Handbook : Unit informationEdith Cowan University

Faculty of Education and Arts

School: Communications and Arts

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

• Unit Title

  Drugs, Alcohol and Empire

• Unit Code

  HIS3103

• Year

  2015

• Enrolment Period

  1

• Version

  1

• Credit Points

  15

• Full Year Unit

  N

• Mode of Delivery

  On Campus
  Online

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Description

Modern empires were premised to a large extent on trade, including trade in alcohol and other drugs. These products had to be produced and distributed, often requiring the establishment of new markets for these goods. Plantations were established often using forced labour, and consumption of drugs was introduced to colonial outposts. Drugs, including alcohol, were exchanged for food, sex and labour creating drug dependence and a continuing demand. This unit will provide historical, anthropological and sociological perspectives on the ways in which drugs of many kinds including opium, alcohol, coffee, tobacco, and pharmaceuticals have been integral to the building of modern empires.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

1. Analyse political and economic strategies of imperial powers.
2. Analyse the history of trade in modern empires.
3. Apply historical, anthropological and sociological approaches to the study of the production and distribution of alcohol and other drugs in modern empires.
4. Understand Indigenous responses to colonialism and the introduction of alcohol and other drugs.
5. Undertake comparative analysis of the role of drugs and alcohol in different imperial settings.

Unit Content

1. Economies and production of drugs.
2. Impact of drugs on members of the metropole.
3. Impact of introduced drugs and alcohol on colonial populations.
4. Present-day heritage of the colonial drug trade.
5. Trade networks and the distribution of drugs.

Additional Learning Experience Information

Lectures. Tutorials. Research assignments.

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant Board of Examiners.

Text References

• Jankowiak, K., & Bradburd, D. (Eds.). (2003). Drugs, labour and colonial expansion. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press.
• McAllister, W. (1999). Drug diplomacy in the twentieth century. An international history. New York: Routledge.
• Mills, J.H. (2005). Cannabis Britannica. Empire, trade and prohibition 1800-1928. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Pendergast, M. (1999). Uncommon grounds: The history of coffee and how it transformed the world. New York: Basic Books.
• Trocki, C. A. (1999). Opium, empire and the global political economy. A study of the Asian opium trade 1750-1950. London: Routledge.
• Porter, R., & Mikulas, T. (1995) Drugs and narcotics in history. Cambridge: CUP.
• Steinberg, M., Hobbs, J., & Mathewson, K. (Eds.). (2004). Dangerous harvest: Drug plants and the transformation of indigenous landscapes. USA: OUP.
• Saggers, S., & Gray, D. (1998) Dealing with alcohol. Indigenous usage in Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.
• Taussig, M. (2004). My cocaine museum. Mona Vale, NSW: Footprint Books.
• Pomeranz, K., & Topik, S. (2000). The world that trade created. Society, culture & the world economy, 1400-the present. Armone, New York: M.E. Sharpe.

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