This module covers three main themes in the history of empires, namely power, resistance, and legacies from the fifteenth century to the present day. In doing this, it helps you to access the voices, perspectives, agency and documents of contrasting groups of subjects and imperialists, so you can understand them on their own terms.
Block 1: What are empires?
This block gives you the frameworks and tools needed to compare and contrast different peoples, places and empires across the centuries. The main themes are outlined, and it shows you the overarching chronology and shape of empires through looking at mapping. You'll also begin to learn about the key concepts, tools and historiography.
Block 2: How do empires begin?
You’ll look at contrasting examples of how empires and imperial systems of power begin. You'll also consider ‘the conquest after the conquest’: that is, how imperial power is consolidated. Examples range from British and European maritime expansion to the land empires of the Mughals and Ottomans. In doing this, you'll also look at the role played by African kingdoms in the formation of the ‘Atlantic World’ and at the nature and fate of the ‘Aztec’ empire.
Block 3: How do empires work?
In this block, you'll probe deeper into the ‘sinews of power’ that sustain empire: coercive, economic, cultural and bureaucratic. Three units will each take a distinctive theme, while the fourth brings these and more together in looking at how one empire, the Qing Chinese, operated from its origins to its ending.
Block 4: How are empires experienced?
The focus of this block is on groups and individuals. How did individuals – from imperialist ‘explorers’ and missionaries to First Peoples and the enslaved – experience empire? What methods do we have for recovering the voices of different classes, genders and ethnicities, including the nonliterate? In asking these questions, our exploration of the legacies of empire will be taken further, asking about the impact of empire on different groups and how the experience of empire is inscribed on particular locations.
Block 5: How do empires decline, end and persist?
Earlier blocks will have introduced you to examples of different types of resistance to empire. You'll now be shown how such resistance, combined with metropolitan and international factors, corroded imperial power. This involves looking at the rise of colonial nationalism, for instance, in India and Africa, the impact of global wars, and changing attitudes to power and freedom. A final unit takes this up to the present day, by looking at the question of how, how far and in what ways we can talk of the metropolis (the imperial centre, notably in the UK) ‘decolonising’ itself.
You’ll get help and support from an assigned tutor throughout your module.
They’ll help by:
Online tutorials run throughout the module. While they’re not compulsory, we strongly encourage you to participate. Where possible, we’ll make recordings available.
Course work includes:
You will be provided with two module textbooks and have access to a module website, which includes:
You can study this module on its own or use the credits you gain towards an Open University qualification.
A328 is an option module in our:
Empires: power, resistance, legacies starts once a year – in October.
This page describes the module that will start in October 2026.
We expect it to start for the last time in October 2034.
As a student of The Open University, you should be aware of the content of the academic regulations, which are available on our Student Policies and Regulations website.
This is an OU level 3 module. OU level 3 modules build on the skills and subject knowledge acquired from studies at OU levels 1 and 2.
Although no particular modules are required before studying this one, we advise that having taken at least one arts and humanities module at OU levels 1 or 2 would be advantageous.
If you have any doubt about the suitability of the module, please speak to an adviser.
We recommend reading one or more overviews of empire, such as:
Once you have access to the module you'll be able to be watch a 40-minute video lecture by Andrew Thompson on approaches to studying empire.
The OU strives to make all aspects of study accessible to everyone, and this Accessibility Statement outlines what studying A328 involves. You should use this information to inform your study preparations and any discussions with us about how we can meet your needs.
To find out more about what kind of support and adjustments might be available, contact us or visit our Disability support website.
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