MERCHANTS OF EMPIRE: THE FIRST GLOBAL CORPORATIONS

0.50 credits

This course examines the global impact of European joint stock companies from their inception as sixteenth-century trading expeditions to their central role in the history of imperialism, colonialism, and the development of the global capitalist economy. Topics include the rise of the corporation, expansion of global trading networks, imperial warfare, cultural contact and exchange, slavery and exploitation, colonial resistance and oppression, and the complex relationship between companies and imperial governments.