Empires to Nations was first published in 1974. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.

This history traces the growth of the Euroamerican societies in the Western Hemisphere during the eighteenth-century period of European expansion. Professor Savelle reviews the continuation and completion of the exploration of the American continent and describes the evolution of the New World empires of the English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch, He devotes separate chapters to the development of the political structures of the colonies and the rivalries, wars, and diplomatic exchanges among the empires. He also reviews and analyzes the economic history of the colonial societies in their three-way relationships – with their mother countries, with each other, and within themselves as regional or local entities. Final chapters are devoted to the birth and growth of national self-consciousness among the new societies.