5 Course conclusion
Histories of empire are complex and evolving. They pose difficult questions for the historian about their nature, meaning, and afterlives. The answers are not settled.
During this course you have explored some of the key concepts that historians have applied to empires to try and understand how they were formed, managed, and eventually ended.
Power was exerted in multiple different ways. Whilst the idea of military conquest and domination through violence is perhaps the obvious way that colonial power is understood, it was not the only way that control could be exerted. Imperial influence could be wielded through economic systems, cultural exchange, and the spread of ideology. These forces often acted in combination to restructure the power relations of empire.
Resistance was also expressed through varied forms. Mutinies, rebellions, and revolutions were the most visible manifestations of dissent. These occurred throughout the colonial history, from initial attempts to rebuff incursions through to the overthrow of imperial regimes. But these were exceptional events: for most ordinary people living through empire, small acts of autonomy and the practice of everyday resistance constituted the most likely means of challenging absolute imperial power. Some found that their only route to survival came through a degree of accommodation with those that oppressed them.
The legacies of empire are manifold and complicated. These systems left behind considerable imprints on both the metropolitan and colonial societies that experienced them. They made and remade nations and identities. Global debates about how to negotiate the unfinished business of empire have taken many forms: the repatriation of cultural objects, economic underdevelopment and reparations, the ecological impact of colonialism, and the rise of new forms of economic imperialism. These conversations are ongoing nationally and internationally.
This course is designed to equip you with the tools to participate in these discussions as a critically engaged historian who takes the study of the past seriously as a guide to navigating the ways that it has shaped the present day.
This free course is an adapted extract from the Open University course A328 Empires: power, resistance, legacies [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .