Burning of Arochukwo, Nigeria, 1901.  Imperial arson was widespread.

Before the World Wars, before D-Day, Stalingrad, Verdun, and the Somme, the major western powers of Europe and the Americas enjoyed decades of relative peace.  but this era of peace was actually a period of almost incessant war:  by the turn of the last century European imperial powers and states with predominantly European settler populations, had taken control over vast areas of the globe in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. This class will examine this era of global war, focusing on both methods of conquest and on the emergence of multiple forms of resistance. We will look at both similarities and differences between conquest and resistance in regions including, the Great Plains, the Pampas or grasslands of Argentina, Africa, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia.