Large parts of Africa, America, and Asia were colonised by dominant European powers during the Age of Discovery, which meant that the European expansion of the 15th and 18th centuries formed the first global political and economic systems. In his book, J. C. Sharman, professor at the University of Cambridge revisits the subject of European colonisation and refutes the generally accepted theory that Europeans managed to achieve dominance over their opponents through military superiority.

While attempting to propose an alternate explanation, the work emphasises the necessity of abandoning Eurocentrism as the sole world view used to comprehend the last 500 years of world history.

Examining the evolution of warfare, Sharman concludes that early modern Europeans lacked significant military advantage, and that adaptation and subordination played a crucial part in their expansion. European powers were primarily concerned with securing dominance over the seas and trade routes. However, in Africa and Asia, they were in most cases compelled to acknowledge local land-oriented interests.

The author argues that the great conquerors at the dawn of the modern age were not the Europeans, but rather the Asian powers, such as the Ottoman Turks in the Middle East and the Ming and Qing dynasties in China. Whereas, in the case of the conquest of America, a plague that decimated the indigenous population served as the base of European supremacy. For this reason, the dominance of the West should rather be viewed as an exception, while the rise of Asia in the 21st century may be considered a return to the norm.