.

Foreign Devils and Philosophers explores cultural interchanges between Europe and China during the first period of intensive contact. Based on rare Chinese and Western sources (especially in Dutch), it highlights the reciprocal dynamic of aversion and admiration.

This broad introduction to Colonial American literatures brings out the comparative and transatlantic nature of the writing of this period and highlights the interactions between native, non-scribal groups, and Europeans that helped to shape early American writing. * Situates the writing of this period in its various historical and cultural contexts, including colonialism, imperialism, diaspora, and nation formation. * Highlights interactions between native, non-scribal groups and Europeans during the early centuries of exploration. * Covers a wide range of approaches to defining and reading early American writing. * Looks at the development of regional spheres of influence in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. * Serves as a vital adjunct to Castillo and Schweitzer's 'The Literatures of Colonial America: An Anthology' (Blackwell Publishing, 2001).

\"A wonderful addition to the field of eighteenth-century studies, making available in a single volume the latest scholarship on this important figure.\" - Kate Mearns Ohno, The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Yale University \"This wide-ranging collection of essays enhances our understanding of the endlessly fascinating runaway, printer, scientist, imperial servant, and revolutionary Benjamin Franklin, and illuminates his significance in American history and culture.\" - Simon P. Newman, Sir Denis Brogan Professor of American History, University of Glasgow.

An accessible survey of the history of European overseas empires in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries based on new scholarshipIn this thematic survey, Gabriel Paquette focuses on the evolution of the Spanish, Portuguese, English, French, and Dutch overseas empires in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He draws on recent advances in the field to examine their development, from efficacious forms of governance to coercive violence. Beginning with a narrative overview of imperial expansion that incorporates recent critiques of older scholarly approaches, Paquette then analyzes the significance of these empires, including their political, economic, and social consequences and legacies. He makes the multifaceted history of Europe's globe-spanning empires in this crucial period accessible to new readers.