Julie Morley Seminar Reflection 1 In ...

Julie Morley
Seminar Reflection 1
In my preparation for the seminar on 12 February 2009. I firstly, did some background reading on the previous topics that had been covered during lectures. These topics included Britain’s relationship with Africa in the Slave Trading Era, Christian Expansion, Emigration and the British Empire, and finally, German Imperialism and the Scramble for Africa. After reading the initial lecture notes, I further looked up the subjects on various internet websites. In relation to the Slave Trade there were interesting articles by P Lovejoy, and David Richardson, who are some of the leading researchers in their field. The BBC sites also provided some useful reading material. The website casahistoria.net provided useful information on Emigration and immigration. After reading around both these subjects, I have decided that my upcoming essay will be based on either of these two subjects. Some of the websites were, however, inappropriate and did not contain enough in depth information that would have been required for the seminar. It was also quite time consuming separating relevant material. Secondly, I also used a number of books, these included, Niall Fergusons, Empire, starting at p234.
During the seminar we were put into groups of three. Our group was given the task of looking at the document extract by Friedrich Fabri. The key conclusions arrived at when looking at this document were that Fabri, wished to raise awareness of the need for Germany to have colonies in order to compete with her European neighbours. He also hoped that it would evoke and raise national spirit and progress.
I contributed to the seminar by discussing the document with my group members. Liaising also with Denise Jones, we were able to both confirm, and be directed towards, relevant information. I also wrote the acetate and identified a number of methodological problems, such as the bias in that he was a missionary director who never left his home country.
I felt positive about this seminar as I had made a good effort prior to attending. However, I learnt that it is important to read around a subject from a number of sources in order to gain a more extensive overview, and therefore, place a document within its rightful context.
Julie Morley
Seminar Reflection 2
In preparation for the seminar on 26 March 2009. I read over the lecture notes on the Boer War, The First World War and the British Empire, and also The Demise of the British Empire. I also printed the relevant work in relation to The American Empire. I skimmed the pages of Niall Fergusons Book, Empire. However, unfortunately, my interest in Twentieth century history is limited, and this reflected in my subsequent reading.
Dr Guy Tourlamain and Dr John Appleby were the principle tutors for the seminar. We were placed in to 3 table groups and given two documents to access. The first one was the McMahon-Hussein Correspondence, 1915-1916 and ...