HIS 271 - Imperial Collisions in the Asia-Pacific

4 credits (Fall or Spring)

This course is intended to introduce students to the modern history of East Asia. We will focus primarily on empire, or the construction of large-scale political, economic, and military structures through which human populations and other resources of statecraft were mobilized in the service of expansionist agendas throughout the modern age. Case studies will focus on the Qing empire, the British and French empires, the Empire of Great Japan, and Cold War-era Pacific alliances. In the latter case, we will also debate whether empire or imperial systems have survived into the present day - a question with important consequences for how we think about our own relationship to earlier historical moments. Finally, this course will address the relationship between national revolutions and anti-imperial agendas, as well as recent (and some not-so-recent) events which have shaped East Asia’s contemporary economic resurgence.

Prerequisite: HIS 100 or second-year standing.
Instructor: Johnson