Academic Programs: Second Year

HISTORY 214 (First semester): KEY PROCESSES IN THE MAKING OF WESTERN HISTORY

Wealth and poverty in western history

• Changing views and attitudes
• Perspectives on systems such as socialism, capitalism and communism
• Dimensions of the culture of wealth and poverty

Revolution as historical phenomenon

• The origins, dynamics and impact of historical revolutions
• Case studies of revolution: the USA, France, Russia, China, Iran

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HISTORY 244 (Second semester) : AFRICA AND SOUTH AFRICA : COLONIALISATION AND THE REARRANGEMENT OF SOCIETIES

Africa and the West in the 19th century (3rd term)

• The Western world in Africa before colonisation
• Colonial policies in Africa
• Political, cultural and economic impact of the colonialisation of Africa in the 19th century

South Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries (4th term)

• The political and cultural dynamics of the 18th and 19th century Cape societies
• The establishment of new black empires and white republics in the interior in the 19th century
• The mineral revolution: the making of a new political and cultural social order

Three themes are discussed in this course. Firstly, the dynamics of cultural transformation and the fluidity of the race and class structures of the 18th and 19th century Cape colonial order will be investigated. In the second place the rise of black polities and white republics in the interior will be discussed. Under which conditions were they created? How did these states function politically, economically and socially?

Finally the shaping of a new political and cultural society, in reaction to the mineral revolution, will be discussed. The focus will be on two case studies: How did the discovery of diamonds in Griqualand West initiate the subjugation and colonisation of the Tlhaping? What social change did the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand entail for the black and white working classes and specifically for the Afrikaner working class?