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Assignment

The unit covers the "Age of Empire" from 1850 to 1914.

While there have been empires throughout history, those that emerged in this period had unique characteristics. It began with a "scramble for Africa," as Europeans, desiring resources to fuel the Industrial Revolution, began to search for these on other continents. It also included Russia's expansion across Asia, Japan's expansion to Korea and Manchuria, and the US expansion across the Pacific to Hawaii and the Philippines.

These empires were driven not only by demands of industry, but also the need for markets. Nationalism, a feeling of intense pride in one's country, was a force for building empires as well as breaking them apart. While the British, French and German empires expanded before 1914, the Ottoman empire was broken up by nationalist groups. In Europe, unrest in the Balkans, where the Ottomans had ruled, was seen as a "powder keg." That is, an area in which unrest could lead to a global conflict. This unit ends with the assassination of an Austrian Archduke by a Serbian nationalist in 1914.

Resources

MODERN WORLD HISTORY

BRITANNICA ONLINE

JSTOR FOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Internet Modern History Sourcebook
A Short History of the Expansion of the British Empire (pdf book)
Economies and Empire: Colonialism and the Clash of National Visions (Visual primary sources from Annenberg Learner)

Hathi Trust
Internet Modern History Sourcebook
Internet Archive (& Wayback Machine)
Library of Congress
British Libraries

Access these e-book titles through our catalog, Discover, or by clicking on the link in each entry below.
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Series: A Very Short Introduction from Oxford

. The British Empire
. The Industrial Revolution
. Decolonization
. Revolutions
. Modern India

The British Empire: a Very Short Introduction by Ashley Jackson
Call Number: E-BOOK - click on link and open
In this Very Short Introduction, Ashley Jackson introduces and defines the British Empire, shedding light on a series of key questions, reviewing how it evolved into such a force, and looking at the legacy it left behind.
The Industrial Revolution: a Very Short Introduction by Robert C. Allen
Call Number: E-BOOK - click on link and open
In this Very Short Introduction, Robert C. Allen analyzes the key features of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, and the spread of industrialization to other countries. He considers the factors that combined to enable industrialization at this time, including Britain's position as a global commercial empire, and discusses the changes in technology and business organization, and their impact on different social classes and groups. Introducing the "winners" and the "losers" of the Industrial Revolution, he looks at how the changes were reflected in evolving government policies, and what contribution these made to the economic transformation.
Decolonization: a Very Short Introduction by Dane Kennedy
Call Number: E-BOOK - click on link and open
This book demonstrates that considerable violence and instability accompanied the end of empire and that the outcome was often up for grabs. This book highlights three themes. The first is that global war between empires precipitated decolonization, creating the economic and political crises that gave colonial subjects the opportunity to seek independence. The second theme is that nation-state was not the only option pursued by anti-colonial activists. Many of them sought pan- and trans-national polities instead, but a combination of international and institutional pressures made the nation-state the standard template. The third theme is that the struggle to escape imperial subjugation and create nation-states generated widespread violence and produced huge refugee populations, leading to political problems that persist to the present day. By focusing on these crucial points, Dane Kennedy reminds us how the tumultuous, even tragic, changes caused by the decolonization profoundly shaped the world we live in.
Modern India: A Very Short Introduction by Craig Jeffrey
Call Number: E-BOOK - click on link and open
". . . provides a[n] . . . account of the recent history of India, investigating the contradictions that are plaguing modern India and the manner in which people . . . are actively remaking the country in the twenty first century"

Empire: a Very Short Introduction by Stephen Howe
Call Number: 325.3209 HOW
Publication Date: 2002-11-28
Stephen Howe interprets the meaning of the idea of 'empire' through the ages, disentangling the multiple uses and abuses of the labels 'empire', 'colonialism', etc., and examines the aftermath of imperialism on the contemporary world.
Postcolonialism: a Very Short Introduction by Robert J. C. Young
Call Number: 325.3 YOU
Publication Date: 2021-01-02
This Very Short Introduction discusses both the history and key debates of postcolonialism, and considers its importance as a means of changing the way we think about the world. Robert J. C. Young examines the key strategies that postcolonial thought has developed to engage with the impact of sometimes centuries of western political and cultural domination.
Empire by Niall Ferguson
Call Number: 909 FER
Publication Date: 2004-04-14
Examines the impact the British empire had on world government, economy, and culture from the seventeenth century to the mid-twentieth century, and explains why the empire's dominance subsided in the last half of the twentieth century.
The Rise and Fall of the British Empire by Lawrence James
Call Number: 909 JAM
Publication Date: 1997-09-15
Great Britain's geopolitical role has undergone many changes over the last four centuries. Once a maritime superpower and ruler of half the world, Britain now occupies an isolated position as an economically fragile island often at odds with her European neighbors. In The Rise and Fall of the British Empire, Lawrence James has written a comprehensive, perceptive, and insightful history of the British Empire. Spanning the years from 1600 to the present day, this critically acclaimed book combines detailed scholarship with readable popular history. "This is a stylish, intelligent and readable book." --The New York Times Book Review
Arabs by Tim Mackintosh-Smith
Call Number: 909.0492 MAC
Publication Date: 2019-04-30
Looks at the history of the Arabs and the spread of their language and culture.
The Origins of the Modern World by Robert B. Marks
Call Number: 940.2 MAR
Publication Date: 2019-07-05
This clearly written and engrossing book presents a global narrative of the origins of the modern world from 1400 to the present. Unlike most studies, which assume that the "rise of the West" is the story of the coming of the modern world, this history, drawing upon new scholarship on Asia, Africa, and the New World and upon the maturing field of environmental history, constructs a story in which those parts of the world play major roles, including their impacts on the environment.
Identity and Violence by Amartya Sen
Call Number: 303.6 SEN
Publication Date: 2007-02-17
Examines the often-misunderstood concept of identity, focusing on misconceptions about Middle Eastern identity that many Westerners seem to have, and how those misconceptions have disrupted Middle Easterners' sense of national identity.
Writing a New France, 1604-1632 by Brian Brazeau
Call Number: 848 BRA
Publication Date: 2009-10-28
Focuses on French reactions to contact with the New World. Through key early-modern travel and missionary accounts, the author traces a French rewriting of the self in America. This study sheds fresh light on a significant moment in French colonial history while providing an innovative contribution to the understanding of early modern French identity and cultural contact.
Risorgimento by Lucy Riall
Call Number: 945 RIA
Publication Date: 2009-01-15
The Risorgimento is considered to be the defining moment in Italy's history, the period where Italy became a nation and entered the modern world. Lucy Riall provides a provocative and pioneering examination of the historical debates surrounding this complex and controversial period, incorporating new research on national identity.

