01x01 - Course Introduction

The White Man’s Burden

10/08/2007 16:40:00

The White Man’s Burden, 1899 • The Burden of being an imperialist power • For the American public after the take over of the Philippines and “liberated” them • The people are not going to be grateful for being liberated • They would rather stay in the darkness, rather than toward the light of civilization Tony Blair’s Speech to Congress, 17 July 2003 • Gave a speech about the war in Iraq and the role of the U.S. and Britain, along with the environment and other things • He calls on the imperial legacy of England • This is a new class. the rise of western Europe • Reformation • The expansion of trade and capitalism within Europe itself • the emergence of the new science. Sir Frances bacon, Newton, scientific revolution • enlightenment the modern period • industrialization • rise of nationalism • emergence of gender and racial ideologies • world war I, world war II • decolonization o first war of decolonization, the American revolution

By 1914, 84% of the world was under the power of western world About movement. • People are going places • they might discover new people, new plans • the Europeans were great explorers • a better term is encounter • interconnection o is not just a one time encounter, usually the first ship is followed by more expeditions and people o metropole (like the mother country) o the metropole usually sends more people • as all of this takes place, we have impact o what is the impact of having an empire, along with the change to the areas that are “discovered” Second big theme: is Power • Imperialism is about power o Is about exploitation o extending your power to benefit yourself  the colonized places might be benefiting as well, but is unequal o the essence of empire is the accountable power • resistance is a big part of power o slave 22rebellions • if we have power on one end and resistance on the other end, we have a fuzzy middle that is where the resistance can take the upper hand over time Critique •

internal critiques about empires

•

o they thought they could have better empires, not that they shouldn’t have an empire external critiques o they feel empires are always a bad thing and should be avoided at all costs

Ideologies • Darwinism • nationalism o patriotism • democracy • system of values or ideas o that condition people to act in certain ways o that allows you to justify your actions o inform the way they conceptualize the world • What is the relationship between cosmopolitanism and imperialism o A good thing to be a cosmopolitan  You embrace differences, tolerate change • Capitalism • Marxism • Catholicism • Protestantism • restlessness o the urge to discover, curiosity Three main themes • movement, power, ideology o to see how they interconnect o they are going to allows to engage in thoughtful conversation

Going over the syllabus

10/08/2007 16:40:00

10/08/2007 16:40:00