HST2042F   Conflict and Conquest: South Africa to 1900

Convener: Professor N Penn

Course entry requirements: At least two courses in historical, social science or cultural studies offered by the Faculty of Humanities, or by permission of the Head of Department

This course examines themes in the history of southern Africa from earliest times to c. 1900. It will look at topics related to the settlement of southern Africa by pre-colonial indigenous societies and the impact that colonial expansion had on these societies. Topics will include warfare and state formation amongst African societies; a consideration of the dynamics of early Dutch and British colonial society; slavery and other forms of unfree labour; frontier violence and group formation; land conquest and dispossession; imperialism and resistance; the mineral revolution and its transformation of the social, political and economic life of South Africans.