The Third Edition, like the two before it, is authoritative and up-to-date. New to the Third Edition is the theme of empire. From the imperial rivalries between France and Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, through the rise and fall of the Ottoman Turkish empire, and on into the imperial history of the twentieth century--decolonization, the spread of the Soviet empire, and the imperial power of the United States--the theme of empire helps students find commonalities among the events of European history.