EH421 Half Unit
Economic History of Colonialism
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Course Convenor
Prof Tirthankar Roy
Availability
This course is available on the MSc in Culture, Justice, and Environment, MSc in Economic History, MSc in Economic History (Research), MSc in Empires, Colonialism and Globalisation, MSc in Financial History, MSc in Global Economic History and MSc in Political Economy of Late Development. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process.
How to apply: All Economic History courses are controlled access and capped. Priority will be given to students for whom the course is within their programme regulations.
All course choices submitted before the deadline will be considered. It is advisable that students submit a statement in support of their course choices as these will be used to allocate places where a course is oversubscribed.
Deadline for application: First round offers will be sent on Monday 29 September 2025. Students who submit their course choices after the deadline and students wishing to take an Economic History course as an outside option will be waitlisted initially and informed by Wednesday 1 October 2025 whether they have been successful.
Once an offer has been sent, you have 48 hours to accept it before it times out. Once an offer has timed out, it will be re-allocated to someone on the waitlist. In all cases, it is strongly advised that you have an alternative course choice as a back-up in case you are unable to secure your first choice.
For queries contact: If you have any questions, please contact the MSc Programmes Officer (o.harrison1@lse.ac.uk) A list of all taught master's courses in this Department are listed on LSE's course guide webpages. Guidance on how to apply to individual controlled access courses can also be found on LSE for You.
This course has a limited number of places (it is controlled access). In previous years we have been able to provide places for all students that apply, but that may not continue to be the case.
Course content
Debates about the effects of European colonial rule on the non-European world have animated economic history scholarship since the 1850s when Karl Marx published essays on British rule in India in the New York Daily Tribune. The relationship between colonialism and economic development has an important place in several distinct literatures in economic history, including work on globalization, divergence, institutions and their legacies, migration, global finance, environmental change, and the shaping of development policy after colonialism. The aim of the course is to introduce the key readings in these themes, build connections between the discourses, and lead students to an informed view of colonialism as a force in shaping the modern world.
Teaching
20 hours of seminars in the Winter Term.
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.
This course is delivered through a combination of classes and lectures totalling a minimum of 20 hours across Winter Term.
Formative assessment
Presentation
Indicative reading
The primary reading for the course will be:
Leigh Gardner and Tirthankar Roy, Economic History of Colonialism (Bristol, 2020)
Other indicative readings include:
Acemoglu, D., Johnson, S. and Robinson, J. A. (2001), 'The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation', American Economic Review, 91(5), pp. 1369-1401.
C.A. Bayly (2008), Indigenous and Colonial Origins of Comparative Economic Development, World Bank Policy Working Paper #4474. http://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/4474.html
Stanley L. Engerman, Kenneth L. Sokoloff, ‘Colonialism, Inequality, and Long-Run Paths of Development,’ NBER Working Paper No. 11057, 2005. http://www.nber.org/papers/w11057.pdf
Assessment
Essay (100%, 5000 words)
This course includes the following threshold element(s) linked to the Essay, failure to submit these elements will result in 5 marks being deducted from the final Essay grade for each threshold element:
1. Essay outline
2. Presentation of the essay in class
Key facts
Department: Economic History
Course Study Period: Winter Term
Unit value: Half unit
FHEQ Level: Level 7
CEFR Level: Null
Total students 2024/25: 26
Average class size 2024/25: 13
Controlled access 2024/25: YesCourse selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.
Personal development skills
- Leadership
- Self-management
- Team working
- Problem solving
- Application of information skills
- Communication