Two Faces of Colonization: Northern America vs. Siberia

Course Description

This is an upper division course that has three purposes: 1) to provide an introductory overview of American and Siberian colonization, 2) to familiarize students with the methods of comparative history, 3) to provide more in depth analysis of a few issues that resulted in so different social, cultural, political and economic development of United States and Siberia. In other words, the goal of the course is to show how the colonization of Northern America helped the creation of an independent nation while the colonization of Siberia helped to bond Siberia to the Russian Empire affirming the colonial status of that region.

I will begin with the introduction to the geography of America and Siberia. I will show the similarities and differences between these two regions, which, later on, substantially influenced the process of their colonization. Then I will focus on a few important problems related with the history of colonization. I will compare the initial stage of colonization in America and Siberia, the relations between colonizers and the Native population, the more advanced stage of social development related to the emergence of the urban population, and the role of frontier as a social and cultural phenomenon in the history of two regions. Chronologically, the course will cover the period form the beginning of the process of colonization which was beginning of the seventieth century for both Northern America and Siberia, to the end of the eighteenth century when the preliminary outcomes of the colonization became clear.

Course Requirements

Attendance at lectures and participation in discussion is essential, but not crucial. There will be one take-home exam at the end of the quarter and a 20-25 pages final paper, which require an in depth analysis of the topic chosen by a student.

Evaluation Criteria

Take home exam: 30%

Final paper: 50%

Participation in the discussion: 20%

Required Texts:

· American and Siberian Frontier (Tomsk, Izdatelstvo Tomskogo Universiteta, 1997)

· T. Armstrong, Russian Settlement in the North, (Cambridge [Eng.] University Press, 1965)

· D. Boorstin, The Americans; the colonial experience, (New York, Random House [1958])

· J. Green, Pursuits of happiness : the social development of early modern British colonies and the formation of American culture, (Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, c1988 )

· J. Demos, The unredeemed captive: a family story from early America (New York: Knopf, 1994)

· J. Forsyth, A History of the People of Siberia, (New York : Cambridge University Press, 1992)

· The History of Siberia From Russian Conquest to Revolution, (London ; New York : Routledge, 1991)

· G. Nash, The urban crucible: the northern seaports and the origins of the American Revolution, (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1986)

· F. Turner, The Significance of Frontier in the American History in Reading Frederick Jackson Turner (New York, Henry Holt and company, 1994)

· G. Wood, The radicalism of the American Revolution, (New York: A.A. Knopf, 1992)

Week one – Introduction. Geographical Conditions of Colonization: America and Siberia

Lecture/discussion topics

Geography, maps, climate and nature, native population and neighbors

The resources for colonization available to American and Siberian settlers (human resources, transport, weaponry, trade and industry)

· T. Armstrong, Russian Settlement in the North, (Cambridge [Eng.] University Press, 1965)

· P. Buzinskiy, Zaselenie Sibiri I Bit ee Pervih Naselnikov (The Colonization of Siberia and the Everyday life of Its Settlers), (Kharkov, Tipografia Gubernskogo Pravlenia, 1889)

· D. Boorstin, The Americans; the colonial experience, (New York, Random House [1958])

· W. Conon, Changes in the land : Indians, colonists, and the ecology of New England, (New York : Hill and Wang, 1983)

· J. Forsyth, A History of the People of Siberia, (New York : Cambridge University Press, 1992)

· Istoria Sibiri v Pyti Tomah, (The History of Siberia in Five Volumes), (Leningrad, Izdatelstvo Nauka, 1968)

· The History of Siberia From Russian Conquest to Revolution, (London ; New York : Routledge, 1991)

· J. Lemon, The best poor man's country; a geographical study of early southeastern Pennsylvania, (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press [1972])

· N. Yadrintsev, Sibir kak Kolonia (Siberia as a Colony), (S. Petersburg, Izdatelstvo Sibirykova, 1892)

Readings:

· T. Armstrong, Russian Settlement in the North, (Cambridge [Eng.] University Press, 1965); “The Environment “ pp. 3-8

· W. Conon, Changes in the land : Indians, colonists, and the ecology of New England, (New York : Hill and Wang, 1983)

· J. Forsyth, A History of the People of Siberia, (New York : Cambridge University Press, 1992); “Geographical Background” pp. 6-10

· The History of Siberia From Russian Conquest to Revolution, (London ; New York : Routledge, 1991), Article by A. Wood, Siberia’s role in Russian History, pp. 1-17

