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21H.443

European Imperialism in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Undergraduate · Historical course

Spring 2006

Topics

  • Introduction
  • The Decline of the Mercantilist Empires: From 1492 to the Early 19th Century
  • Classic Theories of Imperialism
  • From “John Company” to the Mutiny of 1857
  • Shifting Economic Rationales: From “Free Trade” to Opium Wars
  • Charting New Terrain: Discovering “Darkest Africa”
  • Ethnography and “Race Science”
  • Imperial and “Civilizing” Missions
  • Discussion: Mike Davis, Late Victorian Holocausts (2002)
  • From the Great Game to the Scramble for Africa
  • The Berlin Conference: Power-Politics and Map Fantasies
  • Colonial Warfare I: Conquest of Africa, Boer War, Boxer Uprising
  • Genocides in the Belgian Congo and German South-West Africa
  • The Imperial Nation on Display
  • Imperial Masculinities and Femininities
  • Hawaii
  • Discussion: Ferdinand Oyono, Houseboy
  • Discussion: George Orwell, Burmese Days
  • The First World War
  • Colonial Economics and “Modernization”
  • Empire in the Second World War
  • A New World Order? From the Suez Crisis to Vietnam
  • Decolonization
  • Independent Nationalism of the New Elites
  • The Neo-Colonialism of “Globalization”?
  • The New American Empire?

