HIS 221 - Empire & Resistance (3)

Empire & Resistance: From Colonialism to Post-Colonialism and Beyond.

Empires, and resistance to them, have always been part of the human experience. In fact, history is often defined by the friction between two human desires: the need to control others and the hope for self-determination. In the last 500 years, this friction played itself out on the global stage as Western empires rose to prominence. This course will examine the phenomenon of empire and responses to it from 1500 to the present. During this time, empire and resistance manifested themselves in political, economic, and cultural modes. As such this course will take a multidisciplinary approach that examines a wide variety of sources, including popular media, fiction, government reports, and personal writings. Throughout the course, we will examine questions like: What drives the creation of global empires? How have colonizers wielded power to subjugate others? What tools, strategies, and frameworks have people utilized to resist empire? How have factors like race, religion, class or gender shaped empire and resistance to it?