Imperium Studies: Theorizing Early Modern Expansion

Abstract

Although a large body of new work on early modern empire and nation formation has emerged in recent years, the field still lacks an effective theoretical vocabulary for this project. When discussing early modern imperialism, the temptation is to turn to postcolonial criticism, yet it clearly behooves critics working on earlier periods both to develop theoretical concepts better suited to our field, and to historicize postcolonial concepts in order to expose the early modern foundations of later imperialist representations. This essay is an attempt to theorize the rich contributions of the past decade while emphasizing the connections among disparate investigations. I propose the category of imperium studies as a way to address the links between metropolitan sovereignty and expansion abroad, and the cultural productions that sustain them both. Imperium studies enables the critical recognition of the centrality of empire in Old World texts that are not explicitly engaged with colonial ventures, and reveals the transatlantic or international dimension of texts previously read within narrow national traditions. This essay provides an overview of the possibilities and suggests how this approach might change our reading of both canonical and non-canonical texts. My focus is on early modern Spain and England—two cases for which the connections between imperial competition, internal consolidation, and external expansion are particularly relevant—but it is my hope that imperium studies can offer broad applications beyond these imperial rivals.