Week two – The First Settlements in America: Chesapeake, Caribbean and New England

Lecture/discussion topics:

Chronology

Three models of colonization: Chesapeake, Caribbean, New England

The role of the religious communities in the social, political and cultural life of the early America

The political system of the colonies and the relations with England

· K. Brown, Good wives, nasty wenches, and anxious patriarchs : gender, race, and power in colonial Virginia, (Chapel Hill : Published for the Institute of Early American History and Culture by the University of North Carolina Press,1996)

· D. Boorstin, The Americans; the colonial experience, (New York, Random House [1958])

· B. Bush, Slave women in Caribbean society, 1650-1838, (Kingston : Heinemann Publishers (Caribbean) ; Bloomington : Indiana University Press ; London : J. Currey, 1990)

· J. Green, Pursuits of happiness : the social development of early modern British colonies and the formation of American culture, (Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, c1988 )

· R. Dunn, Sugar and slaves; the rise of the planter class in the English West Indies, 1624-1713, (New York, Norton [1973, c1972])

· B. Levy, Quakers and the American family : British settlement in the Delaware Valley, (New York : Oxford University Press, 1988)

· E. Morgan, American slavery, American freedom : the ordeal of colonial Virginia, (New York : Norton, 1975)

· L. Slezkin, U istokov amerikanskoi istorii. 1642-1660 /, Virginiia i Merilend v gody Angliiskoi revoliutsii (At the beginning of the American history: Virginia and Maryland in the years of the English revolution ),(“Nauka", 1989)

· M. Sobel, The world they made togethe: Black and white values in eighteenth-century Virginia, (Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c1987)

· J. Tornton, Africa and Africans in the making of the Atlantic world, 1400-1800, (Cambridge: New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998)

Readings:

· J. Green, Pursuits of happiness : the social development of early modern British colonies and the formation of American culture, (Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, c1988 ); Chapters one, pp. 7-28, three, pp. 55-81, four, pp. 81-101, and seven, pp. 152-170

· B. Levy, Quakers and the American family : British settlement in the Delaware Valley, (New York : Oxford University Press, 1988); Part two, The Triumph of Quakers Domesticity, pp. 123-193

Week three – The First Settlements in Siberia

Lecture/discussion topics:

Chronology

The character of colonization (forceful vs. peaceful)

The role of fur trade in the Russian advancement

The character of the first settlement (“hunting” North vs. “agricultural” South)

The Russian autocratic state and the organization of the Siberian government system

· T. Armstrong, Russian Settlement in the North, (Cambridge [Eng.] University Press, 1965)

· Benson Bobrick, East of the Sun : the epic conquest and tragic history of Siberia, ( New York : Poseidon Press, c1992)

· J. Forsyth, A History of the People of Siberia, (New York : Cambridge University Press, 1992

· Istoria Sibiri v Pyti Tomah, (The History of Siberia in Five Volumes), (Leningrad, Izdatelstvo Nauka, 1968)

· Russian colonial expansion to 1917, edited by Michael Rywkin , (London ; New York : Mansell, 1988)

Readings:

· Benson Bobrick, East of the Sun : the epic conquest and tragic history of Siberia, ( New York : Poseidon Press, c1992), pp. 68-78

· J. Forsyth, A History of the People of Siberia, (New York : Cambridge University Press, 1992; Chapter Siberia Invaded: The Seventieth Century, pp. 28-42

· Russian colonial expansion to 1917, edited by Michael Rywkin , (London ; New York : Mansell, 1988); the article by H. Huttenbach, Muscov’s Penetration of Siberia: The Colonization Process 1555-1689, pp. 70-103

Week four – Native Americans and Colonization

Lecture/discussion topics:

The White-Native frontier and its evolution: from the “middle ground” to the White dominance

The evolution of the Indian societies

· W. Conon, Changes in the land : Indians, colonists, and the ecology of New England, (New York : Hill and Wang, 1983)

· J. Demos, The unredeemed captive: a family story from early America (New York: Knopf, 1994)

· D. Richter, The ordeal of the longhouse : the peoples of the Iroquois League in the era of European colonization, (Chapel Hill : Published for the Institute of Early American History and Culture, North Carolina Press, c1992)

· N. Salisbury, Manitou and providence : Indians, Europeans, and the making of New England, 1500-1643, (New York : Oxford University Press, 1982)

· H. Usner, Indians, settlers, and slaves in a frontier exchange economy: the Lower Mississippi Valley before 1783, (Chapel Hill : Published for the Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia, by the University of North Carolina Press, c1992)

· R. White, The middle ground : Indians, empires, and republics in the Great Lakes region, 1650-1815, (Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1991)

Readings:

· J. Demos, The unredeemed captive: a family story from early America (New York: Knopf, 1994)

· R. White, The middle ground: Indians, empires, and republics in the Great Lakes region, 1650-1815, (Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1991); Chapter two, pp. 50-94, and the Epilogue

Week five – Siberian Natives and Colonization

Lecture/discussion topics:

Russian – Native frontier: Three types of coexistence (zone of Russian dominance, “middle ground”, zone of Native dominance)

The ways of the social evolution of Natives

Colonial administration and Natives’ self-governing

· M. Balzer, The Tenacity of Ethnicity: A Siberian Saga in Global Perspective, (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1999)

· P. Buzinskiy Zaselenie Sibiri I Bit ee Pervih Naselnikov (The Colonization of Siberia and the Everyday life of Its Settlers), (Kharkov, Tipografia Gubernskogo Pravlenia, 1889)

· L. Dameshek, Yasachany Politika Tsarizma v Sibiriv 19-nachale 20 Vekov, (The Taxation Policy of the Tsarist Administartion in Siberia in the Nineteenth-Beginning of the Twentieth Centuries), (Irkutsk, Izdatelstvo Irkutskogo Universiteta, 1983)

· Fadeev Rossia I Narodi Severnoy Azii, (Russia and the Peoples of the Northern Asia), (Moscow, Izdatelstvo Misl, 1965)

· M. Fedorov Istoria Pravovogo Polozenia Narodov Vostochnoy Sibiri v Sostave Rossii (The History of the Legal Situation of the Natives of Eastern Siberia in the Content of the Russian Empire), (Irkutsk, Izdatelstvo Irkutskogo Universiteta, 1991)

· The History of Siberia From Russian Conquest to Revolution, (London ; New York : Routledge, 1991)

· G. Lantzeff, Siberai in the Seventieth Century: a Study of Colonial Administartion, (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1943)

· M. Raeff, Siberia and the Reforms of 1822, (Seattle, University of Washington Press, 1956

· N. Yadrintzev, Sibirskie Inorodtsi:Ih Bit I Sovremennoe Polozenie (Siberian Natives: Their Everyday Life and Contemporary Situation), (S. Petersburg, Izdanie Sibirykova, 1891)

Readings:

· The History of Siberia From Russian Conquest to Revolution, (London ; New York : Routledge, 1991); Articale by J. Forsyth, The Siberian Native People Before and After the Russian Conquest, pp. 69-91

· M. Balzer, The Tenacity of Ethnicity: A Siberian Saga in Global Perspective, (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1999); Chapter one, Colonization: Forming Groups in Interaction, pp. 29-54

Week six – The Urban Society in the Early America

Lecture/discussion topics:

The social structure of American urban population

The social-political evolution of American city

Colonial administration and urban self-government

The role of urban population in the creation of the new nation

· R. Balmer, A perfect babel of confusion: Dutch religion and English culture in the middle colonies, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989)

· B. Bailyn, The ideological origins of the American Revolution, (Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1992)

· D. Boorstin, The Americans; the colonial experience, (New York, Random House [1958])

· J. Goodfriend, Before the melting pot: society and culture in colonial New York City, 1664-1730, (Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 1992)

· J. Greene, Peripheries and center : constitutional development in the extended polities of the British Empire and the United States, 1607-1788, (Athens: University of Georgia Press, c1986)

· P. Maier, From resistance to revolution; colonial radicals and the development of American opposition to Britain, 1765-1776, (New York, Knopf, 1972)

· G. Nash, The urban crucible: the northern seaports and the origins of the American Revolution, (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1986)

· G. Wood, The radicalism of the American Revolution, (New York: A.A. Knopf, 1992)

Readings:

· G. Nash, The urban crucible: the northern seaports and the origins of the American Revolution, (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1986)

· G. Wood, The radicalism of the American Revolution, (New York: A.A. Knopf, 1992); Part three, pp. 229-371

Week seven - The Urban world in Siberia in the Seventieth – Eighteenth Centuries

Lecture/discussion topics:

The social structure of Siberian township

Colonial administration and Siberian self-government: uneasy interaction

The social-political evolution of Siberian township

The forms of social discontent in the Siberian towns

· T. Armstrong, Russian Settlement in the North, (Cambridge [Eng.] University Press, 1965)

