the 2012-2013 Chair

Dr. Berthold Molden

 

Teaching - Fall 2012 Semester:

HIST 2991 History of Anticolonialism

Global History of Anticolonialism in the Twentieth Century

Resistance against foreign rule is as old as human society. Within modern history, anticolonial struggle against European domination overseas has been ubiquitous and one of the central axes of global history.  This course provides an overview on anti- and post-colonial activism in the Twentieth Century.  Emanating from the earlier histories of decolonization and neocolonialism in Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, it specifically focuses on the international developments since the 1920s.  We will discuss topics such as early Pan-Africanism, Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points, Communist Anti-Imperialism, the development of the Non-Aligned Movement, Cuban interventions in Africa, the Tricontinental Conference and the rise of the “Global South”, the US Civil Rights Movement and its international networks, among others.  Students will be acquainted with relevant literature and gain a global historical perspective on the topic

 

HIST 4991 History of Central America

Central America in the Twentieth Century. From Authoritarian Regimes to Democracy?

Central America’s current political landscape is of rather recent origin.  Its seven countries emerged from violent wars of independence in the early Nineteenth Century and were formed in changing coalitions under the influence of the imperial powers of the age.  Since 1900, their history has been coined by different paths, featuring dictatorships and democratization and conflicts between conservative powers–as the church or traditional elites–and progressive forces.  Particularly during the Cold War, it was the scene of revolutions, civil wars, genocide and US interventions of different sorts. Moreover, the region is bordered by Columbia in the South and Mexico in the north, thus forming a bottle neck (and partly the origin) of international migration and drug trade.  This course will tackle some of the most important issues in the region’s recent history and explain their relevance for contemporary politics.