Module Catalogue 2024/25

Pre Requisite Comment

N/A

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

This module covers the history of Aotearoa New Zealand between approximately 1800 and 1900. It takes a chronological and thematic approach to the country’s history to account for the settler colonialism which changed the country’s demographics over the nineteenth century based on the appropriation of Maori land. This module considers the relations between Pakeha (white European) and Maori peoples in cultural, political and social terms. It also uses the term Tauiwi (Maori for ‘foreigners') which while is often used interchangeably with Pakeha, offers students the ability to consider who in terms of race, or ‘undesirability’ were excluded from a region idealised as the ‘Britain of the South’. Moving into the latter part of the nineteenth century, the module situates New Zealand in a globalising world, in which its political and social reforms were heralded as state experiments.

The course aims to provide students with an understanding of the following themes:
• Systematic emigration as de facto colonisation.
•       The role of treaties and land appropriation.
•       The impact on Te reo Maori (language) and Maoritanga (culture and traditions).
•       The development of political self-governance, suffrage and migration control.
•       The nineteenth century perception of New Zealand as a ‘Better Britain’ and the contradictions therein.

Overall, this module will provide an opportunity for students to acquire a sound general knowledge of Aotearoa New Zealand’s history using a wide range of primary and secondary material. It will challenge them to look more closely at indigenous/coloniser relations, biculturalism and how the region’s history, culture and inhabitants are 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: Aotearoa New Zealand in a Pacific World
2.       Maori mobility. Missionaries and colonial interactions in the early nineteenth century
3.       British bureaucratic interventions: From He Whakaputanga to Te Tiriti o Waitangi
4.       1840: The creation of a colony?
5.       Settler Colonialism: systematic emigration and the whenua (land)
6.       The New Zealand Wars
7.       Carving up the land: The Provincial Era
8.       The 1870s ‘Vogel Era’: Public works and immigration
9.       New Zealand as a social laboratory, but for whom?
10.       ‘A dying race?’ Identity and biculturalism by the end of the nineteenth century
11.       Conclusion: Idealising the ‘land of the long white cloud’, past and present

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

By the end of this module students should have:
•       A sound general knowledge of the history of Aotearoa New Zealand, and the region’s key demographic,
social and political developments over the nineteenth century.
•       An understanding of settler colonialism
•       A knowledge and understanding of conflicting historical interpretations towards colonisation, land
rights and nationhood.

Intended Skill Outcomes

•       Develop research skills by locating, critically analysing and accurately summarising historical
information drawn from online archives.
•       Engage with a range of secondary readings and with the major historiographical debates.
•       Write clear, well-argued essays that present sound arguments.
•       Respond appropriately to the sensitive themes involved in studying colonisation and ethnicity.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

The interactive lectures will introduce the students to the key themes and regional considerations (much of which will be new to them). Independent learning and wider reading are at the heart of this module. Students are expected to develop critical reading and note-taking in an independent and effective manner. The extended seminar sessions will allow for a flexible approach towards discussion, interpersonal skill and primary source analysis. A workshop held in the Library's Special Collections enables students to examine primary sources first hand.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The formative assessment for the module will take the form of a a multiple choice Canvas quiz to test the students' knowledge of te reo Maori.

The documentary commentary exercise tests knowledge and understanding of the primary sources examined throughout the module. The ability to compare and contrast related primary sources, and explore how they should be interpreted and the relevance to contemporary scholarly debates is an important historical skills.

The final essay for the module tests both students' knowledge and understanding of the complexity of Maori/Pakeha relations in the nineteenth century.

Taken as a whole the assessments are designed to ensure that students do not wholly concentrate on the Pakeha version of New Zealand history.

Study-abroad, non-Erasmus exchange and Loyola students spending semester 1 only are required to finish their assessment while in Newcastle. Where an exam is present, an alternative form of assessment will be set and where coursework is present, an alternative deadline will be set. Details of the alternative assessment will be provided by the module leader.

General Notes

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