HIS 334-01 - Decolonization

4 credits (Spring)

In the decades following the Second World War, the political status of more than a quarter of the world’s land mass and population was transformed from colonies into nation states with surprising speed and far-reaching ramifications. In this seminar we will explore some of the debates surrounding the timing, causality, character, and consequences of this phenomenon and consider how historical actors impacted and were impacted by the changing relationship of metropolitan centers and colonial peripheries. Themes will include anti-colonial nationalism; labor militancy; agrarian change; settler colonialism; migration and displacement; post-colonial identities; and the roots of global development. Common texts and student research projects will focus on the political, social, intellectual, and cultural dimensions of the end of empire in British Africa and South Asia, as well as in Britain itself; students with relevant background may also pursue a topic related to another national/geographic context.

Prerequisite: HIS 100 and HIS 235, HIS 236, HIS 261, HIS 262, or HIS 266.
Instructor: Prevost