Southeast Asia in the Age of Empire (386-2-20)
Instructors
Haydon Leslie Cherry
847/467-3032
Harris Hall - Room 217
Meeting Info
Harris Hall L06: Tues, Thurs 2:00PM - 3:20PM
Overview of class
This course is an introduction to the history of modern Southeast Asia, from the middle of the eighteenth century to the end of World War II. The region comprises eleven modern nation-states: Burma/Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia, the Philippines, and East Timor. Its history can seem like a bewildering parade of princes, plenipotentiaries, presidents, and prime ministers: Diponegoro, Nguyễn Phúc Ánh, Thibaw, Chulalongkorn, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, Johannes Van Den Bosch, Sir Hugh Clifford, and Paul Doumer, among many others. This course focuses, therefore, on the economic and social changes that have spanned the region and give its disparate parts historical unity. It begins by charting the contours of Southeast Asian social structures on the eve of European colonial rule; it then examines Southeast Asians' responses to the challenges and opportunities of their region's integration with new markets during the era of European high imperialism; and it details the social transformations that followed from depression and war, in the mid-twentieth century, including violent peasant rebellions and the birth of communism.
Learning Objectives
1. Gain a detailed understanding of the social and economic processes behind the transformation of modern Southeast Asia since the middle of the eighteenth century.
2. Appreciate the ways in which the different modern nation-states of Southeast Asia collectively comprise a region;
3. Learn to engage in elementary quantitative reasoning and to develop an appreciation for both the utility and the limitations of that style of reasoning for historical understanding;
4. Learn to read a range of different primary sources, including police reports, colonial ethnographies, and census reports, carefully, critically, and rigorously.
5. Learn to present rigorous, evidence-based historical arguments in person and in essay form.
Evaluation Method
Source Analysis (20%); Research Essay (40%) Lecture Attendance and Participation (20%); Section Attendance and Participation (20%)
Class Materials (Required)
TBA
Class Notes
History Area(s) of Concentration: Asia/Middle East
Class Attributes
Advanced Expression
Historical Studies Foundational Discipline
Historical Studies Distro Area
Global Perspectives on Power, Justice, and Equity