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Britain, America, and the Global Order, 1846-1946

Module description

In this module you will examine the rise and decline of the British Empire within the global economy  from the nineteenth century onward, and explore big questions like: How did Britain obtain and manage its global empire? How did it respond to imperial rivals and global economic crises? How and why did the American Empire come to replace it as the leader of the global economic order? This module will also give you the opportunity to consider how the historical experiences of the British Empire compare with today's chaotic and interconnected system of globalisation.

Module aims - intentions of the module

Through an examination of key secondary readings and a broad range of primary sources covering selected historical episodes, you will explore how Britain managed its global empire and rose to preeminence during a period dominated by industrialisation, imperial rivalry, nationalism, and globalisation (growing interconnectedness). You will also have the opportunity to conduct your own research into these sources, consider their value and limitations, and use them to explore particular topics and themes. This module will help you develop skills in source analysis and research to provide a foundation for future historical work.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Understand and assess the main developments of the British Empire, its American rival, and the global economic order
• 2. Work critically with a range of written and visual sources relating to the topic

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Identify the problems of using historical sources, e.g. utility, limitations, etc., and compare the validity of different types of sources
• 4. Present work orally, respond to questions orally, and think quickly of questions to ask other students

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Conduct independent study and group work, including the presentation of material for group discussion, developed through the mode of learning
• 6. Digest, select and organise material to produce, to a deadline, a coherent and cogent argument, developed through the mode of assessment
• 7. Work with others in a team and to interact effectively with the tutor and the wider group.
• 8. Write to a very tight word-length

Syllabus plan

Weekly seminar topics may vary, but can include:

• the rise of free trade in Britain
• free trade’s international reception
• the British Empire and Victorian globalisation
• race and British imperial expansion
• the economic development of the settler colonies and changes within the global economic order
• the rise of an American free-trade empire

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Basic reading:

• Anthony Howe, Free Trade and Liberal England, 1846-1946 (Oxford, 1997)
• Frank Trentmann, Free Trade Nation: Commerce, Consumption, and Civil Society in Modern Britain (Oxford, 2008)
• Marc-William Palen, The ‘Conspiracy’ of Free Trade: The Anglo-American Struggle over Empire and Economic Globalisation (Cambridge, 2016)
• Gary B. Magee and Andrew Thompson, Empire and Globalisation: Networks of People, Goods and Capital in the British World, c. 1850-1914 (Cambridge, 2010)
• David Thackeray, Forging a British World of Trade: Culture, Ethnicity, and Market in the Empire-Commonwealth, 1880-1975 (Oxford, 2019)
• Alfred Eckes, Opening America's Market: US Foreign Trade Policy since 1776 (Chapel Hill, 1996)

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE – https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=11594 

Key words search

British Empire, American Empire, globalisation, international political economy, free trade, economic nationalism