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Module

HIS2252 : A History of Aotearoa New Zealand to the 1920s

  • Offered for Year: 2020/21
  • Module Leader(s): Dr Jen Kain
  • Owning School: History, Classics and Archaeology
  • Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters
Semester 2 Credit Value: 20
ECTS Credits: 10.0

Aims

This module covers the history of Aotearoa New Zealand until the 1920s when the British Dominions were declared 'autonomous communities'. It takes a chronological approach to the country’s history to account for its development as a nation-state in P?keh? (white European) terms. Importantly, to counter this Eurocentric view, the module begins with the ‘pre-history’ Polynesian settlement of the region. It then considers colonisation in terms of relations with the M?ori peoples and the land, specifically the Treaty of Waitangi and the New Zealand Land Wars. In moving into the latter part of the nineteenth century, the module situates New Zealand in a globalising world, in which its reforms were heralded as state experiments. Refusing to federalise with the Australian colonies, New Zealand became a Dominion in 1907 and remained loyal to the ‘mother country’ in the First World War and the Empire Settlement schemes that followed.

The course aims to provide students with an understanding of the following themes:
•       The place of New Zealand in the Pacific, the British Empire, and alongside Australia.
•       Systematic emigration as de facto colonisation.
•       The development of political self-governance, economic policies and migration control.
•       Liberalism, women’s suffrage and labour reforms.
•       The nineteenth century perception of New Zealand as a ‘Better Britain’ and the contradictions therein.
•       How and why Te reo M?ori (language and culture) exists alongside a British-New Zealand national identity.

Overall, this module will provide an opportunity for students to acquire a sound general knowledge of New Zealand’s history using a wide range of primary and secondary material. It will challenge them look more closely at indigenous/coloniser relations, national identity, and how New Zealand’s history and culture is portrayed today.

Outline Of Syllabus

Outline syllabus, intended as a guide only; week-by-week topics may be slightly different to the following:

1.       Introduction: Polynesians as the first settlers
2.       European exchanges: M?ori and P?keh?
3.       Settler Colonialism: From the Treaty of Waitangi to self-government
4.       ‘Britain of the South’: New Zealand in the provincial era
5.       The New Zealand Land Wars
6.       The ‘Vogel Era’: Public works and immigration
7.       New Zealand as a social laboratory
8.       Suffrage and Labour Reforms
9.       Dominion status and the First World War
10.       Empire settlement and Demographic concerns
11.       Idealising the ‘land of the long white cloud’, past and present
12.       Summary week

Teaching Methods

Module leaders are revising this content in light of the Covid 19 restrictions.
Revised and approved detail information will be available by 17 August.

Assessment Methods

Module leaders are revising this content in light of the Covid 19 restrictions.
Revised and approved detail information will be available by 17 August.

Reading Lists

Timetable