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History112 World Civilizations Post 1500 |
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Welcome |
Readings |
Grading and Due Dates |
Expectations |
Description of Course Elements |
Course Schedule |
NOVA
Policies
& Resources |
Welcome to History 112 |
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 worlds 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
Readings |
NOVA ALL ACCESS TEXTBOOK PROGRAM: When you register for classes each semester, youre automatically enrolled in NOVA All Access and charged a fee of $22.50 per credit hour. The fee will appear on your student account, along with your tuition and other fees. YOU need to decide if the fee benefits you. And YOU need to opt out if it does not save you money. Complete details about the NOVA All Access program are available here.
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How do you opt out if it does not save you money? If the program does not save you money, YOU CAN OPT OUT and get your money back to buy your textbooks independently. For most students, the opt out deadline will be February 6. Click here and click a SMALL link just above FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS that says Opt Out of NOVA All-Access.Grading and Due Dates |
Course Element | Points | Due Date |
Attendance and Participation | 15% | Every Class
Session |
Primary Source Discussion
Leadership |
10% |
At least once during the semester |
Book Review (2 pages) | 10% | Book
Proposal due March 2 Finished Paper due April 6 |
Annotated_Bibliography,
Part
1 |
10% | April 20 |
Annotated_Bibliography,
Part 2 |
10% |
April 27 |
Research
Project |
25% | Topic
Proposal Due February 23 Finished Project Due May 4 Project Interview no later than May 12 |
Exams | 20% | Midterm
Exam: March 30 Final Exam: May 11 |
Percentage |
Final Course Grade |
Above 90% |
A |
80-89% | B |
70-79% | C |
60-69% | D |
Below 60% |
F |
Expectations |
Description of Course Elements |
1) Since this is a world history class, I would like your focus to extend beyond the history of the United States. This means no topic which solely deal with US history. You can, however, have a topic which ends up comparing US history with the history of some other region-- for example you could work on a topic which highlights the parallels between segregation in the US South with the Apartheid system in South Africa.
2) You should investigate a topic which largely falls sometime between the years 1500 and 2000. The period before 1500 is beyond the scope of the class, and the period after 2000 is too modern for us to have an appropriately historical perspective on. Theres perhaps a bit of wiggle room with these dates, but the bulk of your focus should be somewhere within this span of time.
3) There needs to be a sufficient body of written primary source documents in a language which you are able to read. Documents written by people who lived during the period you are researching and who personally experienced the events which you are investigating are indispensable to any work of historical scholarship. Unfortunately sometimes there are very interesting topic ideas for which the sources simply arent available. It is up to you to make sure early on in your research process that you will be able to find the minimum of 5 written primary source documents necessary for this project. Please see below for a list online primary source collections which can be a convenient starting point for your preliminary investigations.
1) What sort of topic do you want to research this semester? You should be as specific as possible about the particular time frame and/or geographic region. (Sometimes it can be helpful to phrase your topic in terms of a particular research question. For example How did the Haitian Revolution of the 1790s change life for former slaves? Why did the samurai class in Japan abandon its traditional privileges during the Meiji Restoration? or How successful was the gay liberation movement of the 1960s in securing rights for the LGBTQ community in Britain, Germany, and the USA?)
2) Why do you find this topic interesting? In what ways do you anticipate that your research will be relevant to things that you care about in your own life?
3) Which of the project formats have you chosen?
4) What sorts of primary sources do you expect to use? Have done any preliminary checking to see what sorts of sources are available? If so, where? (Remember, primary sources are documents written by people who lived during the period you are researching and who personally experienced the events which you are investigating. So for example, are there letters or memoirs written by people who were involved in the events? Relevant laws from the time period in question? Interviews of people who lived through the events?)
For primary sources, you might consult the following resources (some of these sites also contain secondary sources as well):
- 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)
- 17 Moments in Soviet History.
1) A link to where your project video or website is publicly viewable.
2) The script or text for your project so it can be checked for plagiarism and A.I. use.
Part 1) Time Line (5 Paragraphs): Provide a Time Line which lists in chronological order what you think are the five most important events in the history of the world from 1500-1900. ALL OF YOUR EXAMPLES MUST BE EVENTS OR DEVELOPMENTS WE DISCUSSED IN CLASS! No more than three of your examples should be drawn from European 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 is this event significant or important?