Readings

  • Cook, Scott. Colonial Encounters in the Age of High Imperialism. New York, NY: Talman, 1996. ISBN: 9781886746626.
    Required
  • Davis, Mike. Late Victorian Holocausts. New York, NY: Verso, 2002. ISBN: 9781859843826.
    Required
  • Oyono, Ferdinand. Houseboy. London, UK: Heinemann, 1960, and 1991. ISBN: 9780435905323.
    Required
  • Orwell, George. Burmese Days. New York, NY: Harper & brothers, 1934.
    Required
  • Greene, Graham. The Quiet American. New York, NY: Viking Press, 1956, and 1955.
    Required
  • Fanon, Franz. The Wretched of the Earth. New York, NY: Grove Press, 1963. ISBN: 080215083.
    Required
  • Kipling, Rudyard. “The White Man’s Burden.” In Verse. New York, NY: Doubleday, 1899, pp. 321-323.
    Listed reading
  • Rose, J. Holland. The Development of the European Nations, 1870-1900. London, UK: Constable, 1905, pp. 508-512.
    Listed reading
  • Hobson, John A. “Imperialism.” In Imperialism: A Study . New York, NY: Harper-Collins, 1902, pp. 14-20.
    Listed reading
  • Lenin, V. I. “Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism.” In Selected Works . Moscow, Russia: Progress, 1975 (originally, 1916), pp. 36-51.
    Listed reading
  • Orwell, George. “Shooting an Elephant.” 1936. (A version of Orwell’s essay, “ Shooting an Elephant ” is available from The University of Newcastle, Austrailia.) ↗
    Listed reading
  • Harlow, Barbara, and Mia Carter. “Agreement between the Nabob Nudjum-Ul-Dowlah and the Company (1765).” Archives of Empire. Vol I. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003, pp. 25-7. ISBN: 9780822331643.
    Listed reading
  • ———. “Documents from the impeachment of Warren Hastings (Hastings, Burke, Macauley).” Archives of Empire. Vol I. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003, pp. 131-166. ISBN: 9780822331643.
    Listed reading
  • Smith, Adam. “America and the East Indies.” In Wealth of Nations. 1776.
    Listed reading
  • Harlow, Barbara, and Mia Carter. “Macauley’s defense of the East India Company.” Archives of Empire. Vol I. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003, pp. 54-8 and 95-106. ISBN: 9780822331643.
    Listed reading
  • LEC #: 6 · TOPICS: Charting New Terrain: Discovering “Darkest Africa” · READINGS: Harlow, Barbara, and Mia Carter. Archives of Empire. Vol II. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003, pp. 253-300. ISBN: 9780822331643. (Excerpts from Livingston and Stanley.)
    Reading assignment
  • LEC #: 7 · TOPICS: Ethnography and “Race Science” · READINGS: Harlow, Barbara, and Mia Carter. “Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man (1871),” “Robert Knox, The Races of Man (1850),” and “James Redfield, “Comparative Physiognomy” (1852).” In Archives of Empire, Vol II. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780822331643, pp. 153-177. (Excerpts)
    Reading assignment
  • Harlow, Barbara, and Mia Carter. “Macauley, “Minute on Indian Education” (1835).” In Archives of Empire. Vol I. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003, pp. 54-8, 95-106, and 227-238. ISBN: 9780822331643.
    Listed reading
  • Cook, Scott. “Conflicting Ideologies in British India.” In Colonial Encounters in the Age of High Imperialism. New York, NY: Talman, 1996, pp. 113-143. ISBN: 9781886746626.
    Listed reading
  • LEC #: 9 · TOPICS: Discussion: Mike Davis, Late Victorian Holocausts (2002) · READINGS: Davis, Mike. Late Victorian Holocausts. New York, NY: Verso, 2002. ISBN: 9781859843826.
    Reading assignment
  • LEC #: 10 · TOPICS: From the Great Game to the Scramble for Africa · READINGS: Cook, Scott. Colonial Encounters in the Age of High Imperialism. New York, NY: Talman, 1996, pp. 1-28. ISBN: 9781886746626.
    Reading assignment
  • LEC #: 11 · TOPICS: The Berlin Conference: Power-Politics and Map Fantasies · READINGS: Harlow, Barbara, and Mia Carter. Archives of Empire. Vol II. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003, pp. 13-81. ISBN: 9780822331643. (Documents and maps.)
    Reading assignment
  • Cook, Scott. Colonial Encounters in the Age of High Imperialism. New York, NY: Talman, 1996, pp. 33-70. ISBN: 9781886746626.
    Listed reading
  • Hochschild, Adam. King Leopold’s Ghost. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1998, chapter 8. ISBN: 9780395759240. (Excerpt)
    Listed reading
  • Cocker, Mark. “The Germans in Southwest” In Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold. New York, NY: Grove Press, 2000, pp. 269-370. ISBN: 9780802116666. (Excerpt)
    Listed reading
  • Corbey, Raymond. “Ethnographic Showcases, 1870-1930.” Cultural Anthropology 8, no. 3 (1993): 338-369.
    Listed reading
  • Ramamurthy, Anandi. Imperial Persuaders. New York, NY: Pelgrave, 2003. ISBN: 9780719063794. (Excerpt)
    Listed reading
  • Ciarlo, David. “Consuming Race, Envisioning Empire.” PhD Dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2003. (Excerpt)
    Listed reading
  • Judd, Denis. “Gordon Of Khartoum: The Making Of An Imperial Martyr.” In History Today 35 (1985): 19-25.
    Listed reading
  • Cook, Scott. Colonial Encounters in the Age of High Imperialism. New York, NY: Talman, 1996, pp. 146-156. ISBN: 9781886746626.
    Listed reading
  • LEC #: 16 · TOPICS: Hawai’i · READINGS: Cook, Scott. “Islands of Manifest Destiny.” In Colonial Encounters in the Age of High Imperialism. New York, NY: Talman, 1996, pp. 73-101. ISBN: 9781886746626.
    Reading assignment
  • LEC #: 17 · TOPICS: Discussion: Ferdinand Oyono, Houseboy · READINGS: Oyono, Ferdinand. Houseboy London. UK: Heinemann, 1991. ISBN: 9780435905323.
    Reading assignment
  • LEC #: 18 · TOPICS: Discussion: George Orwell, Burmese Days · READINGS: Orwell, George. Burmese Days. New York, NY: Harper & brothers, 1934.
    Reading assignment
  • Duignan, Peter, and L. H. Gann. “Economic Achievements of the Colonizers: An Assessment.” In Colonialism in Africa 1870-1960. Edited by Peter Duignan and L. H. Gann. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1969. ISBN: 9780521073738.
    Listed reading
  • Cooper, Frederick. “Colonizing Time.” In Colonialism and Culture. Edited by Nicholas Dirks. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780472064342.
    Listed reading
  • LEC #: 22 · TOPICS: A New World Order? From the Suez Crisis to Vietnam · READINGS: Greene, Graham. The Quiet American. New York, NY: Viking Press, 1956, 1955.
    Reading assignment
  • LEC #: 23 · TOPICS: Decolonization · READINGS: Cooper, Frederick. “The Dialectics of Decolonization: Nationalism and Labor Movements in Postwar French Africa.” In Tensions of Empire . Edited by Frederick Cooper and Ann Laura Stoler. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997, pp. 406-435. ISBN: 9780520206052.
    Reading assignment
  • LEC #: 24 · TOPICS: Independent Nationalism of the New Elites · READINGS: Fanon, Franz. The Wretched of the Earth. New York, NY: Grove Press, 1965. ISBN: 9780802150837.
    Reading assignment
  • LEC #: 26 · TOPICS: The New American Empire? · READINGS: Kaplan, Robert D. “Supremacy by Stealth.” in The Atlantic Monthly 292, no. 1 (July/August 2003): 66-83.
    Reading assignment
Sources