HST5705 - Globalisation: Capitalists, Colonisers, and Cruisers in the Long Twentieth Century

When did the world become ‘globalised’? Who were the main architects of ‘globalisation’? How did the movement of ideas, people, money, and goods across borders reshape politics, society, and culture in diverse contexts? How did societies and groups around the world respond to and in turn reimagine this historical process? This module looks at key moments in the history of globalisation over the ‘long’ twentieth century. Approaching globalisation as a contested and malleable project, we will move from the ‘first’ high age of globalisation and empire in the late nineteenth century, through the reconfiguration of the world system in the wake of the Great Depression and the World Wars, to the era of decolonisation and neoliberal globalisation in the latter part of the century. We will reflect together on how capitalism, internationalism, empire, immigration, race, the environment, and human rights came to shape the contemporary world.