Part 2) Primary Source Analyses: You will be given the titles of two primary sources which you have read during the first half of the semester (See the exam description in Canvas for the specific sources), and asked to briefly discuss the following elements:
- The identity and point of view of the author.
- The historical context of the document (what circumstances influenced the author?).
- The basic contents of the document.
- What does the document tell us about the specific time and place it was written?1111
Part 1) Time Line: Provide a Time Line which lists in chronological order what you think are the five most important events in the history of the world after 1900. ALL OF YOUR EXAMPLES MUST BE EVENTS OR DEVELOPMENTS WE DISCUSSED IN CLASS! No more than three of your examples should be drawn from European 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 is this event significant or important?
Part 2) Primary Source Analyses: You will be given the titles of two primary sources which you have read during the second half of the semester (See the exam description in Canvas for the specific sources), and asked to briefly discuss the following elements:
- The identity and point of view of the author.
- The historical context of the document (what circumstances influenced the author?).
- The basic contents of the document.
- What does the document tell us about the specific time and place it was written?
Course
Schedule |
Tuesday, February 4: Course Introduction/Why Bother Studying History? |
Read
through
the Course Syllabus Allosso and Williford, "Introduction" Watch "Is History B.S.?" |
Thursday, February 6: Sources and the Digital Age |
Discussion Sources: Alan Turing, Conference on Information theory, 26-29 September 1950; John Battelle, The Birth of Google, Wired, August 2005 Watch What's The Difference Between Primary & Secondary Sources? |
Assignments to Complete: | Read through the entire syllabus, and submit the Introduction Assignment and the Syllabus Quiz by 11:59 pm on Sunday using the appropriate link under "Assignments" in the class Canvas page. Make sure to check the feedback you received to see if you need to resubmit it. |
Tuesday, February
11: Empires or People?- "The History of Great Men" vs. "History From Below" |
Discussion Sources: List of Zheng Hes Expeditions (1431) Watch Is The History of Great Men B.S.? Read Allosso and Williford, "Chapter 1: Modern World History Begins in Asia" |
Thursday, February
13: Family, Gender, and Peasant Life |
Discussion Sources: Glόckel of Hameln, Excerpts from The Memoirs of Glόckel of Hameln (1719); Johann Mortiz Schwager, On the Ravensberg Peasant (1786) Watch Was the Scottish Highlander B.S.? |
Tuesday, February 18: Capitalism, Money, and Finance |
Discussion
Source:
Evliya
Ηelebi,
Excerpts
from
The
Book
of Travels
(c. 1630);
Charter
of
the Dutch West India Company, (1629) Watch Was The English East India Company B.S.? Read Allosso and Williford, "Chapter 2: Europe and Africa" |
Thursday, February 20: Colonialism and Indigenous Genocide |
Discussion
Sources:
The Mayan
Account
of
the
Spanish Conquest in the Chilam
Balam (1540-1546);
Excerpts
from
the
Florentine
Codex on La Malinche/Doρa Marina and
the Conquest of Mexico (1577) Watch Was Columbus B.S.? Read Allosso and Williford, "Chapter 3: The Americas and Columbus" |
This Week: | Topic Proposal for the Research Project due February 23. Make sure to check the professor's feedback on Canvas to see if your topic has been approved, or if you need to resubmit this assignment. |
Tuesday, February 25: Slave Labor and Racism |
Discussion
Source:
Excerpts
from
King
Afonso
of Congo, Letters
on
the
Slave
Trade (1526) Watch Was the Atlantic Slave Trade B.S.? |
|
Thursday, February 27: Outsiders- Pirates and Prostitutes |
Discussion
Sources:
The
Articles
of
Bartholomew
Roberts, John Phillips, Edward
Low, George Lowther, John Gow, and Henry
Morgan; William Acton, Excerpts
