Feb 17: outline for class
Imperialism in the Middle East and South Asia
is the US an imperial power today?
imperialisms are multiple
3 “traditional Islamic” empires
contemporary with European expansion:
Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal
here European imperialism, especially at expense of Ottoman Empire
flash points: Bosporus, Suez,
Central Asia
roles of Britain, France and Russia;
Germany
two sequences, just as for foundations or Glorious Age lectures / weeks
events
interpretation of events
multiple forms of control
the seas (NB Portuguese - Ottoman
competition)
the technology of communication
and transport
the technology of destruction
(armaments)
industrial production of all kinds
searching for supplies of raw
materials and markets for manufactures
oil
the financial infrastructure
the intellectual and scientific
infrastructure:
the definition of issues:
human rights, conventions, environmental, health, etc.
the land: physical territorial
occupation (colonialism or colonial rule)
India, Egypt, other Arab areas
areas that remain independent
nature of that independence
Napoleon in Egypt, 1798-1801: why such a marker?
what Said has to say about this
imperialism sets processes in motion
secularism and secularization
nationalism and strong ethnic
consciousness:
Benjamin Anderson’s “imagined communities”
technological modernization and
modernity
including military
Western education and press
capitalism
in ambiguous relationship with imperialism?
democracy and democratization
in conflict with imperialism?
responses of individuals and communities in the Middle East
often the minorities (Christians
especially, Jews, and “heterodox” Muslims)
Pan-Islamism and Abdulhamid; title
of caliph;
Landau report