History 112 World Civilization After 1500

Course Description: Surveys the history of Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas from approximately 1500 CE through the present.  Lecture 3 hours per week. 3 credits. This is a Passport Transfer course. 

General Course Purpose:  HIS 112 surveys the general history of the world from approximately 1500 CE through the present and allows students to reach a basic understanding of the characteristic features of the world’s early historical development. Students will learn about important political, economic, social, intellectual, cultural and religious changes that shaped the world in this period of time. Connections and comparisons of human societies are made across space and time. 

Course Prerequisite/Corequisite:  None 

Course Objectives: Upon completion the course, the student will be able to: 

Written Communication

• Express an understanding of forces that foster global connections among places, persons, groups, and/or knowledge systems through written activities. 

Critical Thinking

• Explain human and social experiences and activities from multiple perspectives from 1500 CE through the present.
• Compare and contrast multiple perspectives or theories on global processes and systems throughout time. 
• Describe how global relations impact individual lives and the lives of others over time.
• Develop multiple historic literacies by analyzing primary sources of various kinds (texts, images, music) and using these sources as evidence to support interpretation of historical events.  

The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries: Suggested Context Trans-Oceanic and Trans-Continental Trade (ex. the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, Indian Ocean trade, Eurasian trade), Overseas Empires and Land-based Empires (ex. Spain, the Ottoman Empire, the Qing dynasty, Muscovy), The rise of the nation-state, Columbian Exchange, European Intellectual Movement

• Identify the causes of the rise of modern states.
• Analyze the development and impact of culture, economics, politics, society, technology, and religious and philosophical ideas.
• Compare and contrast global and trans-oceanic connections.
• Analyze complex primary and secondary sources.
• Identify trans-global systems.  

The Long Eighteenth Century: Suggested Context The Enlightenment, The Age of Revolutions (ex. Latin America, Haiti, USA, France), Nationalism and national identities (ex. France, Latin America, North America, the Caribbean), The Qing Dynasty, 

• Identify the causes of the rise of modern states.
• Analyze the development and impact of culture, economics, politics, society, technology, and religious and philosophical ideas.
• Compare and contrast global and trans-oceanic connections.
• Analyze complex primary and secondary sources.
• Examine the origins of nationalism and national identities. 

The Nineteenth Century: Suggested Context The Race to Industrialization (ex. Europe, Asia, Latin America), Imperialism and Neo-Imperialism, Nationalism and national identities (ex. Italian and German unification), Resistance to Colonialism 

• Analyze the development and impact of culture, economics, politics, society, technology, and religious and philosophical ideas.
• Compare and contrast global and trans-oceanic connections.
• Analyze complex primary and secondary sources.
• Examine the causes of and impact of industrialization and imperialism.
• Examine the continuation and growth of nationalism and national identities. 

The Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries: Suggested Context The World Wars, The Cold War, Anti-colonial movements (ex. India, China, Pan-Africanism, Latin America), Decolonization (ex. in Africa and Asia), Globalization 

• Analyze the development and impact of culture, economics, politics, society, technology, and religious and philosophical ideas.
• Compare and contrast global and trans-oceanic connections.
• Analyze complex primary and secondary sources.
• Examine movements of decolonization, liberation movements and resistance to imperialism. 

Major Topics to be Included: 

The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
The Long Eighteenth Century 
The Nineteenth Century
The Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries

Disruptive Behavior: Please be considerate. Disruptive behavior will not be tolerated.  Private conversations during lecture or class discussions all distract and disturb your instructor and your classmates, and will count against your participation grade.  Repeated instances of rude behavior may result your removal from the classroom. If you have a question or a comment on the course material, please raise your hand.

• Your full name, the name of the class, and the day and time when it meets in the title of your message.   
• Appropriate salutations and signatures.
• Correct grammar and punctuation.

• Is the author of each article identified?  If so, what is his or her level of expertise with the subject matter?
•  What is the main argument of each source? (note, this is not the same thing as a simple description of the subject matter-- what is the author trying to say about this subject?)
• Does each article specify its evidence or sources of information?  If so, what sorts of evidence are cited?
• Given what you know about the subject matter from reading your textbook and attending class, how reliable and accurate is each article?

•         At least 5 Primary Sources (either online or in print).  For primary sources, you should be looking for documents which were originally written during the time period you are trying to study. While architectural or archaeological remains certainly do qualify as primary sources which can be used by scholars to reconstruct the past, they are problematic for an assignment like this. Written documents from the past should be your focus!

