Learn about the political, economic, social, and technological transformations in world history, with a special emphasis on global interactions.
This course presents a comparative overview of world history from the 17th century to the present. We examine the origins of major economic, political, social, cultural, and technological trends of the past 400 years and explore the impact of these trends on world societies. This material is structured chronologically and thematically, with each unit focusing on a significant historical subject. The units include primary-source documents and images that illustrate important overarching themes, such as the emergence of modern nation-states, the economic and technological interactions between Western and non-Western peoples, the changing social and cultural perceptions about religion and the state, and the development of physical and virtual networks of information exchange.
- Unit 1: What is History?
- Unit 2: Trade in East Asia and the Indian Ocean
- Unit 3: Early Modern Africa and the Wider World
- Unit 4: The Islamic World
- Unit 5: Foundations of the Atlantic World
- Unit 6: Colonization and Economic Expansion
- Unit 7: Revolutions in Europe and North America
- Unit 8: Expansion in the Industrial Age
- Unit 9: Life and Labor in the Industrial World
- Unit 10: World War I
- Unit 11: The Interwar Period
- Unit 12: The Causes and Consequences of World War II
- Unit 13: Cold War Conflicts
- Unit 14: The Contemporary World and Ongoing Challenges
- Assess how global trade networks shaped the economic development of Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas during the 17th and 18th centuries;
- Identify the origins of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation in Europe and assess the social and political consequences of these movements for the peoples of Europe;
- Identify the origins of the Enlightenment and assess how its ideas led to political and social revolutions in Europe and the Americas;
- Identify the origins of the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions and assess how they altered social, political, and economic life across the globe during the 18th and 19th centuries;
- Compare how European imperialism affected the states and peoples of Asia, Africa, and the Americas in the 19th century;
- Identify the origins of World War I and analyze how the war's outcome altered economic and political balances of power throughout the world;
- Identify the origins of totalitarian political movements across the globe in the 1920s and 1930s and assess how these movements led to World War II;
- Analyze how World War II reshaped power balances throughout the world and led to the emergence of the United States and the Soviet Union as global superpowers;
- Assess how decolonization movements in the 1950s and 1960s altered political, economic, and social relationships between the United States, the nations of Europe, and developing countries throughout the world; and
- Assess how the Cold War led to political and economic realignments throughout the world and how the growth of new global markets and systems of trade and information exchange shaped the 21st century.
Explore political and social revolutions and modern independence movements by studying the causes of these social upheavals and how they have shaped our modern world.
How do we define revolution? In 1970, the Chinese leader Zhou Enlai said that the outcome of the French Revolution was unclear – 200 years is too soon to determine its long-term effects! Revolutions are complex and nuanced and can shift the global balance in fundamental ways – from England's Civil War in the 1600s to the United States, France, Haiti, Russia, China, and the modern independence movements in Southeast Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. In this course, we explore the causes of revolution, analyze the ideologies that inspired the revolutionaries, examine the use of violence, and consider how historical revolutions have shaped contemporary politics. Our exploration includes reading and evaluating critical historical sources. Most revolutionaries rose to protest a failure of Thomas Hobbes' Social Contract. These instigators felt their government no longer served the needs of its people or had become unresponsive and oppressive.
The protesters use different methods – from relatively peaceful civil disobedience in India to extreme violence in France, Russia, China, and Cambodia to subversive terrorist tactics against colonialism in the United States, Latin America, Vietnam, and the modern Middle East. Although the jury is still out, several revolutions created stable representative governments, such as India, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Did China and Russia create stable governments, or did the autocratic leaders simply stifle discontent? As Zhou Enlai said, history will decide. Many countries elected or appointed a series of failed leaders who prompted counter-revolutionaries to rise in civil war and subsequent revolution. This occurred in France, Haiti, Latin America, and the Middle East. Many of the revolutions we study in this course were direct responses to colonialism and European imperialism, such as in the United States, Haiti, Latin America, Southeast Asia, Vietnam, India, and the Middle East. Revolutions come in many forms: political, social, agricultural, and scientific. We begin by examining the nature of political revolution and how pre-revolutionary Europe and the Enlightenment have shaped modern revolutions. We will also explore European colonialism and imperialism since the oppression the foreign powers caused prompted revolutionaries to rebel in search of independence. By the end of this course, you will be able to discuss the nature of political revolution, identify commonalities and differences among these events, and understand how they individually and collectively transformed the modern world.
- Unit 1: The Nature of Revolution
- Unit 2: The American Revolution
- Unit 3: The French Revolution and Its Legacy
- Unit 4: Revolution in Haiti, Mexico, Latin America, and the Philippines
- Provide a concise historical narrative of each of the revolutions presented in the course;
- Compare the origins and causes of each revolution;
- Compare the goals and ideals of the revolutionaries in various modern revolutions;
- Discuss how various world revolutions have affected the rights of women and members of the working class;
- Discuss the patterns and dynamics of revolutionary violence, and how revolutionaries used nonviolent tactics against oppressive regimes;
- Describe connections between revolutionary ideologies and revolutionary events;
- Analyze the impact of each revolution on modern politics;
- Describe competing theoretical models of revolutionary change; and
- Review the ideas presented in primary historical documents.
Explore the history and dynamics of industrialization, its global nature, and its economic, social, and environmental effects from ancient times to the present.
This course will focus on the emergence and evolution of industrial societies worldwide. We will begin by comparing the legacies of industry in ancient and early modern Europe and Asia and examining the agricultural and commercial advances that laid the groundwork for the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries. We will then follow the history of industrialization in different parts of the world, taking a close look at industrialization's economic, social, and environmental effects.
The course is organized chronologically and thematically. Each unit will focus on key developments in the history of industry and on representative areas of the globe, using primary-source documents, secondary sources, and multimedia to illustrate the dynamic nature of industrial change. By the end of the course, you will understand how industrialization developed, spread across the globe, and shaped everyday life in the modern era.
- Unit 1: Industrialization and Theories of Economic Change
- Unit 2: Ancient and Early Modern Industry
- Unit 3: Capitalism, Agriculture, Industry, and Trade
- Unit 4: The Industrial Revolution in England
- Unit 5: The Social and Political Impact of Industrialization
- Unit 6: Mass Production, the Labor Movement, and the Consumer Society
- Unit 7: Economic Crisis and War in the 20th Century
- Unit 8: Alternative Models of Industrialization
- Discuss key ideas and events in the history of industrialization;
- Describe connections between the development of capitalism and the development of modern industry;
- Summarize the factors contributing to industrial change in different societies;
- Examine the consequences of industrialization in the 19th and 20th centuries in different societies;
- Critique historical interpretations of the causes and effects of industrialization; and
- Interpret primary source documents describing the process of industrialization and life in industrial societies.
