Colonial North Africa

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

The course is an introduction to the modern history of former French North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia) from the establishment of the Ottoman Regency of Algiers in the early sixteenth century until national independence and the post-colonial period. Its underlying aim is to familiarize students with recent trends in historical scholarship on modern North Africa specifically, while also engaging with the principal theoretical frameworks and schools of thought in the field of imperial and colonial studies. Selected primary and secondary documents from the colonialist and nationalist periods will serve as the basis for analytical assessments of the legacy of imperialism on North African historiography. Topics of study include: the Ottoman-European contest in the Western Mediterranean; its impact on North African societies, states, and economies; European (Portuguese, Spanish, French) imperial expansion and North African modes of resistance; the consolidation of the French North African empire; the socio-economic, political, ideological and theoretical dimensions of colonial rule and administration; the impact of colonialism on the formation of cultural/national identities and modern subjectivities; the overlapping histories and memories of colony and metropole; the historical modes of colonial interactions and representation; and finally, the role of resistance and violence in the processes of decolonization and nation-making.