Spring 2008

ANS 340R • European Empires in Asia

Course Description

This course covers the great age of European empires in the l9th and 20th centuries, when European powers established their rule over much of the rest of the world. We will look at British rule in India and the Malay peninsula, Dutch rule in Indonesia, and French rule in Indochina. We will look at relations between Europeans and the local peoples in terms of cultural contact, economic exploitation, and political domination, and the results of such relationships for both the Europeans and the Asians they ruled. The results, as we shall see, were far-reaching and are still with us today. We will also look at the process of decolonization in the 20th century, as the old reasons for imperial domination lost their force, and as new national identities emerged in Asia.

Texts

C. A. Bayly, Imperial Meridian D. A. Low, Lion's Share Sardesai, Southeast Asia: Past & Present Wolpert, A New History of India Adas, Machines as the Measure of Man A selection of novels

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