HIST& 127: World Civilization II

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Class Program
History
Distribution
Social Science
Credits 5 Lecture Hours 55
World Civilizations II is a systematic study of the major patterns of global history in the modern period, from 1000 C.E. to 1850 C.E. This course analyzes the distinguishing characteristics of the worlds major civilizations, and the gradual integration of the diverse cultures of the world into an interconnected system. Students will examine the major political, social, cultural, and economic developments, including the spread of Islam and European exploration in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. We will pay particular attention to colonialism, slavery, revolution, nationalism, globalization, democracy, and human rights. This course develops critical thinking, writing, and analytical skills by employing the same skills and methods used by historians to piece together an informed and coherent view of the past.
Quarters Offered
Winter
Course Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, students should be able to demonstrate the following knowledge or skills:

  1. Identify important people, developments, and ideas that have shaped human history between 1000 C.E. and 1850 C.E., including ways historical events and processes have been organized into definable but often tenuous chronological periods.
  2. Critically examine change over time, specifically identifying the consequences of those changes in the diverse responses of people and societies that emerged throughout the world.
  3. Explain how environmental factors, disease, technology, and urbanization affected patterns of human migration and settlement over time.
  4. Analyze how religions, belief systems, philosophies, ideologies, and innovations affected political, economic, and social developments.
  5. Examine how and why economic, social, cultural, geographical, and internal/external political factors have influenced the processes of state building, expansion, and dissolution as well as interactions between states.
  6. Explain the causes and effects of economic strategies of different types of communities, states, and empires, including how different modes of production and commerce have developed and changed.
  7. Evaluate the extent to which legal systems, colonialism, nationalism, and independence movements have sustained or challenged class, gender, and racial hierarchies over time.
  8. Analyze how social categories, roles, and practices have been maintained or challenged over time.
  9. Identify and articulate parallels between challenges of the past and the issues of today in order to provide a better basis for personal responsibility, critical analysis, and empathy for other members of contemporary society.
  10. Analyze, synthesize, and present information and knowledge pertaining to world history.
  11. Demonstrate communication skills, both written and oral, by employing primary evidence in support of carefully formed conclusions regarding the historical record.
Course Content Outline
  1. New Empires And Common Cultures, 1000 CE
    1. The origins and spread of Islam
    2. The Tang state
    3. Early Korea and Japan
    4. The Christian West
  2. Becoming ”The World,” 1000–1300 CE
    1. A globe of regional worlds
    2. Commercial connections
    3. Sub-Saharan Africa comes together
    4. Islam in a time of political fragmentation
    5. India as a cultural mosaic
    6. Song China: Insiders versus outsiders
    7. China’s neighbors adapt to change
    8. Christian Europe
    9. The Americas
    10. The Mongol transformation of Afro-Eurasia
  3. Crises And Recovery In Afro-Eurasia, 1300–1500
    1. Collapse and integration
    2. Islamic dynasties
    3. Western Christendom
    4. Ming China
  4. Contact, Commerce, And Colonization, 1450–1600
    1. The old trade and the new
    2. European exploration and expansion
    3. The Atlantic world
    4. Portugal’s New World colony
    5. The transformation of Europe
    6. Prosperity in Asia
  5. Worlds Entangled, 1600–1750
    1. Economic and political effects of global commerce
    2. New colonies in the Americas
    3. The slave trade and Africa
    4. Asia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
  6. Cultures Of Splendor And Power, 1500–1780
    1. Trade and culture
    2. Culture in the Islamic world
    3. Culture and politics in East Asia
    4. The Enlightenment in Europe
    5. African cultural flourishing
    6. Hybrid cultures in the Americas
    7. Imperialism in Oceania
  7. Reordering The World, 1750–1850
    1. Revolutionary transformations and new languages of freedom
    2. Political reorderings
    3. Change and trade in Africa
    4. Economic reordering
Department Guidelines

PO4 should be assessed: Students will be able to recognize or articulate personal/interpersonal aspects of, or connections between, diverse cultural, social, or political contexts.

PO5 should be assessed: Students will be able to solve problems by gathering, interpreting, combining and/or applying information from multiple sources.