131-035 Pirates and their Enemies

Formerly available as 131-221/321. Students who have completed 131-221 or 131-321 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

Usually 25 points of first year history, see Prerequisites

This subject will investigate a very old phenomenon: maritime raiding, or 'piracy'. Students will look at a few defined areas and times: in particular, the Mediterranean during the high-periods of Christian-Muslim sea raiding, Elizabethan England, the Red Sea and the Atlantic. Students should complete the subject with the ability to address issues such as how different definitions of piracy have arisen; the social economic and political motivations underlying piracy; the relationship between pirates and other individual sea-raiders and the states; the personal social and sexual strategies that pirates adopted; and methods of stopping piracy, both by their victims and by state action. We will also examine the ways in which pirates have been presented in fiction and film and the uses to which popular culture has put the phenomenon of piracy.

• demonstrate research skills through competent use of the library and other information sources;

• show critical thinking and analysis through recommended reading, essay writing and tutorial discussion, and by determining the strength of an argument;

• demonstrate understanding of social, ethical and cultural context through the contextualisation of judgements, developing a critical self-awareness, being open to new ideas and possibilities and by constructing an argument.

A take home document exercise of 1000 words 25% (due 10 February) and a web project of 3000 words 75% (due 29 March).