The beginnings of Western imperialism will be examined from the first voyages of the Vikings, through the explosion of the Crusades and the domination of the world's trade and exploration by the northern Italian city-states. The course continues to analyse the "Age of Exploration", especially the early overseas empires of Spain and Portugal and concludes with the early British, French and Dutch expansion down to the American Revolution and the "readjustments" of the Napoleonic wars.