Colonialism and Post-Colonialism

Recommended Prerequisites

Knowledge (oral and written) of the Portuguese language.

Teaching Methods

The class is theoretical and practical in nature. Each class combines moments in which the professor outlines the most pertinent historical and historiographical issues of the topic under analysis and others in which selected readings are presented and discussed by the instructor and the students.

Learning Outcomes

- To deepen and update the knowledge - empirical, methodological and historiographical - on colonialism and post-colonialism obtained by students during the 1st cycle of studies.

- To provide methodologies and tools for carrying out quality research, particularly in the area of seminar studies.

- To understand the historical trajectories of modern colonialism, analyzing its main dynamics from a comparative perspective.

-To assess the role of the historical trajectories of modern colonialism in the construction of the contemporary world.

- To understand the causes and historical dynamics of late colonialism and decolonisation processes, questioning their effects from a comparative perspective.

- To analyze the main characteristics of post-colonial societies.

- To reflect on the lasting legacies of colonialism in contemporary societies.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

1. Colonialism and Post-Colonialism: concepts, problems, perspectives

2. States, ‘nations’, empires, colonies: cases, trajectories, comparisons 

3. Global empires: networks, exchanges, markets

4. The economies of colonial (under)development

5. Imperial governments: doctrines, institutions, repertoires of power

6. The politics of difference: repertoires, institutions, models

7.  The cultures of empires

8. Internationalism, imperialism and colonialism: ideas, processes, cases

9. Against colonial empires: resistance, protest, emancipation

10. The end of colonial empires: trajectories, dynamics and legacies.

Head Lecturer(s)

Professor a Definir - Faculdade de Letras

Assessment Methods

Assessment
In-class participation : 30.0%
Research work: 70.0%

Bibliography

Valentim Alexandre, Contra o vento (Lisboa: Temas&Debates, 2017)
Elizabeth Buettner, Europe after Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2016)
Jane Burbank e Frederick Cooper, Empires in World History (Princeton: Princeton UP, 2010)
Frederick Cooper, Histórias de África (Lisboa: Edições 70, 2016)
Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo, ed., O Império Colonial em Questão (Lisboa: Edições 70, 2012)
Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo, coord., Os Mundos do (sub)Desenvolvimento. Histórias do Século XX (Coimbra: Imprensa UC, 2023)
Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo e José Pedro Monteiro, eds., Os passados do presente (Lisboa: Almedina, 2015)
Andrew Porter, O Imperialismo Europeu, 1860-1914 (Lisboa: Edições 70, 2011)
Martin Thomas, The End of Empires and a World Remade (Princeton: Princeton UP, 2024)
Martin Thomas e Andrew S. Thompson, eds., The Oxford Handbook of the Ends of Empire (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2017)
Crawford Young, The African Colonial State in Comparative Perspective (London: Yale UP, 1994.