What is Colonialism?

Catalog description

Large empires have been the predominate form of political community throughout most of history. Unlike the modern nation-state, empires made no claims to legal or racial equality, and instead lumped diverse groups of people together under varying kinds of oppressive political systems. This course will explore the nature of empire by looking at various ideas and practices of colonialism. It will adopt an interdisciplinary focus, with readings or assignments in that touch on History, Economics, Philosophy, Political Science, English Literature, and Psychology. We will take a wide geographic approach, examining Spanish, British, French, Chinese, American, and Soviet empires. Important topics will include: the ideologies of empire and political sovereignty, social and gender relations, colonialism and imperialism, ethnicity and race, globalization and economics, nationalism and anti- colonialism, and the nature of Decolonization.