Level 3000 courses

HIST 3003: History of African Cities (Departments of History & Politics)

Entry Requirement

Consult Faculty of Humanities Rules & Syllabus Booklet

Module Description

African cities predate colonial rule by at least a thousand years. The first part of the course includes an historical overview of African urbanisation, from the emergence of trading centres through the construction of the essentially administrative centres of the colonial era, to the modern era of African mega-cities, massive settlements that expand their boundaries and population at a pace unequalled anywhere else in the world. Other themes include colonial notions of urban order; spatial/racial segregation; urban cultures and social realities (such as music and dance, football clubs, alcohol consumption, and prostitution) in both ‘primate’ cities and secondary towns mainly in colonial and postcolonial East Africa. The second half of the course focuses on some of the salient challenges facing African cities in a globalised world and people’s responses thereto. The final section of the course engages with the history and politics of South African cities, particularly on the Witwatersrand. 

Schedule

Second semester on the C timetable slot

HIST 3004: Modern Europe since 1870

Entry Requirement

Consult Faculty of Humanities Rules & Syllabus Booklet

Module Description

This modular unit surveys the decline of the continent of Europe from the globally dominant position achieved in 1870 to the catastrophe of 'Year Zero' at the end of the Second World War. The main events of the period are sketched out: the prelude to the First World War, the war itself, the peace of 1919, the Russian Revolution and the later Bolshevik attempts to collectivize the countryside, the development of fascism and the coming of the Second World War. Certain important general themes are also articulated: social Darwinism and militarism, nationalism, urbanization, industrialization and changes in life in the countryside. In brief, an attempt is made to discuss the major economic, social and intellectual trends during the years under study, as well as the political developments.

Schedule

First semester on the E timetable slot.

HIST 3005: Renaissance Italy

Entry Requirement

84 points in modular units in History for a major.

Module Description

This unit focuses on the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, whilst also exploring long-term themes from the fall of Rome which alone can explain the distinctive character of future Italian development. The unit begins with an examination of the early history of Italian cities; the birth of the communes; and the origins, composition and character of ruling, urban-based oligarchies. The core of the unit looks at party formation and at political and social conflict in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Italy, with particular reference to Tuscany. Political conflict and social tensions are discussed against a background of accelerated rural investment, industrial change, and the increasingly troubled banking and mercantile histories of the Italian city-states. We shall explore state-building in Renaissance Italy, and the changing relationship between dominant Italian cities and their subject territories. The unit ends with a brief examination of the Italian Renaissance as an artistic, intellectual, cultural and literary movement.

Schedule

First semester on the E timetable slot

HIST3008: The Making of Modern South Africa A

Module Description

This and the following unit examine the crucial economic, social, demographic, and political forces which have shaped modern South Africa since the mining revolution in the late 19th century. Particular attention is given to the history of ‘ordinary’ people: their way of life; their cultural and material adaptations in the face of a rapidly changing society; and their forms of resistance. This involves the exploration of key patterns of identity, association and consciousness such as class, race, ethnicity, nationalism, gender and generation.

Schedule

Second Semester on the E timetable slot

HIST3009: The Making of Modern South Africa B

Module Description

This unit continues the exploration of key themse in modern South African history. It examines the policy of segregation and the making of apartheid; urbanization and the creation of an urban culture; political resistance, including rural uprisings, trade unions and formal parties; high apartheid, the 1976 uprising and the crisis of apartheid. Aside from exploring key themes and developments in modern South African history, this course – as with the preceding unit – examines the diverse ways in which that history has been constructed and represented.

Schedule

Second Semester on the E timetable slot

HIST 3010: The Theory & Practice of History

Entry Requirement

Consult Faculty of Humanities Rules & Syllabus Booklet

Module Description

The unit enables students to combine a consideration of the nature of history as an academic discipline with the exploration of an area of special interest. Students will cover a range of topics on the theory and practice of history. These perspectives will also inform an individually supervised research project on a topic in South African, African, European, British or American history which each student will undertake as part of the unit.

Schedule

First semester on the E timetable slot

HIST 3011: History of Sub-Saharan Africa

Entry Requirement

Consult Faculty of Humanities Rules & Syllabus Booklet

Module Description

This unit runs concurrently with HIST 2003. Please refer to the outline for HIST 2003.

Schedule

First semester on the B timetable slot

HIST3016: Southern/Eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean World

Entry Requirement

Consult Faculty of Humanities Rules & Syllabus Booklet

Module Description

This course engages with issues relating to the history of the Indian Ocean ‘World’ from the earliest beginnings to the present, with a special attention to the Western Indian Ocean (the Swahili coast and Southern Africa). The course surveys some recent historical debates on the sea, and questions the notion of the Indian Ocean as a unified ‘world’. The course then introduces students to the major economic, political, social, and religious exchanges established across the Western Indian Ocean between the 10th century and the 20th century, especially between Eastern Africa (stretching from Somalia to Mozambique) and Southeast Asia, as well as between the Swahili coast and the ‘far interior’. The main regional trading system, various maritime cultures, cultural exchanges and early globalization processes are also explored.

Schedule

First Semester on the E timetable slot

HIST3017: Latin America and the Caribbean - From Conquest to Independence and Beyond

Entry Requirement

Consult Faculty of Humanities Rules & Syllabus Booklet

Module Description

This course surveys the colonial, nationalist and post-colonial history of Latin America and the Caribbean from 1492 to the present. It focuses on the colonial foundations of Latin America. We explore the impact of colonial domination on indigenous populations in Spanish America as well as Portuguese America (Brazil). The course traces the origins of Latin American wars of independence in the early 19th century and the meaning of independence to Latin American societies. It examines the evolution of military dictatorships in most of Latin America in the 20th century, their consequences and return to electoral multi-party democracies. The course ends with a focus on US-Latin America relations in the 19th and 20th centuries and how Latin American and Caribbean countries have responded to the US’s pursuit of geo-political and regional dominance. Finally, the course analyses the significance of Latin America the Caribbean in the era of South-South cooperation as a counter-point to Western hegemony.

Schedule

First Semester on the E timetable slot