· J. Forsyth, A History of the People of Siberia, (New York : Cambridge University Press, 1992

· Istoria Sibiri v Pyti Tomah, (The History of Siberia in Five Volumes), (Leningrad, Izdatelstvo Nauka, 1968)

· Russian colonial expansion to 1917, edited by Michael Rywkin , (London ; New York : Mansell, 1988)

Readings:

· T. Armstrong, Russian Settlement in the North, (Cambridge [Eng.] University Press, 1965); Chapter “Consolidation: The Character of the Settlement (Hunters and Traders, Servants of the State, Peasants, Exiles and Convicts, Religious Groups and Miners”, pp. 59-98

· J. Forsyth, A History of the People of Siberia, (New York : Cambridge University Press, 1992; Chapter “Russian Colonial Settlers in Western Siberia”, pp. 42-48

Week eight – The Role of Frontier in American History

Lecture/discussion topics:

What is it “frontier” (economic, social, political, cultural frontiers)

The frontier’s impact on the development of the American society

The frontier thesis in the light of the contemporary historiography

· R. Billington, Foreword to The Frontier in American History, (New York, Holt, Renehart and Winston, 1963)

· R. Billington, The American Frontier, (Washington, Service Center for Teachers of History, 1965)

· A. Bogue, Frederick Jackson Turner, (University of Oklahoma Press, 1998)

· D. Boorstin, The Americans; the national experience, (New York, Random House [1965])

· J. Faragher, The Significance of the Frontier in American Historiography in Reading Frederick Jackson Turner (Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1994)

· From Frontier to Region: Frederick Jackson Turner and the New Western Historiography, Pacific Historical Review 1995, 64 (4)

· C. Higham, Turner in His Time and Ours in Journal of the West, 1995, 34 (4)

· T. McClintock, The Turner Thesis: After Ninety Years it Still ‘Lives On’ in The Journal of the American West 25:75-82, 1986

· G. Nash, The Frontier Thesis, a Historical Prospective in Journal of the West, 1995, 34 (4)

· M. Steiner, From Frontier to Region: Frederick Jackson Turner and the New Western History in Pacific Historical Review, 1995, vol. 64 (4)

· F. Turner, The Significance of Frontier in the American History in Reading Frederick Jackson Turner (New York, Henry Holt and company, 1994)

· W. Webb, The Great Plains, (Boston, 1931, University of Nebraska Press)

Reading:

· T. McClintock, The Turner Thesis: After Ninety Years it Still ‘Lives On’ in The Journal of the American West 25:75-82, 1986

· G. Nash, The Frontier Thesis, a Historical Prospective in Journal of the West, 1995, 34 (4)

· F. Turner, The Significance of Frontier in the American History in Reading Frederick Jackson Turner (New York, Henry Holt and company, 1994)

Week nine - Siberian Frontier

Lecture/discussion topics:

The colonization and development of Siberia in the eighteenth century

The correlation of “voluntary” (popular) and “forceful” (inspired and regulated by the state) colonization

The consolidation and development of colonial administration

· American and Siberian Frontier (Tomsk, Izdatelstvo Tomskogo Universiteta, 1997)

· B. Bobrick, East of the Sun : the epic conquest and tragic history of Siberia, ( New York : Poseidon Press, c1992)

· Istoria Sibiri v Pyti Tomah, (The History of Siberia in Five Volumes), (Leningrad, Izdatelstvo Nauka, 1968)

· M. Raeff, Siberia and the Reforms of 1822, (Seattle, University of Washington Press, 1956

· The History of Siberia From Russian Conquest to Revolution, (London ; New York : Routledge, 1991)

Reading:

· American and Siberian Frontier (Tomsk, Izdatelstvo Tomskogo Universiteta, 1997)

· B. Bobrick, East of the Sun: the epic conquest and tragic history of Siberia, ( New York : Poseidon Press, c1992), Chapter, The New Frontier, pp. 309-349

· The History of Siberia From Russian Conquest to Revolution, (London ; New York : Routledge, 1991), Article by B. Dmytrishin, The Administrative Apparatus of the Russian colony in Siberia and Northern Asia, pp. 17-36

Week ten – America and Siberia: Two different Faces of Colonization

Topic for free discussion: Why the colonization of Northern America helped the creation of an independent nation while the colonization of Siberia helped to bond Siberia to the Russian Empire affirming the colonial status of that region?