Week I: The Origins of the British Empire

Sep 4: Introduction: How do we view the British Empire?
Sep 6: England's early overseas expansion

Reading:
Colley, 1-98
Nicholas Canny, "The Origins of Empire" in Oxford History of the British Empire, Vol I (OHBE:I), 1-33

Documents:
Richard Hakluyt, "Discourse of Western planting" (1584) [frontispiece]
"Plantation of Ulster" (1610)
Francis Bacon, "Of Plantations" (1625) [frontispiece]
Thomas Mun, "England's treasure by foreign trade" (1664) [frontispiece]

Atlas:
Dalziel, 18-23

Week II: The Atlantic World

Sep 9: Commerce, competition, and the beginnings of the "First British Empire"
Sep 11: Sugar, slavery, and the economies and cultures of the Atlantic World
Sep 13: Discussion

Reading:
Colley, 99-134
Patrick O'Brien, "Inseparable Connections: Trade, Economy, Fiscal State, and the Expansion of Empire" in OHBE:II, 53-77
Marcus Rediker, "African Paths to the Middle Passage" in The Slave Ship: A Human History, 73-108

Documents:
First Charter of Virginia (1606) [image]
Richard Ligon, "A true & exact history of the island of Barbados" (1657)
John Wesley, "Thoughts upon slavery" (1774)
Adam Smith, "Of colonies," "The cost of empire" in Wealth of Nations (1776)
Stowage diagram of African slave ship Brookes (1788)

Atlas:
Dalziel, 24-27, 30-33

Week III: War, Revolution, and Realignment

Sep 16: The eighteenth century and the clash of empires
Sep 18: The American Revolution and its aftermath
Sep 20: Discussion

Reading:
Brendon, 3-31
Colley, 137-238
Alan Taylor, "Imperial War and Crisis, 1739-1775" in American Colonies, 420-443

Documents:
Maj. Gen. James Wolfe, "To the citizens of Québec" (1759)
Edmund Burke, "On conciliation with America" (1775)
Continental Congress, Declaration of Independence (1776) [image]

Image:
Jason Farago, "The Myth of North America in One Painting" in New York Times (2020)
Benjamin West, "The Death of Wolfe" (1770)

Atlas:
Dalziel, 28-29, 34-35, 52-53

Week IV: The Rise of the Second British Empire

Sep 23: The East India Company and the conquest of Bengal
Sep 25: Liberal Imperialism and the birth of the "Second British Empire"
Sep 27: Discussion

Reading:
Brendon, 32-96
Colley, 241-307
Andrew Porter, "Trusteeship, Anti-Slavery, and Humanitarianism" in OHBE:III, 198-221

Documents:
Robert Clive, Letter to William Pitt regarding British policy in Bengal (1759)
East India Company Act of 1767
Robert Clive, Speech in the House of Commons on India (1772)
Warren Hastings, Letter to Court of Directors of the East India Company (1773)
Edmund Burke, Speech in the House of Commons on India (1783)
John Stuart Mill, "On Colonies and Colonization" (1848) and "On Liberty" (1859)

Atlas:
Dalziel, 36-37, 58-59

Week V: Inside the Pax Britannica

Sep 30: Science, technology, and empire
Oct 2: The Indian Revolt of 1857 and the making of the British Raj
Oct 4: Discussion

Reading:
Colley, 308-379
Daniel Headrick, Tools of Empire: Technology and European Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century, 58-104, 129-149, 157-164

Documents:
T.B. Macaulay, "Minute on Education" (1835) and Resolution of Lord Bentinck (1835)
Mountstuart Elphinstone, "Indian customs and manners" (1840)
Earl of Dalhousie, Report on the administration of India (1856)

Atlas:
Dalziel, 42-43, 46-51, 100-101

Week VI: The Empire and its Discontents: Ireland

Oct 7: The Famine and the Exodus
Oct 9: Home Rule campaigns and the growth of Irish nationalism
Oct 11: FALL BREAK (NO CLASS)

Reading:
Ward, 1-81
Brendon, 97-140

Documents:
Daniel O'Connell, "Justice for Ireland" (speech to the House of Commons) (1836)
"Summer of Sorrows" from Gerald Keegan's Diary (1847)
William Bennett, "Narrative of a recent journey in Ireland" (1847)
Parliamentary Proceedings, "The state of famine and disease in Ireland" (1846)
Cork Reporter, "The apprehended scarcity" (1846)
Times of London, "The Irish question" (1846)

Music:
Sinéad O'Connor, "Skibbereen" [audio]
Liam Ó Maonlaí, "Prátaí Bána (white potatoes)" [audio]

Week VII: The Empire and its Discontents: India

Oct 14: Indian society under the British Raj
Oct 16: The rise of nationalism in British India
Oct 18: Discussion

Reading:
Headrick, 180-191
"100 years since Servitude" in The Economist (Sep 2017)
Bernard S. Cohn, "Representing Authority in Victorian India" in Hobsbawm and Ranger, eds., The Invention of Tradition, 165-209

Documents:
Queen Victoria, "Proclamation to the Princes, Chiefs, and People of India" (1858)
G.O. Trevelyan, "An Indian Railway," "The Truth about the Civil Service Career" in The Competition Wallah (1864), 18-40, 94-132
Lord Roberts, "When Queen Victoria became Empress of India" (1877)
Francis Younghusband, Convention between Great Britain and Tibet (1904)
B.G. Tilak, "Address to the Indian National Congress" (1907)
M.K. Gandhi, "Indian Home Rule" (1909)

Video:
Coronation Durbar of King George V as Emperor of India (1911)

Atlas:
Dalziel, 78-81, 88-91

Week VIII: Africa and the Changing Face of Empire

Oct 21: The "scramble" for Africa
Oct 23: Gold, diamonds, and war in South Africa, 1895-1902
Oct 25: MIDTERM EXAMINATION

Reading:
Brendon, 141-218
Headrick, 150-156

Documents:
Chief Moshweshewe, Letter to Sir George Grey (on the establishment of Basutoland) (1858)
Earl of Cromer, "On Britain’s acquisition of Egypt in 1882" (1908)
Alfred Egmont Hake, "The death of General Gordon at Khartoum" (1885)
Capt. F.D. Lugard, "The rise of our East African empire" (1893)

Atlas:
Dalziel, 44-45, 72-77

Week IX: The "New" Imperialism

Oct 28: Theories of imperialism
Oct 30: Empire and British national identity
Nov 1: Discussion (meet in Special Collections, Watzek Library)

Reading:
Brendon, 219-253
John Gallagher and Ronald Robinson, "The Imperialism of Free Trade" in Economic History Review VI (1953) [JSTOR]
John Mackenzie, "The Popular Culture of Empire in Britain" in OHBE:IV, 212-231

Documents:
Benjamin Disraeli, "The maintenance of empire" (1872)
Joseph Chamberlain, "The true conception of empire" (1897)
J.A. Hobson, Imperialism: A Study (1902)
V.I. Lenin, Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916)
Thomas Hardy, "Drummer Hodge" (1899)
George Orwell, "Shooting an Elephant" (1936)

Music:
Edward Elgar, "Imperial March, Op. 32" (1897), for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee
Edward Elgar, "Empire March" (1924), for the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley

Image:
Grounds of the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley (1924)

Video:
State Opening of the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley (1924)

Atlas:
Dalziel, 64-67, 94-97

Week X: The Empire's Wars

Nov 4: The Empire in the Great War, 1914-1918
Nov 6: From rebels to statesmen: Ireland, 1905-1922
Nov 8: Discussion

Reading:
Brendon, 254-293
Ward, 82-173

Documents:
Proclamation of the Irish Republic (1916) [image]
Death notice telegrams from Britain (1918), Canada (1916) and Australia (1917)

Music:
Brian Warfield, "A Soldier's Return" [audio]
Eric Bogle, "The Band played Waltzing Matilda" [audio] and "No Man's Land" [audio]

Memorials:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Australian War Memorial
Canadian National Vimy Memorial
ANZAC Centenary (Government of Australia)

Atlas:
Dalziel, 104-105, 112-113, 118-119

Week XI: From Empire to Commonwealth

Nov 11: Imperialism, Zionism, and the creation of the Modern Middle East
Nov 13: The Dominions and the rise of the British Commonwealth
Nov 15: Discussion

Reading:
Brendon, 294-378
John Darwin, "A Third British Empire? The Dominion Idea in Imperial Politics" in OHBE:IV, 64-87

Documents:
Theodore Herzl, "On the Jewish State" (1896)
Sir Henry McMahon, Letter to Sherif Hussein ibn Ali (1915) [image]
Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916)
Balfour Declaration (1917) [image]
Palestine Mandate (1922)
T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1922) [Introduction, Chs. 1-2]
Statute of Westminster (1931)

