It is often helpful to begin your research by reading a basic overview of your subject. Encyclopedias and dictionaries provide such basic overviews, and they often provide helpful suggestions for further reading as well.

• Encyclopedia of Western colonialism since 1450
  Thomas Benjamin, editor-in-chief. (Detroit, Mich. : Macmillan Reference USA, c2007). Series: Gale virtual reference library
  Also available in print at:
  Location:  Butler Reference, 301 Butler
  Call Number:  R940.8 En2
• Europe 1450 to 1789 : encyclopedia of the early modern world
  Jonathan Dewald, editor-in-chief. (New York, N.Y. : Charles Scribner’s Sons, c2004). Series: Gale virtual reference library
  Also available in print at:
  Location:  Butler Reference, 301 Butler
  Call Number:  R940.2 Eu74
• Europe 1789 to 1914 : encyclopedia of the age of industry and empire
  Edited by John Merriman and Jay Winter.  Detroit, Mich. : Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2006. Series: Gale virtual reference library.
  Also available in print at:
  Location:  Butler Reference, 301 Butler
  Call Number:  R940.8 Eu7
• Europe since 1914 : encyclopedia of the age of war and reconstruction
  John Merriman and Jay Winter, editors in chief. (Detroit, Mich. : Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2006). Series: Gale virtual reference library
  Also available in print at:
  Location:  Butler Reference, 301 Butler
  Call Number:  R940.9 En2
• Gale Virtual Reference Library
  Includes online full text of a wide range of encyclopedic works in history, the arts, business, law, medicine, religion, and social science. A number of the encyclopedias linked from this page are included in this database.
  
• Historical dictionary of the British empire.
  James S. Olson and Robert Shadle, editors ; associate editors, Patricia Ashman ... [et al.].  2 vols. (Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 1996).
  Location (guide): Butler Reference, 301 Butler
  Call Number: R942.07 H62
• International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences
  Neil J. Smelser and  Paul B. Baltes, editors-in-chief.  (Amsterdam ; New York : Elsevier, 2001).
  Also available in print at:
  Location:  Butler Reference, 301 Butler
  Call Number:  R033 In813
  ---
  Locations:  Barnard Reference & Lehman Reference
  Call Number:  H41 .I58 2001
• OED online (also known as: Oxford English Dictionary Online)
  The largest dictionary and most complete historical record of the English language. 
• Oxford Reference Online
  Contains the texts of more than 100 reference titles published by Oxford University Press.