Description
Book SynopsisLong before sugar and slaves made Jamaica Britain’s most valuable colony, its conquest sparked conflicts with European powers and opened vast tropical spaces to English exploitation. Carla Gardina Pestana captures the moment when Cromwell’s plan to take Spain’s American empire altered his revolutionary state’s engagement with the wider world.
Trade ReviewThe English Conquest of Jamaica vividly demonstrates the huge investment of money, men and ships that went into Cromwell’s plan to enlarge and rationalize the English presence in America. This field-transforming book shows that the Western Design actually set the stage for the Restoration government’s aspirations to build and control the empire. -- Karen Ordahl Kupperman, author of
The Jamestown ProjectIn a bold and well-argued book, Pestana contends that Cromwell’s Western Design was a major shift in English imperial thinking, with much greater consequences than have hitherto been realized. Jamaica’s rather inglorious first five years as an English colony are thus not an irrelevant oddity in Atlantic history but signal the beginning of a new phase in British American empire. This engaging book is greatly to be welcomed. -- Trevor Burnard, author of
Planters, Merchants, and SlavesMeticulously researched and convincingly argued, Pestana’s book contains a trove of information on the Cromwellian empire, the growing professionalism of the English army and navy, and England’s relations with other European powers. It is a must-read for historians of Britain and its seventeenth-century empire. -- Eliga H. Gould, author of
Among the Powers of the EarthCompared with his role in winning the civil wars of the 1640s, subduing Ireland and ruling England as a republic, Cromwell’s Western Design is barely remembered. But his plan to expand England’s presence in the Americas by dismantling the Spanish empire did much to shape the course of British imperial history. Pestana’s richly detailed narrative takes this little-known story to another level. -- Tony Barber * Financial Times *
With much colorful detail and intelligent analysis, reinforced by informative footnotes, this book illuminates a significant event too often overlooked in historiographical studies of Britain and its empire. -- Martin Rubin * Washington Times *
[A] thorough, revelatory reassessment of the Western Design and its ultimate purpose. -- David Horspool * Times Literary Supplement *
