History 219 Readings

Syllabus - Outline - Links - Discussion - Readings - Maps - Powerpoint -Film Series

Readings

Week I January 31 – February 2

The course, its requirements, how to study etc.

Week 2 February 2- February 9

Definitions: What is “empire”? What is the difference between “empire”, “colonialism” and “imperialism”? Can a country be imperialist without having an empire? Use web and library sources to research the various elements that historians and others have argued compose an Empire.

Week 3 February 14 – February 16

The empire of the seas. What was the role of the sea and Britain’s island status in the origins of British empire in the sixteenth century? How are people thinking about what it means to be “British” or “English” in that period?

Reading:

http://www.collectionscanada.ca/passages/h8-222-e.html

Samson,"The Early Empire, An Empire of the Sea"

Week 4 February 21 – February 23

Encounters in the South Seas. How did the seamen and others on Captain Cook’s voyages interact with and react to the new peoples they encountered in New Zealand and elsewhere in the 1760s and 1770s? What are the main patterns of the interaction that you can see recorded in Cook’s Journal.

Reading:

Edwards, Journals of Captain Cook, pp. 39-61 ; 131-137 .

Week 5 February 28 – March 2

Empire and Food. Empire is not just a matter of navies, battles and international rivalries. It also comes to be deeply interwoven with the daily life of people in Britain. There are many ways this could be illustrated. But food is as good an example as any. Apart from sugar, what other foods did the Empire contribute to the British diet? Be sure to specify the time period, the place from which the product came. Make an attempt to ask how and why the particular food item was developed for consumption in Britain.

Use the web and the library to research this question.

Week 6 March 7 – March 9

Making Englishment out of Indians. What methods did the British intend to make Indians into replicas of themselves in the early nineteenth century?

Reading:

“The Macaulay Minute”

Week 7 March 14 – March 16

The British diaspora in the nineteenth century. How and why did self government begin to come to the white settler colonies in the nineteenth century? And why was it more evident in some places like Canada and Australia than others like Ireland?

Reading: The Durham Report

Week 8 Spring Break

Week 9 March 28 – March 30

Sex and Empire. How was racial exclusion imposed?

Readings: Julia Wells, “The Scandal of Rev. James Read and the Taming of the London Missionary Society by 1820.” South African Historical Journal, 42 (May 2000)

Ann Stoler, “Sexual Affronts and Racial Frontiers” in Ann Stoler and Frederick Cooper, Tensions of Empire (California 1997)

Week 10 April 4 – April 6

The motivations and justifications of Empire. How was imperialism justified in the late nineteenth century? What was the balance between the claims to be bringing civilization to savage peoples, international rivalries and strategic necessity?

Readings: Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden,” and “Recessional.”

Week 11 April 11 – April 13

Exam Discussion