This course traces the evolution of European expansion from 1450— roughly from the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople to the conclusion of World War I. We will try to understand the reasoning behind formal and informal colonization, from economic and political justifications to the “civilizing mission.” In this course, students will identify the causes and consequences of European, American and Japanese expansion. A solid historical and diplomatic background will help to situate colonial developments within a global context enhancing our knowledge of the metropole and the colonized as well. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, these European authorities were met with challenges from the rising empires of Japan and the United States. Responsible for the colonial impetus and its particular intensity is a complexity of ideological, economic, political, strategic, psychological, metropolitan and peripheral motives. Colonial expansion since its origins is a complicated phenomenon, a result of numerous events and quite often of irrational dispositions. Therefore, it cannot be described by a sole oversimplifying interpretation. Furthermore, every state acted, in accordance to its special needs and interests in a distinct way amidst the peripheral crises and global developments. Yet, since government policy is interchangeable and inconstant due to domestic pressures and political intentions and distinct in relation to every circumstance, the characterization of each states’ expansionistic tendencies cannot be attempted without the danger of overgeneralization. This course will shed light on a complex matter with the hope that understanding of the past can only improve our chances for a better future.