Download Imperialism and Independence: CAS HI342 Spring 2016

Imperialism and Independence: CAS HI342
Spring 2016
Betty Anderson ([email protected])
CAS B18A MWF: 11:00-12:00
Office: Room 306, 226 Bay State Road
Telephone: (617)353-8302
Office Hours: M 12:00-2:00, W 1:30-3:30, F 3:00-4:00, and by appointment
This lecture course examines 19th and 20th century imperialist and independence movements, focusing
on the colonial projects in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. The goal of the course is to
find the common themes (decolonization, the Cold War, ideologies like communism and socialism) that
bridge the regions of the world and present a comparison between their political experiences. The course
begins with an overview of the European and American revolutions and ideologies that gave birth to
imperialist ideas and practices. It transitions to a study of the ways in which people outside these areas
initially incorporated Western ideas into their own agendas of modernity and then into the actions they
took to destroy the colonial projects and establish their own independent political and ideological
systems. The course analyzes the roles nationalism, liberalism, communism, socialism, and Cold War
played in these independence movements.
The students are required to complete all the readings assigned and take a mid-term and a final. In these
exams, the students will be tested not only on their knowledge of historical events but they must be able
to analyze the different historical developments and changes taking place during the period of time
covered by the course. Answers must incorporate information gleaned from the class lectures, the
assigned readings, and the discussions.
The students will also write 2 five-page papers choosing from a list of questions prepared by the
professor. The papers must be turned in on the date specified below; otherwise it will lose 1/3 a grade for
each day it is late. Plagiarism will be punished per the guidelines set out in the CAS Academic Conduct
Code (http://www.bu.edu/cas/academics/programs/conductcode.html).
In addition to the written work, discussions will take place every week concerning the assigned readings.
On these days, the students must arrive in class prepared to analyze and contribute to the topics proposed
in order to receive full credit for participation.
Books:
Chinua Achebe, Man of the People. London: Pearson UK.
Alaa Al Aswany, The Yacoubian Building,Harper Publishers
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon’s Mines. New York: Penguin.
Rudyard Kipling, Kim. New York: Penguin.
Naguib Mahfouz, Miramar New York: Knopf Doubleday, 1993.
(All other articles are on the Web: http://people.bu.edu/banderso/hi342 )
Requirements:
1 mid-term worth 25% of the grade
2 five-page papers worth 30% of the grade
1 final exam worth 25% of the grade
Class participation worth 20% of the grade
Week 1 (January 20 and 22)
- Topics: European Exploration and Early Colonialism
Latin America and the Atlantic Slave Trade
- Reading:
Robert B. Marks, The Origins of the Modern World (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2006), pp. 119, 43-66, and 155-162.
Week 2 (January 25, 27, and 29)
- Topics:
Glorious, French, and Industrial Revolutions
- Reading:
Rudyard Kipling, Kim
Week 3 (February 1, 3, and 5)
- Topics: European Philosophies of Imperialism
Britain and France in the Middle East and Africa
- Readings:
1) Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man's Burden,” European Imperialism, 1830-1930 (Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Co., 1999), pp. 58-59.
2) Zeynep Celik, "Displaying the Orient" and Anne McClintock, "Advertising the Empire," European
Imperialism, 1830-1930 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1999), pp. 141-157.
3) Judy Mabro, “Introduction,” Veiled Half-Truths (London: I.B. Tauris, 1991), pp. 1-50.
Week 4 (February 8, 10, and 12)
- Topics: American Imperialism
Manifest Destiny, the Spanish-American War, and Missionary Work
- Readings:
1) Amy Kaplan, “Birth of an Empire,” PMLA, vol. 114, no. 5(October 1999): pp. 1068-1079.
2) Robert J. Allison, "Americans and the Muslim World - First Encounters," in The Middle East and the
United States, ed. David W. Lesch (Westview Press, 2013), pp. 297-308.
3) William Hutchison, “Introduction” and “’Civilizing’: From Necessity to Virtue,” Errand to the World:
American Protestant Thought and Foreign Missions (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), pp. 141.
4) Stuart Creighton Miller, “American Imperialism: Aberration or Historical Continuity?” Benevolent
Assimilation’: The American Conquest of the Philippines, 1899-1903 (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1982), pp. 1-12.
