History 161 - British Empire & Commonwealth

This course is an introduction to the expansion, consolidation, and eventual disintegration of the modern British Empire in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We will examine this history with an eye to understanding the causes of empire, and its effects. Themes include formal and informal imperialism, the emergence of anti-colonial nationalism, the roles of gender and culture, and the legacies of British colonialism. We will discuss British attitudes and policies toward empire, and toward particular colonies, what role empire played in the growth of the British economy, in short, how colonial ideologies and practices were shaped and in turn affected vast regions of the globe.