History 161 - British Empire and Commonwealth

This course is an introduction to the expansion, consolidation, and eventual disintegration of the British Empire in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We will examine this history with an eye to understanding the causes and legacies of empire. We will discuss British attitudes and policies toward empire and the imperial foundations of the British economy. Cutting an arc of territory from the Caribbean to Africa and from South Asia to the Pacific rim, we will consider the role of culture and gender in informing anticolonial resistance. We will interrogate how legacies of colonialism manifest in the contemporary period by shaping post-colonial identities and perceptions of the world.