In 1494, the Treaty of Tordesillas was signed between Spain and Portugal with the mediation of Alexander VI, and the world was divided between Spain and Portugal (Fitzler, as cited in Hamilton, 1948, p.37; Brandel, as cited in Hamilton, 1948, p.37). Spain and Portugal appeared to be the two most powerful European countries in their overseas expansion in the early 16th century. However, the Netherlands later gained independence from Spain and began its overseas expansion at the end of the 16th century (Weststeijn, 2012, p. 492). The Dutch progressed so rapidly that they achieved a dominant position in world trade within decades of their independence, and “soldiers and settlers of the East and West India Companies occupied extensive territories from Java to the Cape of Good Hope and from Recife to the Estuary of the Hudson” (Ibid, p. 492). By the end of the 18th century the Dutch East India Company no longer existed (Hamilton, 1948), which may be a sign of the decline of the Netherlands. At the same time, Britain still remained “the principal colonial power,” as it was and would be (Hamilton, 1948). As we can see from history, all four countries, Portugal, Spain, Holland and Great Britain, to some extent, had dominated the world outside Europe in the period from the 16th to the 18th century. All four countries had been powerful and prosperous states in this period, and therefore it is useful and reasonable to make a comparison between the identities of imperialism and colonialism of the four countries from the 16th to the 18th centuries. This article aims to analyze the identities of the overseas expansion of four European countries, Portugal, Spain, Holland and Great Britain, from... middle of paper... England into a trading and monopolistic group. Works Cited Botella-Ordinas, E (2012). 'Exempt from time and its fatal change': Spanish imperial ideology, 1450-1700. Renaissance Studies, 26(4), 580-604. doi: 10.1111/j.1477-4658.2012.00821.xCain, P. J., & Hopkins, A. G. (1986). Gentleman Capitalism and British Expansion Overseas I. The Old Colonial System, 1688-1850. Economic History Review, 39(4), 501-525.Hamilton, E. J. (1948). The role of monopoly in Europe's overseas expansion and colonial trade before 1800. The American Economic Review, 38(2), 33-53.McAlister, L. N. (1984). Spain and Portugal in the New World 1492-1700. Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.Weststeijn, A. (2012). Republican Empire: Colonialism, Trade and Corruption in the Dutch Golden Age. Renaissance Studies, 26(4), 491-509. doi: 10.1111/j.1477-4658.2012.00824.x