Anti-Colonialism, Dependency, and Uneven Development

2024/2025

Academic Year

ENG

Instruction in English

4

ECTS credits

Delivered by:

Department of History

Type:

Elective course

When:

4 year, 3, 4 module

Instructor

Gužvica, Stefan

Course Syllabus

Abstract

While historians, economists, political scientists, and sociologists still tend to disagree on the starting point of capitalism, they all agree on one thing – not everybody reached capitalism at the same time. This has generally been identified as one of the major causes of global developmental differences and inequalities. Furthermore, structural pressures inherent in capitalism’s expansionist tendencies have resulted in countries of the capitalist “center” – where the system developed first – having an adverse effect on the development of the “periphery” – where capitalism arrived later, causing structural dependence on the center. Colonialism has only been the most overt expression of this tendency. This course will examine how capitalism developed unevenly over the centuries and what political consequences this has had – both historically, and in the contemporary world. As the course will show, the current global geopolitical order, its ongoing changes, and the position of the Russian Federation within it cannot be understood without a grasp of basic problems of dependency and uneven development.