For each of the Primary Sources in Part 1 your annotation should include:

• Bibliographic information according to Chicago style.
• The name and background of the author, if known.
• The date the document was originally written, if known.
• The author’s purpose in writing the document and its historical context.
• Any bias displayed by the author.
• The significance of the document (ie, how are its contents important to an understanding of the topic?)

See the description of the Final Project below for a list of sites to begin finding relevant primary sources.

Part 2 of your Annotated Bibliography should include:

•         At least 5 Secondary Scholarly Sources, including:

• At least 1 Scholarly Journal Article (you learned about these in your Source Criticism Paper)
• At least 1 Scholarly Monograph (A book length scholarly study by one author)
• For the other 3 secondary sources, you should use high quality scholarly sources, and avoid using the textbook, encyclopedia articles, or anonymously authored websites.
  

• Bibliographic information according to Chicago style.
• The name and scholarly background of the author (education, publications, university appointments, etc.)
• The author’s main argument (note, this is not the same thing as a simple description of the subject matter-- what is the author trying to say about this subject?).
• The specific types of evidence used to support the author’s main argument (are they primary sources? Scholarly secondary works?)
• How successful/convincing is the author’s argument?

• A Research Paper

• A “Day In The Life” Video

• A Travel Log Website
  

• Do Your Own Thing (If  You Can Convince Me): You can also propose your own format for a Final Project, but you will need to explain why you think this particular format is interesting and a good way to discuss your particular topic. If I agree, I will approve the proposal; if not, you will need to pick one of the other Final Project formats. The format also will need to meet the same requirements as the others in terms of both page length/word count and number and types of sources used. Power Point or other slide-based presentations are extremely boring, and definitely will not be approved.
  

• At least 5 Primary Sources (either online or in print). Your primary sources should be roughly evenly divided between the two societies which you are examining.
• At least 1 Scholarly Journal Article (you learned about these in your Source Criticism Paper)
• At least 1 Scholarly Monograph  (essentially a book by a scholar focused on one narrow historical subject relevant to your research topic)
• At least 3 Other Secondary Sources (either online or in print)

For primary sources, you might consult the following resources (some of these sites also contain secondary sources as well):

Directory of World History Primary Sources

• The World Digital Library
• The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy.
• Cambridge Digital Library.
• Hanover Historical Texts Collection.
• Finding World History Sources.
• The Women's Library at LSC.
• The Modern History Sourcebook.
• The African History Sourcebook.
• The East Asian History Sourcebook.
• The Indian History Sourcebook.
• The Islamic History Sourcebook.
• The Jewish History Sourcebook.
• The Women's History Sourcebook.
• The Victorian Web.
• Women in World History
  
• German History in Documents and Images.
• Marxists Internet Library.
• Asia For Educators (Primary Sources on China, Japan, Korea, South Asia, and South East Asia)
• Seventeen Moments In Soviet History

You should make sure to refer to or quote specific examples from the sources in order to support your arguments, and to cite them using Chicago-format footnotes.  Please follow the guidelines for written work in this class.  See this rubric for a more detailed description of how you will be graded.

The themes themselves are too broad to be the focus or your paper, so your topic should narrow the focus down in some way (For example, the topic, "Gender in World History" is too broad).  Here are some sample research questions.  You are free to pick one of these, modify one of these to deal with another region, or to suggest your own.  Note that you should be thinking not just in terms of questions which interest you, but also about what sorts of sources you can find in languages which you read.  It's no good to come up with a fascinating topic on which you are unable to find evidence.

• What role did religion play in reinforcing racism during the imperial age? (theme: race)
• How have attitudes toward sex and sexuality changed in Africa during the past century?(theme: gender)
• What does the rise of spectator sports in Europe between 1900-2000 reveal about ideals of masculinity? (theme: gender)
• What was life like under communism behind the Iron Curtain, 1945-1989? (theme: government)
• What are the political roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? (theme: race, government)
• What role did economic inequality play in the origins of political revolutions in 19th century Latin America ? (theme: government and social class)
• What was working class life like in Britain during the Industrial Revolution?  (theme: social class)
• How and why did Fascism become popular in Interwar Europe? (theme: government and race)
• Was the Vietnam War primarily about Cold War issues or was it a war on national liberation? (theme: government)
• What role did racism play in justifying Western imperialism? (theme: race)
• What role did Anti-Semitism play in leading to the rise of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust? (theme: race)
• What factors explain the Japanese attempts to conquer large parts of Asia during the 1930s and 1940s?(theme: government)
• How have women's lives in the Middle East changed over the course of the 20th century? (theme: gender)
• How did feminism change the way women lived in modern France? (theme: gender and government)
• What was the impact of Enlightenment ideas on the Haitian Revolution? (theme: government)
• To what extent were Marxist ideas important to the decolonization movements in Africa during the 20th century?(theme: government and social class)

