MO3033 Europeans in Asia in the Early Modern Period
   
Lecturer Professor Steve Murdoch  (St Katharine's Lodge, Room 1.14 )
   
Credits 30
   
Availability 2011-2012 - semester 1
   
Class Hour view timetable
   
Description This module considers the exploration and exploitation of the East Indies in the early modern period. From the earliest voyages of discovery by Portuguese explorers in the late fifteenth century, the course traces the development of early trading European trading networks that initially integrated with existing Arab and Asian commercial structures and the expanding Mogul empire. From these mutually beneficial exchanges the course follows the conflict that emerged between the contesting monopoly companies that led to the eventual colonisation of most of South East Asia by European powers. Viewed from the perspectives of the various concerns, the course poses questions relating to the politics, religions and cultural interaction of this important geo-political region.
   
Basic Reading A Calder, Revolutionary Empire: The Rise of the English Speaking Empires from the Fifteenth Century to the 1780s (1981)
N Canny (ed), The Oxford History of the British Empire: The Origins of Empire (1998)
H Furber, Rival Empires of Trade in the Orient 1600-1800 (1976)
J D. Tracy, The Rise of Merchant Empires (1990)
O Prakash, European Commercial Expansion in Early Modern Asia (1997)
   

Course Structure
  1. Introduction
  2. Portugal, Spain and the Orient
  3. The Honourable East India Company (EIC) in the seventeenth century
  4. The Dutch East India Company (VOC)
  5. The Danish East India Company (DOIC)
  6. The Later Companies: Scotland, France, Ostende
  7. The British East India Companies in the eighteenth century
  8. The Country Trade: Interlopers and Independent Traders
  9. The Swedish East India Company (SOIC)
  10. Clash of Cultures and Meeting of Minds: Evidence of Cultural Exchange and Interaction from European and Asian perspectives
  11. Revision Seminar
   
Assessment 60% examination - 3-hour paper
40% coursework
   

Learning Outcomes
  • Knowledge of a key part of European history and the importance of long distance trade to European economic development
  • A developed and critical approach to commercial expansionism and the development of colonialism
  • Enhanced skills in source interrogation, comprehension and critical thinking
 
   
Restrictions None