'First empire': Britain in the Americas

Before British sovereignty extended over Asia, Africa and Australasia, there was a first British empire in America, where British colonies coexisted with those belonging to Spain, Portugal and France. For this reason, historians have adopted the convention of distinguishing between two imperial stages, that of the first or old empire, founded on establishments in diverse American regions, and the second empire, associated with the projection of British political and economic power in Asia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Although historians no longer cultivate the narrative associating imperialism with civilization and progress, and the second and more recent empire attracts the greatest attention, the first empire is still of interest, especially with regard to little studied subjects such as the experience of the governed rather than that of the government, the slave trade and slavery, the relations between natives and colonizers, and the role of women