Australia in Oceania in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Is Australia just one big Pacific Island? In this course we examine this core question by exploring the history of Australia and Oceania – with a special focus on the island Pacific – through the ‘long’ 19th and 20th centuries. To start, we look at Australia and the Pacific in ‘deep time’, outlining the initial waves of human settlement and prehistoric mobility, before tackling major themes of Australia’s interactions with the island world: through European expansion and first encounters; the thickening relationships of trade, missionisation and formal colonialism in the 19th century; the world wars; the post war period; the era of independence; and developments of the late 20th and early 21st centuries – including Australia’s ‘interventions’ in the Pacific, the growth of Australia’s own Pasifika populations, and changing perceptions of Australia in the region. This course aims to develop a wider understanding of Australia’s shared history with Oceania and the evolution of the Pacific community of which Australia is part. It will highlight the Pacific’s impacts on Australia and the multiplicity of Australia’s past and present engagements with the island region.