The Menace of Progress I Enlightenment Colonialism Dispossession

3 credits · Undergraduate

This course explores the process of, reasons for, and arguments about European colonialism from the 16th to the mid-20th centuries. It links European colonialism to changes in Europe itself, most especially ideas of progress linked to the Enlightenment and capitalist relations of production. The dispossession of marginalized populations in Europe, and the rationales used for such dispossession, are compared to rationales for colonialism and colonial dispossession. The violence of colonial dispossession in various locales in Latin America, Africa and Asia, and heightened racism are explored as is the trend towards a focus on colonial 'development' in the 20th century.