Maritime and colonial history raises challenging and interesting issues concerning the history of England within the context of the British Isles, and in a wider setting of European engagement and encounter with the wider world; this programme seeks to explore these issues by focussing on selected themes spanning the early modern period through to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, while providing students with an opportunity to study and reflect on related themes concerning globalization and politics; it is designed to provide students with a rich and varied programme of study, demanding critical engagement with the subject and an understanding of diverse forms of evidence.