HIST 485 - African Environmental History

2020-2021 Catalog Year

Credit(s): 4
Lecture: 4
Non-Lecture: 0
This course provides an introduction to the environmental history of Africa through a historiographical lens. We will focus in some detail on demography, the domestication of crops and animals, climate, the spread of New World crops (maize, cassava, cocoa), and disease environments from the earliest times to the present. Central to our study will be the idea that Africa’s landscapes are the product of human action. Therefore, we will examine case studies of how people have interacted with their environments. African ecology has long been affected indirectly by decisions made at a global scale. Thus we will explore Africa’s engagement with imperialism and colonization and the global economy in the twentieth century. The course ends with an examination of contemporary tensions between conservation and economic development and how handing human health in African environments might differ from other contexts.

Prerequisite(s): HIST 302 (HIST 301 also recommended)
Offered: Not on a Regular Basis
Program Attribute: HLAC