Academic Programs: First Year

HISTORY 114 (First Semester): 'A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE LAST FIVE MILLION YEARS’ GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS: CIVILIZATIONS, COLONIZATION AND INDUSTRIALIZATION

Evolution of humankind
Nomadic societies
The agriculture revolution and the emergence of established societies
The development of complex societies
The emergence of modernity and the industrial revolution
The historical construction of the modern globalizing world

In this course we will explore the broad patterns of human history, on all the continents, from early ancestors of 5 million years ago, to the rise and fall of ancient civilizations up to examples of change within relatively modern societies. We will ask what history can teach us? Why did civilizations rise and fall? Come to that, what is ‘civilization’? An important theme is the different paths of history for peoples of different continents.

This is the best place to start your study of history: it’s the foundation for understanding the more detailed case-studies and themes that you will go onto address in second and third year, or if this is your only experience of history, it will leave you with a deeper understanding of the world and how it came to be as it is.

HISTORY 144 (Second Semester) : SURVEY OF SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORY

Debates pertaining to the settlement of population groups in South Africa
Clashes in the interior - historical significance of 19th century migrations
The mineral revolution and its impact on modern South Africa
Afrikaner nationalism as a historical factor
Segregation and apartheid
Black nationalism and politics in the 20th century
South Africa and the outside world

The first part of this course aims at introducing students to the various debates and interpretations concerning the settlement of the different population groups in South Africa. Therefore the course contents are not presented as a chronological account of the past. What is the leitmotiv of the South African past – justified white expansion and colonisation or the oppression and conquest of the indigenous populations and their heroic resistance against colonialism, capitalism and white domination?

What is the correct narrative of the South African past? Is a common “national narrative” essential to grasp the past? What are the perspectives and interpretations on conflicts in the interior and what was the historic significance of migrations that took place in the 19th century? What was the impact of the mineral revolution on the population groups of South Africa?

The second part of the course concentrates on the forces that dominated and shaped 20th century South African history and were rooted in the 19th century. Was Afrikaner nationalism a “deliberate construction” or the result of the “natural tendency” of Afrikaners towards nationalism or…? Was segregation and apartheid a result of capitalism or white racism or...? Was black protest politics a steadily and evenly growing force with eventual success guaranteed? How did Afrikaner nationalism, segregation, apartheid and black protest politics feed on each other and how did it impact on South African relations with the rest of the world?