First Paper Due: Friday, February 12, 5:00 pm
Week 5 (Tuesday, February 16, 17, and 19)
- Topics: Scramble for Africa
Settler and Administrative Colonies
- Reading:
H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon’s Mines
Week 6 (February 22, 24, and 26)
- Topics: Westernizing Reform Programs in the Middle East
Egypt, the Ottoman Empire and European Intervention in Lebanon
- Reading:
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Week 7 (February 29. No class on March 2 and 4)
Guest speaker on Monday, February 29: TBA
TAKE-HOME MID-TERM EXAMINATION DUE Friday,
March 4, 2015 via email
SPRING BREAK, March 5-13
Week 8 (March 14, 16, and 18)
- Topics: National Reactions
Rise of National Identities
- Readings:
1) Hans van de Ven, "The Onrush of Modern Globalization in China," edited A.G. Hopkins,
Globalization in World History (W.W. Norton, 2002), pp. 167-195.
2) Betty S. Anderson, A History of the Modern Middle East: Rulers, Rebels and Rogues (Stanford, 2016),
pp. 107-198.
3) Nadia Farag, "Progress and Western Science," Al-Muqtataf 1876-1900: A Study of the Influence of
Victorian Thought on Modern Arab Thought. Ph.D. diss., St. Antony’s College, Oxford, 1969, pp. 141152.
Week 9 (March 21, 23, and 25)
- Topics: World Wars I and II
European Conquest of the Middle East and Japanese Imperialism in Asia
- Readings:
1) Benedict Anderson, “Introduction,” Imagined Communities (London: Verso Books, 1991), pp. 1-7,
118-140.
2) Thongchai Winichakul. “The Coming of a New Geography,” Siam Mapped (Honolulu: University of
Hawaii Press, 1994), pp. 37-61.
3) Robert Thomas Tierney, “Introduction,” Tropics of Savagery: The Culture of Japanese Empire in
Comparative Frame (University of California Press, 2010), pp. 1-37.
4) Takashi Fujitani, "Inventing, forgetting, Remembering: Toward a Historical Ethnography of the
Nation-State," Cultural Nationalism in East Asia (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), pp. 77106.
Week 10 (March 28 and 30 and April 1)
- Topics: Revolutionary Movements
Socialism, Communism, and Revolutions in Latin America
- Readings:
1) Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, "Manifesto of the Communist Party." Sources of World Civilization
(New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2000), pp. 254-271.
2) V.I. Lenin, "What Is to Be Done?" and "State and Revolution." Sources of World Civilization (New
Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2000), pp. 3335-347.
3) Mao Zedong, Mao on Peasant Movements.
4) Che Guevara, “Notes for the Study of the Ideology of the Cuban Revolution,” Che: Selected Works of
Ernest Guevara (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1969), pp. 48-56.
5) Fidel Castro, “Manifesto No. 1 to the People of Cuba.” Revolutionary Struggle (Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press, 1972), pp. 259-271.
Week 11 (April 4, 6, and 8)
- Topics: Independence
India and the Middle East
- Readings:
1) Naguib Mahfouz, Miramar
2) Mahatma Gandhi, "Democracy and the People," All Men Are Brothers (UNESCO, 1960), pp. 138-159.
3) Jawaharlal Nehru, “Selections,” Jawaharlal Nehru: An Anthology (Oxford, 1980), pp. 6-33, 103-105,
328-331.
4) Gamal Abdul Nasser, “Selections,” Egypt’s Liberation: The Philosophy of the Revolution
(Washington, DC: Public Affairs Press, 1955), pp. 43-54.
5) Kwame Nkrumah, “Selections,” Africa Must Unite (Heineman, 1964), pp. 32-49, 132-140.
Week 12 (April 11, 13, and 15)
- Topics: Independence
Africa
- Readings:
1) Chinua Achebe, Man of the People.
2) Yusuf al-Qaid, War in the Land of Egypt (Interlink Books, 1998), pp. 5-55.
3) Nelson Mandela. Excerpts, Long Walk to Freedom (Abacus, 1995), pp. 313-348, 575-580, 640-643.
4) Steve Biko, “The Definition of Black Consciousness," Steve Biko - I Write What I Like (Harper &
Row, 1978), pp. 48-72.
Second Paper Due: Friday, April 15, 5:00 pm
Week 13 (Wednesday, April 20 and 22)
- Topics: 1960s Guerrilla Movements and Military Coups
Algerian Revolution, Vietnam War, and African Military Coups
- Readings: 1) Ali al-Aswany, Yacoubian Building.
2) Carrie Rosefsky Wickham, “The Call to God,” Mobilizing Islam (Columbia University Press, 2002),
pp. 119-149.
Week 14 (April 25, 27, and 29)
- Topics: State Legitimacy
Economics, Society, and Religion
FINAL: Wednesday, May 4: 12:30-2:30