Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

This course provides an outline history of the British Empire, its rise and decline, and discusses the origin and significance of the Commonwealth. In addition there is a detailed account of the 'Westminster Model' of parliamentary democracy, on which the political institutions of many Commonwealth nations are based.

COURSE DETAILS:

In this course, we will be studying the (rapid) expansion and (even more rapid) contraction of the British Empire from the mid-eighteenth century to the present. Although often presented as an organic, unified corporation loyal to one monarch, the Empire encompassed a multitude of societies, each harbouring a different political, economic, and cultural relationship to Great Britain. Hence, our focus will be on how various groups – colonial administrators, indigenous communities, migrants, missionaries, consumers, men, women, children, and so on – experienced life under the Empire. What historical factors shaped their experience? And how did they express this experience? You will answer these questions by critically analyzing a range of primary sources dealing with the British Empire over a 250-year period. In addition, we will examine how historians have approached the very controversial subject of British imperial history in different ways, and will weigh in on a few of the major debates that have shaped the field.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: