HIS33170 Capitalism, power and environmentalism: themes in global environmental history

Academic Year 2024/2025

Asia has become the main contributor to global warming and one of its main victims, and faces unprecedented pollution, deforestation, soil erosion and extreme weather events. However, if these environmental changes have significantly increased since the ‘Great Acceleration’ of the second half of the 20th century, they go back at least to the period of the ‘Great Divergence’ between Europe and Asia, in the 17th-18th centuries. This course thus examines the longue durée history of Asia’s environmental changes as well as their causes, management, and consequences, in relation with the broader political, geopolitical, economic, and social history of modern Asia. It particularly focuses on China, India, Japan, the three main Asian contributors to climate change, and Vietnam, the 6th main contributor, but also ventures in the environmental history of other Asian countries.
The course is organized around three learning moments: 1) an introduction to the environmental history of Asia and its main driving forces in a longue durée perspective, 2) an environmental history of Asia through some of its most relevant historiographical debates, and 3) an environmental history of Vietnam notably through primary sources. By the end of the module, students should be able to understand Asia’s environmental changes in a longue durée perspective, as well as contextualize, gather, read and critically analyse the secondary and primary sources relevant to Asia’s environmental history.
The course does not assume any prior knowledge on environmental history or on the history of modern Asia, nor require any knowledge of Asian languages.

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this module students should:
- Understand Asia’s current environmental changes in a longue durée perspective.
- Be able to contextualize, gather, read and analyze sources and especially archives relevant to Asia’s environmental history with adequate methodologies, with a general understanding of some of the most significant academic debates about Asia’s environmental history.
- Have further develop their research-related skills.
- Have acquired a specialized knowledge of a particular topic in Asia’s environmental history.

Indicative Module Content:

This module will address such topics as:
- Pre-capitalist growth, ecological expansion and crisis in pre-colonial Asia
- Colonial expansion, political ecology and demise in 19th-20th centuries Asia
- Capitalist and socialist revolutions, development and geopolitical confrontations in post-colonial Asia
- The socio-environmental roots of the ‘Great Divergence’ between Europe and Asia
- Colonial origins of environmentalism?
- Asian socialisms and nature
- Asia and the Anthropocene
- Political ecologies and biopolitics of French colonizers in Vietnam, 1890s-1945
- Wars in nature, wars on nature: an environmental history of the Vietnam wars, 1945-1975
- The ‘Great Acceleration’ in contemporary Asia: an environmental history of the present, 1975-2020s

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Specified Learning Activities

95
Autonomous Student Learning

95
Lectures

11
Seminar (or Webinar)

22
Total

223
Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
This module combines a one-hour lecture with a 2-hour seminar. The lectures will provide an overview of the environmental history of modern Asia, whilst the seminars will revolve around three learning moments, corresponding to three assessment types: 1) class discussions of the weekly readings, 2) group presentations on assigned topics related to the weekly theme, and 3) supervised small group discussion between students around research essay project gain insights from peers and myself. This assessment strategy, mobilizing “collective” and “oral” skills on the one hand and “individual” and “writing” skills on the other, is equitable to diverse learning communities and allows for the development of a varied set of skills. 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade In Module Component Repeat Offered
Participation in Learning Activities: Contribution to the class discussion, and notably critical discussion of the mandatory reading Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10, Week 11, Week 12 Graded No

20

 No
Group Work Assignment: Group presentation Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10, Week 11, Week 12 Graded No

30

 No
Assignment(Including Essay): An end of the semester research essay of 4 000 words on a topic related to Asia’s environmental history and using relevant primary and secondary sources Week 14 Graded No

50

 No

Carry forward of passed components
No
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Spring No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, on an activity or draft prior to summative assessment
• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment
• Online automated feedback
• Peer review activities

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Sequence of feedback: Feedback on group presentations is given to the group, verbally and in writing. Feedback on end-of-semester essays is given individually and to the class on essay planning before final submission, and by appointment after submission and grading.