Possessing the world : taking the measurements of colonisation from the eighteenth to the twentieth century Introduction Tools of empire and the human cost of colonial conquests Mortality and numbers of the first Europeans in the tropics Overseas necropolises White mans solitude in the tropics Malaria quinine and colonial conquests The American phase: the fever tree The Asian phase: the greatness and misery of the plantation system The African phase: quinine and colonial conquests The use of indigenous troops in colonial conquests Asia and Africa conquered by themselves An attempt at quantification On good human resources management Empires at bargain prices 51 European losses during the conquests Typology and assessment of losses Weapons technologies and European losses Transportation communications and the cost of empire Indigenous losses during the conquests Military losses Civilian losses Balance sheet and perspective Colonial areas and populations: a comparative study of empires Measuring the land and counting heads The limitations of the key criteria Comparative sizes of the colonial empires Counting heads Measuring the land The rate and scale of colonisation Periodicity Major trends Regional differences List of the colonial powers Comparative portraits of the empires I: 1760 1830 The Spanish and Portuguese colonies: the first models The metamorphosis of the English domain The French domain: a fragile structure The Dutch domain: from the trading empire to the Java War Comparative portraits of the empires II: 1830 1880 British colonisation: two tiers New and old French colonies Java and the cultivation system Comparative portraits of the empires : 1880 1938 The old empire builders: Great Britain France the Netherlands Portugal The new colonisers of Africa: Belgium Germany Italy The non European colonisers: Japan and the United States The decolonisation period Definition The causes of decolonisation Decolonisation underway After decolonisation Conclusion Appendices Sources Bibliography Index of places Index of names