The main question my dissertation attempts to address is: what role did the expansion of English colonial trades play in the transformation of English society and government between the Petition of Right and the early years of the Restoration (1628-1668)? My thesis is that during this period, colonial expansion rose to the level of a general national interest and that many early seventeenth-century texts index the complexities and tensions of this development. As a small but very organized group of merchants, peers, and MPs mobilized the military and financial technologies of colonization to support Parliament’s war against Charles I, their ventures in the Indian and Atlantic oceans resonated in the halls of Westminster and the chambers of state finance. In the crucible of civil war, they forged a fiscal-military state that would form the basis of a future British empire. My project explores the textual traces of this transformation in the parliamentary debates, poems, pamphlets, and petitions of the period.
","abstract_html":"<p>The main question my dissertation attempts to address is: what role did the expansion of English colonial trades play in the transformation of English society and government between the Petition of Right and the early years of the Restoration (1628-1668)? My thesis is that during this period, colonial expansion rose to the level of a general national interest and that many early seventeenth-century texts index the complexities and tensions of this development. As a small but very organized group of merchants, peers, and MPs mobilized the military and financial technologies of colonization to support Parliament’s war against Charles I, their ventures in the Indian and Atlantic oceans resonated in the halls of Westminster and the chambers of state finance. In the crucible of civil war, they forged a fiscal-military state that would form the basis of a future British empire. My project explores the textual traces of this transformation in the parliamentary debates, poems, pamphlets, and petitions of the period.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Nikolic, Nathan D"],"institution":"The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York","degree_name":"Doctor of Philosophy","degree_level":"Doctoral","degree_discipline":"English","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Peter Hitchcock"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":["Feisal Mohamed","Herman Bennett"],"year":2023,"date_issued":"2023-09-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2023-09-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:58:49Z","subjects":["Literature in English, Anglophone outside British Isles and North America","Literature in English, British Isles","Political History","early modern England","political economy","colonial trade","transatlantic","new world slavery","imperial formation"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/5429","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Peter Hitchcock"]},{"key":"dc:contributor.committeemember","label":"Committee Member","values":["Feisal Mohamed","Herman Bennett"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Nikolic, Nathan D"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2025-09-30T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["English"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Doctoral"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Doctor of Philosophy"]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Literature in English, Anglophone outside British Isles and North America","Literature in English, British Isles","Political History","early modern England","political economy","colonial trade","transatlantic","new world slavery","imperial formation"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/5429"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The main question my dissertation attempts to address is: what role did the expansion of English colonial trades play in the transformation of English society and government between the Petition of Right and the early years of the Restoration (1628-1668)? My thesis is that during this period, colonial expansion rose to the level of a general national interest and that many early seventeenth-century texts index the complexities and tensions of this development. As a small but very organized group of merchants, peers, and MPs mobilized the military and financial technologies of colonization to support Parliament’s war against Charles I, their ventures in the Indian and Atlantic oceans resonated in the halls of Westminster and the chambers of state finance. In the crucible of civil war, they forged a fiscal-military state that would form the basis of a future British empire. My project explores the textual traces of this transformation in the parliamentary debates, poems, pamphlets, and petitions of the period.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Colonial Investments: The Global Coordinates of the English Political Imaginary, 1628–1668"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Peter Hitchcock"],"dc:contributor.committeemember":["Feisal Mohamed","Herman Bennett"],"dc:creator":["Nikolic, Nathan D"],"dc:date.available":["2025-09-30T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["The main question my dissertation attempts to address is: what role did the expansion of English colonial trades play in the transformation of English society and government between the Petition of Right and the early years of the Restoration (1628-1668)? My thesis is that during this period, colonial expansion rose to the level of a general national interest and that many early seventeenth-century texts index the complexities and tensions of this development. As a small but very organized group of merchants, peers, and MPs mobilized the military and financial technologies of colonization to support Parliament’s war against Charles I, their ventures in the Indian and Atlantic oceans resonated in the halls of Westminster and the chambers of state finance. In the crucible of civil war, they forged a fiscal-military state that would form the basis of a future British empire. My project explores the textual traces of this transformation in the parliamentary debates, poems, pamphlets, and petitions of the period.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/5429"],"dc:subject":["Literature in English, Anglophone outside British Isles and North America","Literature in English, British Isles","Political History","early modern England","political economy","colonial trade","transatlantic","new world slavery","imperial formation"],"dc:title":["Colonial Investments: The Global Coordinates of the English Political Imaginary, 1628–1668"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["English"],"thesis:degree_level":["Doctoral"],"thesis:degree_name":["Doctor of Philosophy"],"thesis:institution_name":["The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:58:49Z"}