HSY2310

The British Empire and Australia, 1642- 1852

Bruce Knox

8 points
* Two lectures and one tutorial per week
* First semester Clayton

Objectives This subject is intended to provide a context for the foundation and early development of European Australia. It accordingly elucidates English/British political, constitutional and religious history from the 17th to the 19th centuries, and the imperial factors which bore upon the Australian colonies.

Synopsis Australian 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
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