Overview

This unit exposes students to the global history of colonialism. The expansion of Europe and the establishment of colonies in distant lands was a crucial driver of globalisation processes. Constituting North and South and East and West, colonial relationships fundamentally shaped the world we live in. Indeed, even if the colonial dependencies have now disappeared from the map, the consequences of colonialism are still with us. An ability to deconstruct the implications of the long-term development of this phenomenon and its consequences is essential to an understanding of the global present.

Requisites

Teaching Periods
Location
Start and end dates
Last self-enrolment date
Census date
Last withdraw without fail date
Results released date

Learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:

  • Understand Europe's global expansion from the 'Age of Discoveries' to the 'Imperial Scramble' of the late nineteenth century
  • Analyse the different types of imperial and colonial practices that various colonising powers developed to manage colonised populations
  • Analyse the different ways in which colonised peoples resisted colonialism
  • Assess the most relevant aspects of decolonisation processes after WWII
  • Deconstruct the long-term implications of colonialism

Teaching methods

Hawthorn

Type Hours per week Number of weeks Total (number of hours)
Face to Face Contact (Phasing out)
Lecture		2.00 12 weeks 24
Face to Face Contact (Phasing out)
Tutorial		1.00 12 weeks 12
Specified Learning Activities (Phasing out)
Various		5.83 12 weeks 70
Unspecified Learning Activities (Phasing out)
Individual Study		4.00 11 weeks 44
TOTAL150

Assessment

Type Task Weighting ULO's
EssayIndividual 30% 1,2,3 
Research ProjectIndividual 50% 1,2,3,4,5 
Tutorial PaperIndividual 20% 1,2,3,5 

Content

  • How colonialism changed the world and created and transformed numerous societies across the globe.
  • How colonial polities consolidated and eventually collapsed;
  • How traditional religions and political structures resisted or collaborated with European colonisers (or contrived to do both)
  • How different agendas determined the character of metropolitan, settler, and missionary rule
  • How different colonial administrations shaped local circumstances and adapted to them

Study resources

Reading materials

A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.