State and Culture in Mainland South East Asia in the Sixteenth to Nineteenth Centuries
- Course Code:
- 15PHIH016
- Status:
- Course Not Running 2012/2013
- Unit value:
- 0.5
- Year of study:
- Any
- Taught in:
- Term 1
The main objective of the course is to provide students with an understanding of the emergence of the great states of mainland South East Asia from the sixteenth century to the collapse of Burma and Vietnam in the late nineteenth century. The sixteenth century saw the birth of the major empires that in one form or another would divide up mainland South East Asia into the major political formations we find there today. In the mainland, the three core polities of Burma, Ayudhya (Siam/Thailand), and Vietnam expanded to incorporate a large number of smaller states by the early decades of the nineteenth century. This expansion involved not only the extension of political control from the center, but also the emergence of religious orthodoxies and identities as well as new conceptions of society. The parallels in political expansion are examined, including an in-depth investigation of the processes involved. These processes include the emergence of modern religious identities, the creation of 'central traditions', the emergence of ethnic categories, standard languages, and main lowland cultures.
The course fits into the existing programme of MA in History by providing a course on early modern South East Asia, formerly covered by a no longer running course on South East Asian Empires. This is the only postgraduate course offered by the history department on the precolonial period of South East Asia’s history.
Objectives and learning outcomes of the course
At the end of this course students should:
- An understanding of the major historiographical debates related to these processes (political stability versus instability in the sixteenth century, the seventeenth and eighteenth century crises, the culture debates regarding the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries)
- An awareness of how historians have used certain kinds of historical materials (inscriptions, chronicles, travel accounts, diplomatic records) to understand the history of the period and to substantiate their arguments, and how this usage differ among mainland societies
- The ability to relate the outcomes listed above orally and in writing in an effective manner.
Workload
This is an 11 week course. All students will spend one hour per week in tutorials and one hour per week in lectures.
Scope and syllabus
The outline of the course follows chronological and thematic topics. First, we will explore the origins of the three main polities under examination. While some had earlier roots (thirteenth and fourteenth centuries) most saw their births or rebirths in the sixteenth century. In addition to political integration or reintegration in these states, the opening of South East Asia to new forces of European firearms and the dislocation from the Portuguese trading empire and its effects all serve to make this an ideal starting point. We will explore why religious and ethnic identities were weak or secondary to other forms of identity (patron-client groupings and so on). In the second section, covering the seventeenth century (in which one of these states first emerged), we will explore the impact of the seventeenth century crisis in removing many other competitors from the state race, while in the main states under examination, new initiatives were taken in administrative practices to survive the crisis. The course then explores cultural, ethnic, and political tensions resulting from these initiatives in the eighteenth century, leading to a series of similar eighteenth-century crises. Finally, we examine religious, cultural, and political recentralisation and expansion from the late eighteenth century into the early nineteenth century.
Method of assessment
Written paper (60%), 3000-3500 word essay (40%)Suggested reading
Introductory bibliography
- Bley, H. Namibia under German Rule (Hamburg, 1996);
- Bridgman, J. The revolt of the Hereros (London, 1981);
- Comaroff, J. and J. Comaroff, Of Revelation and Revolution, volume 1: Christiantiy, Colonialism and Consciousness in South Africa (Chicago, 1991);
- Comaroff, J. and J. Comaroff, Of Revelation and Revolution, volume 2: the Dialectics of Modernity on a South African frontier (Chicago, 1997);
- Crowder, M. The Flogging of Phinehas McIntosh: a Tale of Colonial Folly and Injustice, Bechuanaland, 1933 (London, 1988);
- Giliomee, H. and R. Elphick, (eds.). The Shaping of South African Society, 1652-1840 (London, 1989);
- Guy, J. The Maphumulo Uprising : war, law and ritual in the Zulu Rebellion (Pietermaritzburg, 2005);
- Iliffe, J. Africans: the History of a Continent (Cambridge, 1995);
- Marks, S. and A. Atmore, (eds.), Economy and Society in Pre-industrial South Africa (London, 1980);
- Marks, S. and R. Rathbone (eds.), Industrialisation and Social Change in South Africa (London, 1982);
- Newitt, M. History of Mozambique (London, 1995);
- Peires, J. The Dead Will Arise: Nongqawuse and the great cattle-killing movement of 1856-57 (London, 1989);
- Phimister, I. An Economic and Social History of Zimbabwe, 1890-1948 (London, 1988);
- Roberts, A.D. A History of Zambia (London, 1976);
- Ross, R. A Concise History of South Africa (Cambridge, 1999).
