Chapter 1 outlines the arguments of the book, provides a brief introduction to the Caribbean during the age of revolutions, and gives an overview of the geography, population, and political composition of the Leeward Islands, focusing in particular on the Danish West Indies, the British Virgin Islands, and Swedish St. Barthélemy. It then places the book within broader historiographical debates about Atlantic, global, and imperial history, before presenting the analytical model of the inter-imperial microregion. This model draws on relational theory and practice analysis to provide a framework for understanding zones of interaction and integration in the borderlands of overseas empires, emphasizing networks of border-crossing practice involving the subjects of multiple empires and colonies.