“Day In The Life” Video Option:

For this version of the Final Project you will need to choose a time period and region relevant to some aspect of the subject matter of this class. Then select three different people to portray. They can be either specific individuals from history, or different types of people (ie, from different social classes, professions, nationalities, ethnicities, genders, etc.). Your topic cannot primarily deal with American history.

Once your characters have been approved, you should craft a video of approximately 5 minutes (so 15 minutes total), where each character introduces themselves and discusses what their daily life is like. Consider discussing topics such as the character’s work, living conditions, family relationships, food, political and social opinions, etc. The idea is to provide as vivid, interesting, and historically accurate portrayal as possible. Feel free to use appropriate accents or slang if you like. You can use friends or family members in your videos if you like, as long as you are the one who writes the script.

Important stuff that you shouldn’t forget:

• Your video should advance a clear, specific argument or thesis about what the lives of the three people portrayed reveal about the particular era in which they lived.
• You also should include a list of all of your sources at the end of the video.
• All final project videos must be posted on YouTube or Vimeo. You must upload the link for the instructor to grade. Do not set your video to “private” or select any other access restrictions. It must be public for the instructor to grade.
• In order to receive a grade for the Final Project, you must submit your written script and a link to the video using the appropriate link in Canvas.

Here are some suggestions for software to use when editing your videos:

• iMovie
• Movie Maker
• Final Cut Express
• Camtasia
• WeVideo

Travel Log Website Option:

For this version of the Final Project you will need to choose a time period and region relevant to some aspect of the subject matter of this class. Then select at least five specific geographic sites or events to discuss. These can be specific buildings or monuments, neighborhoods, dwellings, shops, taverns, battles, revolutions, speeches, spectacles, festivals, ceremonies, etc. Your topic cannot primarily deal with American history.

Once your choice has been approved, you should craft a written narrative in which you visit each of the sites in turn, describing what you witness at stop along your journey. Make sure to mention what you see, hear, small, taste, do, etc. The idea is to provide as vivid, interesting, and historically accurate portrayal as possible. It is up to you whether you adopt the persona of a traveler from the time period in question, or travel back in time in some manner. You’ve got a lot of leeway here-- be creative!

Your finished product should be in the form of a website which is posted online, and which is viewable by anyone. The website should be a visually interesting as possible, and should include a variety of (correctly sourced and cited) images and/or maps.

Important stuff that you shouldn’t forget:

• Your Travel Log website should advance a clear, specific argument or thesis about what the sites visited and/or events witnessed reveal about the nature of life at that particular place and time in history.
• You also should include a list of all of your sources somewhere in the website.
• The website should be publicly viewable, and should not require a password to access.
• In order to receive a grade for the Final Project, you must submit the weblink for your Travel Log website as well as a .pdf, .doc, or .rtf file containing the text of your Travel Log (so it can be checked for plagiarism) using the appropriate link in Canvas.

Here are some suggestions for free public web hosting for your website:

• Google sites
• Blogger
• Wix
• Weebly
• WordPress
• TravelDiaries

1) Time Line (10 Paragraphs): Provide a Time Line which lists in chronological order what you think are the ten most important events in the history of the world from 1500-1900. No more than half of your examples should be drawn from Western or United States history. Each item on your Time Line should be a paragraph long and should contain the following information:

• What happened.
• When it happened (approximate dates are okay).
• Why it happened. 
• The major Consequences of the event.
• How the event helps us understand what life was like in the past.

2) Theme Analyses (4 Paragraphs): Select and describe four important events, changes, or developments from World History from 1500-1900, one for each one of the four class themes (government, race, gender and social class). Each one of your four theme analyses should be a paragraph long, and should refer to a specific primary source document we have read for the class. Again, make sure to think about causes, consequences, and context for each.