MONASH UNIVERSITY FACULTY HANDBOOKS

Arts Undergraduate Handbook 1996

Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996

HSY2310

The British Empire and Australia, 1642-1852

Bruce Knox

Synopsis Australian political and constitutional history is in many respects continuous with that of Great Britain. The subject is concerned with that continuity. It begins with the emergence of a strong parliamentary monarchy under the Tudor and Stuart dynasties, passing through the English revolution of the seventeenth century and the involvement of the British State in America and India in the 1700s. We will examine the establishment of the penal settlement of New South Wales in the age of the American and French revolutions, and place Australian developments, constitutional and other, in the British Empire's `age of reform' to the mid-nineteenth century.

Assessment Two essays (1500 and 2500 words): 60% + Examination (2 hours): 40%

Prescribed texts

• Lloyd T O The British Empire, 1558-1983 OUP, 1984
• Martin G (ed.) The founding of Australia: The argument about Australia's origins SUP, 1978
• McMinn W G A constitutional history of Australia OUP, 1979

Recommended texts

• Fieldhouse D K The colonial empires: A comparative study from the 18th century to the present Wiedenfeld and Nicolson, 1966
• Gash N Aristocracy and people: Britain 1815-1865 Edward Arnold, 1979
• Hirst J B Convict society and its enemies: A history of early New South Wales Allen and Unwin, 1983
• James L The rise and fall of the British Empire Little Brown, 1994
• Ward J M Colonial self-government: The British experience 1765-1855 Macmillan, 1976