The Tempest. An Imperialist Heaven or Hell? Shakespeare lived and wrote in the Elizabethan age, a time when his society was branching out and making itself known throughout the world by colonizing other cultures. Great Britain was reaching for new heights of power. In the play Shakespeare questions the value of this new concept of British imperialism. The Tempest is called Shakespeare's American play, because he calls into question England's right to colonize other nations, much as American colonists did with America 200 years later. The Tempest was Shakespeare's last play. For his entir