Séminaire de civilisation 1 (EAD)

Titre : Empire From Derry to Dhofar

This seminar will seek to unravel the various ways in which British imperialism manifested itself in the 20^th century, as well as the revolutionary processes that aimed to liberate the oppressed from its shackles. Given that such large-scale historical phenomena cannot be fully grasped within strictly national frameworks, a transnational and trans-imperial perspective will be adopted to better account for the circulation of ideas, practices, and people across borders and continents, with reference to events that had global reverberations (the Easter Rising, Dien Bien Phu, Algerian independence, etc.). This inevitably entails the study of the formation of imperial ties and solidarity networks in different parts of the world, ranging from the British-Irish archipelago to the Middle East. 

The first part of this seminar will be devoted to the contestation of British imperialism in a country that blurs the lines between the Imperial Metropole and the colonial periphery, namely Ireland. The latter’s connectedness with Empire was emphasised by British elites themselves, as evidenced by Henry Wilson’s statement: “If we lose Ireland, we lose the empire.” There was even a sustained reliance on personnel with prior experience in imperial warfare to quell unrest on the neighbouring island. At the other end of the spectrum, the 1916 generation inspired subsequent anticolonial struggles in the era of decolonisation. But the trend later reversed, especially during the Troubles in Northern Ireland (1968-1998), when some republican figures strove to follow in the footsteps of the anticolonial movements they held in high esteem (EOKA, Mau Mau, the FLN and others). However, it would be misleading to explore Ireland’s relation to Empire through a solely anti-imperial lens, as the Irish both opposed and colluded with British imperial endeavours. Irish distinctiveness within European political frameworks must not obscure an imperialist streak not necessarily confined to Ulster loyalism. Thus, the multifaceted expressions of nationalism and republicanism in 20th-century Ireland, North and South – not least their interactions with (anti-)imperial and (anti-)colonial ideologies at the global level – will fall within the scope of this seminar. This approach will allow us to comprehend the complex and hybrid position of Ireland in relation to the UK and (post-) Empire. 

The second part of this seminar will focus on what was for nearly a century and a half a vast space for the expression of British imperial power, namely the Middle East, from Suez, Kirkuk, and Tehran, to Aden, Salalah, and Muscat. The post-1945 years saw the formation of a new international economic and political environment shaped by four new factors: the assertion of American military hegemony avowedly hostile to colonial empires, the Cold War, oil resources now vital for the global economy, and finally, the exacerbation of anti-imperialist and anti-colonial nationalisms. In the Middle East, a fifth critical factor was the creation of the State of Israel, placing a European colonial expansionism at odds with an Arab Orient in search for post-imperial renewal.

            One initial priority will be to find out how British planners first sought to preserve an imperial regime within the framework of a negotiated drawdown, which, however, was to be fatally precipitated by the Suez crisis (1956). At the end of the 1950s, the definitive loss of the precious weapon of “prestige” imposed strategic revisions that would govern foreign policies over the following three decades and the construction of increasingly close dependency relationships with the Gulf monarchies, between vital oil interests, recycling of petrodollar surpluses (post-1973), and increasingly massive arms contracts. Secret wars, indirect interventions, and proxy wars (Yemen in the 1960s, Oman in the 60s-70s, Afghanistan in the 1980s) were all distinctive features of this long sequence whose course largely remained in the shadow of the conflagration that had become the most visible and commented on from the late 1960s, namely, "the troubles" in Northern Ireland. 

The end of the Soviet Union and the first Iraq War (1991) inaugurated a new era of overt military imperialism, soon justified in the name of the "war on terror". A new sequence of tightening ties both with the Gulf monarchies and with the State of Israel was to take shape. Which should give us occasion to ask ourselves in what ways and to what extent the present situation is only its catastrophic continuation.

●        Analyser les mécanismes de domination impériale dans diverses aires géographiques

●        Situer les mouvements nationalistes et anticoloniaux dans une perspective globale et connectée

Session 1 : 

●        1 devoir écrit de 2h (commentaire de texte ou dissertation)

Session 2 : 

●        1 devoir écrit de 2h (commentaire de texte ou dissertation)

Dans le cadre de cet EC, l’usage de l’IA pour aider à la réalisation des travaux de contrôle continu soumis à évaluation est interdit. Vous n’avez pas le droit de faire appel à une IA générative à des fins de documentation, recherche d’idées, construction, rédaction ou édition (hors usages de recherche web augmentée, de correction orthographique et syntaxique). 

C1 anglais

●        Articuler différentes échelles d’analyse (locale, impériale et globale)

●        Analyser les sources primaires et secondaires de façon critique et identifier leurs biais

●        Développer des compétences en prise de parole en public

- Richard English, Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA, 2003

- Seán William Gannon, The Irish Imperial Service: Policing Palestine and Administering the Empire, 1922-1966, 2018

- Stephen Howe, Ireland and Empire: Colonial Legacies in Irish History and Culture, 2000

- Kevin O'Sullivan, Ireland, Africa and the End of Empire: Small State Identity in the Cold War, 1955-1975, 2013

- J.C. Young, Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction, Oxford, Blackwell Publishers, 2001

- Neta C. Crawford, The Pentagon, Climate Change, and War, MIT, 2022

- Fred Halliday, Arabia Without the Sultans, Penguin, 1974

- Hanieh Adam, Crude Capitalism: Oil, Corporate Power, and the Making of the World Market, Verso, 2024

- Rosemary Hollis, Britain and the Middle East in the 9/11 Era, Wiley-Blackwell & Chatham House, 2010

- Rashid Khalidi, Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East, Beacon Press, 2009.

- Henry Laurens, Paix et Guerre au Moyen-Orient : L’Orient arabe et le monde de 1945 à nos jours,[1999] 2^e édition, Armand Colin, 2005

- WM. Roger Louis, Imperialism at Bay: The United States and the Decolonization of the British Empire, 1941-1945, Oxford UP, 1978

- WM. Roger Louis, The British Empire in the Middle East 1945-1951. Arab Nationalism, The United States, and Postwar Imperialism, Clarendon press Oxford, 1984

- David Wearing, Anglo-Arabia: Why Gulf Weatlh Matters to Britain, Polity Press, 2018