Images:
Sir Mark Sykes and Georges Picot, Map proposing the postwar reconstruction of the Middle East (1916)
T.E. Lawrence, Map proposing the postwar reconstruction of the Middle East (1918) [description]
Map of the Mandate System in the Middle East (c.1930)

Atlas:
Dalziel, 54-55, 68-69, 82-83, 116-117, 120-121

Week XII: Internal and External Challenges

Nov 18: Gandhi and Non-cooperation in India
Nov 20: The Empire at war, 1939-1945
Nov 22: Discussion

Reading:
Partha Chatterjee, "Gandhi and the Critique of Civil Society" in Ranajit Guha, ed., Subaltern Studies III, 153-195
Kent Federovich, "Britain, Canada and the Fall of Hong Kong 1941," Modern Asian Studies (37:1) 2003 [JSTOR]
Ashley Jackson, "The Approach of War" and "Imperial War" in The British Empire and the Second World War, 11-40

Documents:
Subhas Chandra Bose, Plan for cooperation between the Axis powers and India (1941)
Joachim von Ribbentrop, Brief for the Führer on "British India" (1941)
M.K. Gandhi, "Quit India" Resolution [original draft] (1942)
US State Department, Orders to American forces in India (1942)

Images:
Quartz India/National Army Museum, Japanese Anti-British propaganda (1942-1945)

Video:
Fox Movietone, Interview with Mahatma Gandhi (1931)

Atlas:
Dalziel, 114-115

Week XIII: The Crisis of Empire, 1945-1948

Nov 25: A bloody birth: independence and partition in the Indian subcontinent
Nov 27: The partition of Palestine and the creation of Israel
Nov 29: THANKSGIVING (NO CLASS)

Reading:
Brendon, 379-443, 466-486
Ian Talbot, "A Tale of Two Cities: The Aftermath of Partition for Lahore and Amritsar," Modern Asian Studies (41:1) 2007 [JSTOR]

Documents:
Government of the United Kingdom, "White Paper (on Palestine)" (1939)
Clement Attlee, "The end of British rule in India" (1947)
Winston Churchill, "Britain's shameful flight from India" (1947)
Jawaharlal Nehru, "A tryst with destiny" (1947) [Audio: BBC Radio Archive]

Images:
BBC Photo Archive, Photographs of the partition of India and Pakistan (1947)

Video:
British Pathé, Arabs and Jews in the Palestine Mandate (1936), UN Session on Palestine (1947)
BBC Film Archive, Lord Mountbatten reads address by King George VI on Indian independence (1947)

Atlas:
Dalziel, 130-131

Week XIV: Decolonization and the End of Empire

Dec 2: Independence in Africa and Asia
Dec 4: The empire within: multicultural Britain and the Commonwealth
Dec 6: Discussion

Reading:
Brendon, 444-465, 487-574
Salman Rushdie, "The New Empire within Britain" in Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism

Documents:
Jomo Kenyatta, "The Kenya Union is not the Mau Mau" (1952)
Gamal Abdel Nasser, "Speech regarding the Suez Canal" (1956)
Harold Macmillan, "The wind of change" (1960) [audio: BBC Radio Archive]
UN declaration granting independence to colonial countries (1960)
Kwame Nkrumah, "I speak of freedom" (1961)
Julius Nyerere, "Ujamaa: The basis of African socialism" (1962)
Enoch Powell, "Rivers of blood" (1968)

Video and audio:
British Pathé, Interviews with passengers on HMT Empire Windrush (1948)
Pathé News, Prime Minister's Broadcast on the Suez Crisis (1956)
Movietone News, Crisis in Suez (1956)
BBC Four, The Other Side of Suez [documentary] (2004)
BBC News, Bobby Sands elected MP for Fermanagh/South Tyrone (1981)
BBC Panorama, Falklands War Outbreak (1982)

Atlas:
Dalziel, 122-129

Week XV: Legacies and Lessons
Dec 9: Postcolonial perspectives
Dec 11: Legacies and lessons of the British Empire

Reading:
Brendon, 633-662
Edward Said, "Knowing the Oriental" in Orientalism
"The Tiger under the Table" in The Economist (Dec 2009)

Video:
British Empire film trailers
BBC Archive, Handover of Hong Kong (1997)
The Independent, “Who Was Edward Colston?” (2020)
VOA, “Rhodes Must Fall” (2020)

Atlas:
Dalziel, 132-135