Post-War: Themes in Comparative European History since 1945

1. With reference to the period 1940-50, how may we assess the immediate impact of the Second World War on the European colonial empires? 2. How may we characterise the efforts made by British and French colonial officials to ‘reform’ their empires, particularly in Africa, after the Second World War? You should illustrate your answer with reference to AT LEAST TWO cases you have studied. 3. ‘Nothing did more to determine or to hasten the end of empire than violent conflict. And yet, from a military perspective, the colonial powers were relatively successful at containing or defeating violent anti-colonial challenges after 1945.’ Discuss, with reference to AT LEAST TWO ‘late colonial’ (post-1945) conflicts you have studied. 4. To what extent, and in what ways, did the political leaders of the European colonial empires recognise that the ‘Wind of Change’ identified by Harold Macmillan in 1960, should influence policy towards their remaining colonial empires? Answer with reference to AT LEAST TWO of: Britain, France and Portugal. 5. What was the relationship between the end of the colonial empires, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the process of European integration? Answer with reference to AT LEAST TWO of: Britain, France and Portugal. 6. What were the implications of decolonisation for patterns of migration to the former colonial powers, and associated questions of national identity? Answer principally with relation to the period up to the mid-1970s. Please note: questions 4-6 relate to topics that will be covered in class in January. 7. Compare British Sounds/See You at Mao (1970) and À Bientôt, J'espère (1968) bearing in mind the aesthetic and political commitments advocated by the film collectives Dziga Vertov Group and Medvedkin Group. 8. Discuss the extent to which The Working Class Goes to Heaven (1971) replicates the concerns of Autonomia Operaia movement in Italy. 9. Discuss the historical conditions that paved the way to the workers movement in Portugal, as exemplified in Scenes of a Class Struggle in Portugal (1977). 10. To what extent Numax presenta… (1980) reflects the predicament of workers’ self-management endeavor? 11. In consultation with PSB, answer a question of your own devising on any of the films discussed in this section.