History 3C
De Anza College
Team Presentation Assignment:
Decolonization
Team Presentation. There will be eight team presentations on the process and experience of Decolonization during the week of March 4-7.
In order to inform your classmates fully about the experience of your assigned country with decolonization, you must first tell them about their experience with colonialism. Begin with a brief history of the country before becoming a colony, then relate the process of colonialism/imperialism. Most of the countries we will be dealing with became independent after World War II, but had a much longer history of resistance to their colonial status. You should relate that history, along with the effects of World War I, the interwar period, and World War II on the your country’s anti-colonialist movement. What created the movement in that country? Who were the prominent leaders? What opposition did they experience?
The actual process of decolonization was often complex, with a contentious interplay of various factors and factions. What was the role of nationalism? The role of Communism/socialism? What role did class, gender, and ethnicity play in the process? What were the immediate results of decolonization? What have been the long-term legacies of colonialism and decolonization? In your conclusion you might want to briefly compare your country’s experience with others’ for perspective.
It is important that your presentation must speak with “one voice”: rather than slapping together separate portions of the presentation at the last minute—portions that might even contradict each other—make sure that a strong central theme runs through the entire project. This means finish the project and practicing the presentation before the last minute!
Each learning team will be assembled by the instructor and given a specific example of decolonization on which to research and present. Each learning team will be autonomous in assigning individual tasks within the team for the debate, and will fill out a “charter” (posted on the class website) that assigns particular tasks to each member of the team (the team manager will send in the charter to the instructor on February 5th). These tasks include manager, writers, researchers, and presenters. The presentations should include brief PowerPoint slides or other audio/visual materials intended to help make the team’s point or add pertinent details regarding the civilization in question.
This will require research outside of the textbook, both on-line and through specialized books and articles. Further details about the assignment can be found on the course website, listed on the first page of the syllabus.
The presentations themselves will take place in class on the dates noted below. Each should last approximately 20-25 minutes. A rough draft of the presentation will be due on February 25th. Grading for the assignment will be done partly on the quality of the overall team presentation (15 points), and partly through team self-evaluations (5 points), which can be downloaded from the class website, and which are due one week after the presentation itself. No points will be awarded to a student who does not return the team self-evaluation in a thoughtful and scholarly manner. (Giving everyone on the team the same grade is not evidence of a thoughtful and scholarly evaluation.)
If a team member does not participate in the learning team discussions, meetings, preparation, and work, that member will not be allowed to participate in the presentation, and will receive zero points for that assignment.
The following books are intended only as a starting-point for your research:
India
Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, Area Studies, India: A Country Study, James Heitzman and Robert L. Worden, eds. Link.
Stanley Wolpert, A New History of India, 8th edition (2008).
Judith M. Brown, Modern India: The Origins of an Asian Democracy, 2nd edition (1994).
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth (orig.pub.1927-1929). Wikisource.
South Africa
Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, Area Studies, South Africa: A Country Study, Rita M. Byrnes, ed. Link.
L. Thompson, A History of South Africa (2001)
R.W. July, A History of the African People, 5th ed. (1995)
J.Herbst, States and Power in Africa (2000).
B. Davidson, Let Freedom Come (1978)
Vietnam
Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, Area Studies, Vietnam: A Country Study, Ronald J. Cima, ed. Link.
Frances Fitzgerald, Fire in the Lake (1972).
Nicholas Tarling, Imperialism in Southeast Asia: "A Fleeting, Passing Phase" (2001).
Brocheux, Pierre, and Daniel Hemery. Indochina: An Ambiguous Colonization, 1858–1954 (2010).
Nigeria
Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, Area Studies, Nigeria: A Country Study, Helen Chapin Metz, ed. Link.
R.W. July, A History of the African People, 5th ed. (1995)
J.Herbst, States and Power in Africa (2000).
Toyin Falola and Matthew M. Heaton, A History of Nigeria (2008).
Algeria
Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, Area Studies, Algeria: A Country Study, Helen Chapan Metz, ed. Link.
R.W. July, A History of the African People, 5th ed. (1995)
J.Herbst, States and Power in Africa (2000).
Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace (1977).
Michael Willis, Politics and Power in the Magreb: Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco from Independence to the Arab Spring (2012).
Benjamin Stora, Algeria: A Short History
Indonesia
Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, Area Studies, Indonesia: A Country Study, William H. Frederick and Robert L. Worden, eds. Link.
Adam Schwarz, 1994. A Nation in Waiting: Indonesia's Search for Stability. 2nd Edition. (1994).
M.C. Ricklefs,. A History of Modern Indonesia since c.1200. 4th Edition, (2008).
Adrian Vickers, A History of Modern Indonesia (2013).
Iraq
Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, Area Studies, Iraq: A Country Study, Helen Chapan Metz, ed. Link.
Adeed Dawisha, Iraq: A Political History (2013).
William L. Cleveland, A History of the Modern Middle East, 4th Edition, (2008).
David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace (1989).
David K. Fieldhouse, Western Imperialism in the Middle East, 1914-1958 (2006).
M.Sukru Hanioglu, A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire (2010).
Palestine/Israel
Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, Area Studies, Israel: A Country Study, Helen Chapin Metz, ed. Link.
Alvin Z. Rubinstein, (editor), The Arab–Israeli Conflict: Perspectives, (1984).
Conor Cruise O’Brien, The Siege: The Saga of Israel and Zionism (1986).
(Also consult the books under “Iraq”)