THESE NOVELS ARE ABOUT THE CLASH OF CULTURES AND COVER DIFFERENT TIME PERIODS

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Call Number: F ACH
Publication Date: 1994-09-01
It is a classic narrative about Africa's cataclysmic encounter with Europe as it establishes a colonial presence on the continent. Told through the fictional experiences of Okonkwo, a wealthy and fearless Igbo warrior of Umuofia in the late 1800s, Things Fall Apart explores one man's futile resistance to the devaluing of his Igbo traditions by British political andreligious forces and his despair as his community capitulates to the powerful new order.
Heart of Darkness by Peter Kuper (Adapted by)
Call Number: 741.5 KUP
Publication Date: 2019-11-05
Acclaimed illustrator Peter Kuper delivers a visually immersive and profound adaptation of Joseph Conrad's enduring classic.
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad; Tim Butcher (Introduction by)
Call Number: F CON
Publication Date: 2008-07-01
The silence of the jungle is broken only by the ominous sound of drumming. Life on the river is brutal and unknown threats lurk in the darkness. Marlow's mission to captain a steamer upriver into the dense interior leads him into conflict with the others who haunt the forest. But his decision to hunt down the mysterious Mr Kurtz, an ivory trader who is the subject of sinister rumours, leads him into more than just physical peril.
A Passage to India by E. M. Forster
Call Number: F FOR
Publication Date: 1965-03-17
A classic of modern fiction about colliding cultures. Teeming with complexity, mystery, and menace. Hailed as one of the finest novels of the twentieth century and transformed into an Academy Award-winning film, A Passage to India hauntingly evokes India at the peak of the British colonial era, complete with the racial tension that underscores every aspect of daily life.
Sea of Poppies
Call Number: F GHO
The "Ibis," embarks on a journey from Calcutta with a diverse crew of sailors--which includes a bankrupt raja, a widowed tribeswoman, a Mulatto American freedman, and a French orphan--to the poppy fields in Ganges, to China's nineteenth-century Opium War.
Homegoing
Call Number: F GYA
A hugely empathic, unflinching portrayal of west Africa’s role in the transatlantic slave trade told through the story of two half-sisters with two very different destinies: One sold into slavery, one a slave trader's wife.
The Calligrapher's Daughter by Eugenia Kim
Call Number: F KIM
Publication Date: 2009-08-04
A sweeping debut novel, inspired by the life of the author's mother, about a young woman who dares to fight for a brighter future in occupied Korea.
The Calligrapher's Daughter by Eugenia Kim
Call Number: F KIN
Publication Date: 2009-08-04
A novel in which the wife and four daughters of an evangelical Baptist missionary chronicle their family's struggles in the Belgian Congo over three decades, beginning in 1959.
Pachinko (National Book Award Finalist) by Min Jin Lee
Call Number: F LEE
Publication Date: 2017-02-07
In this gorgeous, page-turning saga, four generations of a poor Korean immigrant family fight to control their destiny in 20th-century Japan, exiled from a home they never knew.
The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason
Call Number: F MAS
Publication Date: 2003-08-19
An unassuming London piano tuner enters a dangerous, exotic world when he is sent by the British War Office to the Burmese jungle to repair a peace-keeping army surgeon-major's grand piano.
The Fever Tree
Call Number: F MCV
Frances Irvine, destitute in the wake of her father's sudden death, is forced to abandon her life of wealth and privilege in London and emigrate to the Cape. In this remote and inhospitable land she becomes entangled with two very different men, leading her into the dark heart of the diamond mines. Torn between passion and integrity, she makes a choice that has devastating consequences.
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
Call Number: F PAT
Publication Date: 2003-11-01
Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo travels to Johannesburg on an errand for a friend and to visit his son, Absalom, only to learn Absalom has been accused of murdering white city engineer and social activist Arthur Jarvis and stands very little chance of receiving mercy.
The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan
Call Number: F TAN
Publication Date: 2006-09-21
Winnie and Helen have kept each other's worst secrets for more than fifty years, but now that she believes she is dying, Helen wants to expose everything.

David Rumsey Map Collection

THE AGE OF IMPERIALISM - BUILDING GLOBAL EMPIRES

indiana.edu

. Italy . Britain . Russia. .Germany .Japan

. Muslim lands . Other European countries

Imperialism video

A SHORT, HUMOROUS VIDEO ABOUT IMPERIALISM

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HOME: Imperialism and Identity

Imperialism, Nationalism and Identity

How do nationalism and imperialism influence
the construction of identity?

Assignment

Resources

Imperialism video

Search Tips

HOME: Imperialism and Identity

Imperialism, Nationalism and Identity

How do nationalism and imperialism influence the construction of identity?

Assignment

Resources

Imperialism video

Search Tips

How do nationalism and imperialism influence
the construction of identity?