from
Prostitution, Considered (1857;
1870) Read Allosso and Williford, "Chapter 4: Early Globalization and Revolutions" |
|
Assignments to Complete: | Book Proposal for the Book Review Paper due March 2. You should enter the complete bibliographic information for the sources for this assignment. |
Tuesday, March 4: The Enlightenment-- Freedom and Power |
Discussion Source: John Locke, Excerpts from Two Treatises on Government (1689) Watch Was The Enlightenment B.S.? |
Thursday,
March
6: 18th c. Revolutions |
Toussaint Louverture's Saint-Domingue Constitution of 1801 Watch Was The French Revolution B.S.? Watch Was The Haitian Revolution B.S.? Read Allosso and Williford, "Chapter 5: Troubled Nineteenth Century" |
Tuesday, March 11: Time, Light, Energy |
Discussion
Sources:
Thomas Beale, Excerpts
on
Whaling (1839);
Friedrich Engels, On
Industrial
Manchester
(1844); Watch Was The English East India Company B.S.? Read Allosso and Williford, "Chapter 6: Imperialism" |
Thursday,
March
13: Industrial Labor |
Discussion Sources: "The Life of the Industrial Worker in Nineteenth-Century England" (1832); Women Miners in the English Coal Pits (1842). Watch Was The Industrial Revolution B.S.? Discussion Source: Watch How Can You Tell If A Website Is B.S. Or Not? |
Assignments to Complete: | Make sure you have the book for your Book Review Paper by March 16. Upload a picture of you with the book using the appropriate link in the course Canvas page. |
Tuesday, March 25: Socialism |
Discussion Sources:
Karl Marx
and Friedrich Engels, excerpts
from The
Communist
Manifesto
(1848) |
Thursday,
March
27: Neo-Imperialism and Resistance |
Discussion
Sources:
Aizawa Seishisai, "Excerpts from Shinron (New
Theses,
1825);"
Thomas
Babington Macaulay, On
Empire and Education
in India (1833-1835) Watch Was Imperialism in Congo B.S.? Watch Was The Meiji Restoration B.S.? |
Assignments to Complete: | Midterm
Exam due March 30
Upload a picture of a page of the book for your Book Review Paper with the authors main argument highlighted or circled by March 30. |
Tuesday, April 1: Nationalism |
Discussion
Sources: Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels, excerpts
from The Communist
Manifesto
(1848) |
Thursday,
April 3: 20th c. Imperial Wars |
Discussion Sources: Bahithat al-Badiya, Excerpts from "A Lecture in the Club of the Umma Party"(1909); Louise Yim on the Japanese Occupation of Korea (1951) Watch Was The 1918 Influenza B.S.? Read Allosso and Williford, "Chapter 7: The Great War" |
Assignments to Complete: | Book Review
due April 6 |
Tuesday, April 8: 20th c. Revolutions |
Discussion
Sources:
V. I.
Lenin, "The
April
Theses
(1917);" Josef
Stalin
on
the
Liquidation
of
the Kulaks,
(1929) Watch Was The Russian Revolution Of 1917 B.S.? |
Thursday, April 10: Fascism |
Discussion
Reading:
Adolf
Hitler, Excerpts from
Several
Speeches (1923,
1930,
1932) Watch Is Fascism B.S.? Read Allosso and Williford, "Chapter 9: World War II" |
Assignments to Complete: | Find
a scholarly journal article related to the topic of
your Research Project and upload the full
bibliographic citation of the article using the
appropriate link in Canvas by April 13 |
Tuesday, April 15: Holocaust |
Discussion
Reading: Excerpts
from
the
Diary
of
Jechiel Gσrny
(1942-- click
the "View this
Diary" link) Watch Is Modern Anti-Semitism B.S.? |
Thursday, April 17: The Nuclear World |
Discussion Source: Yoshito Matsushiges Account of the Hiroshima Bombing; |
Assignments to Complete: | Annotated Bibliography, Part 1 Due April 20 |
Tuesday, April 22: The Cold War | Discussion Source: Excerpts from the Memoir of Rigoberta Menchϊ
(1984); Watch Was the Cold War B.S.? Read Allosso and Williford, "Chapter 11: Cold War" |
Thursday, April 24: Decolonization |
Discussion Reading: Sarojini Naidu, Excerpts
from
Several
Speeches
(1917, 1918,
1946); Kwame
Nkrumah, "Speech to
the
Organization
of African
Unity"
(1963) |