070250 SE Research Seminar Applied Global History (2026S)

The goal of this course is to find out that food was never just about eating in colonial contexts. It was a tool of power, a commodity of empire, and a means of reshaping societies.
1. Food as a driver of colonial expansion. European empires didn’t just colonize for gold and spices as luxuries — they colonized to secure food supplies and cash crops. Sugar (Caribbean, Brazil): built on enslaved labor, fueled European diets, and capitalism. Tea (India, Ceylon): reorganized land use and labor for imperial consumption. Coffee (Africa, Latin America): tied local economies to global markets. Wheat and beef (settler colonies like Canada, Argentina, Australia): transformed landscapes for export to Europe. Colonialism turned diverse food systems into monocultures, making colonies dependent and vulnerable.
2. The Columbian Exchange. Colonialism globalized food through the massive transfer of plants, animals, and microbes after 1492: From the Americas → Europe/Africa/Asia: potatoes, maize, tomatoes, cacao, chili. From Europe/Africa → Americas: wheat, sugarcane, rice, cattle; These reshaped cuisines worldwide — but also caused ecological destruction, displacement, and demographic collapse (especially among Indigenous peoples).
3. Hunger, famine, and imperial policy. Colonial food systems often produced hunger amid abundance. British India: grain exports continued during famines (e.g., the Bengal famine of 1943). Ireland: potato dependency and colonial governance worsened the Great Famine of 1845 to 1852. Africa: subsistence farming replaced by export crops, increasing food insecurity. Famines were rarely “natural disasters” — they were often political outcomes of colonial rule.
4. Food, race, and hierarchy. Food marked colonial difference and domination: Europeans framed Indigenous diets as “primitive” or “uncivilized.” Colonial authorities imposed European food norms (bread, meat, sugar). Rations for enslaved people and colonized workers were minimal and controlled. At the same time, colonizers appropriated Indigenous foods while denying indigenous people access to land.

Students will choose a topic from one of these four themes and write a research paper of approximately 30 pages (≈ 75,000 characters, including spaces). The research process, from the first ideas through a research proposal, methodological issues, and the final paper, will be guided.