HIS - 246 Domination and Resistance: A History of Imperialism and Colonialism

3 Credit(s)
One does not need to look hard in our contemporary world to see the legacies of imperialism and colonialism that are being exposed, debated, and contested. Recent examples abound from Black Lives Matters to protests by the Wetʼsuwetʼen or Native Americans at Standing Rock to calls for changes to the names of sports franchises. In Canada, we continue to grapple with the legacies of colonialism against Indigenous peoples which have created reserve systems, the Indian Act, and a host of assimilatory practices. More broadly there exists a “Third World” throughout former colonial contexts in the Americas, Africa and Asia. The reverberations of imperialism and colonialism are constant and ever more apparent.

This course will explore the nature of imperialism and colonialism largely in the context of the world’s European empires (and their successor nation-states) from the 16th century onward. It will seek to define the nature and characteristics of imperialism and colonialism by exploring the breadth and scope through which they were and are employed in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Significant attention will be paid to the history of settler colonialism as it relates to the British Empire and the nation-states which followed in its wake - Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. Importantly, this course will also explore the ways in which imperialism and colonialism have been resisted by the colonized. It will also consider the current post-colonial age and the ways in which de-colonization and neo-colonialism are at work in the 20th century and beyond.

 

Prerequisite(s):

• C in English 12 or equivalent
    
• C in a first-year HIS, PHI, LIB course

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