This book, the first to compare theories of empire as they emerged in, and helped to define, the great colonial powers-Spain, Britain, and France-describes the different ways and arguments these countries used to legitimate the seizure and subjugation of aboriginal lands and peoples."Learned, wide-ranging and important. . . . Pagden`s willingness to examine the three empires in tandem is as rewarding as it is innovative."-Linda Colley, London Review of Books"An impressive book, erudite and lively. . . .The book succeeds as an exercise in drawing together the interpretive treatises of three empires over three centuries and showing, often subtly but at times explicitly, their similarity."-William D. Phillips, Jr., American Historical Review"This volume . . . provides an excellent commentary on the imperial ideologies of three major European powers during the early modern era. . . . This is a book to which scholars will return time and again. I certainly found it intellectually stimulating."-Chandra R. de Silva, Sixteenth Century JournalAnthony Pagden is Harry C. Black professor of history at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. He is also the author of European Encounters with the New World: From Renaissance to Romanticism and Spanish Imperialism and the Political Imagination, both published by Yale University Press.