Making Empire

Abstract Empire and imperial frameworks, policies, practices, and cultures have shaped the history of the world for the last two millennia. It is nation states that are the blip on the historical horizon. This book re-examines empire as process—and Ireland’s role in it—through the lens of early modernity. It covers the two hundred years between the mid-sixteenth century and the mid-eighteenth century. How did the English empire actually function in early modern Ireland and how did this change over time? What did access to European empires mean for people living in Ireland? This book answers these questions by interrogating four interconnected themes: first, that Ireland formed an integral part of the English imperial system; second, that the Irish operated as agents of empire(s); third, that Ireland served as laboratory in and for the English empire; finally, it examines the impact that empire(s) had on people living in early modern Ireland. What it meant to be Irish and the ‘trans-imperialism’ of people from Ireland are themes explored throughout. What becomes clear is that colonisation was not a single occurrence but an iterative and durable process that impacted different parts of Ireland at different times and in different ways. That imperialism was about the exercise of power, violence, coercion, and expropriation. Strategies about how best to turn conquest into profit, to mobilise and control Ireland’s natural resources, especially land and labour, varied but the reality of everyday life did not change and provoked a wide variety of responses ranging from acceptance and assimilation to resistance.