HIST 278 Twentieth Century Decolonization in Global Perspective

This sophomore seminar aims to rethink imperial and postcolonial history from the perspectives of the colonized and to consider how decolonization, one of the most important political developments of the 20th century, impacted local lives. The timings and patterns of decolonization are extremely varied so we will narrow our focus to the core periods of decolonization in Asia and Africa from the 1920s to 1960s and nationalism and revolution in Latin America from the 1920s to 1980s. We will also consider the Third World Movement in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. We will define decolonization as the political struggle for legal sovereignty, as well as social movement for moral justice and political solidarity against imperialism both formal and informal, and external and internal. Topics will include: the role of metropolitan and international politics; economy and labor; nationalism and anticolonialism; race and ethnicity; and gender and sexuality in the Pan-African movement; decolonization in India and the Middle East; the nationalist movements of China, Vietnam, and Indonesia; and the revolutions of Mexico Cuba and Central America. Enrollment limited to sophomores.