WORLD HISTORY: MODERN ERA

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1 WORLD HISTORY: MODERN ERA CREDIT 3 INSTRUCTOR Chad Denton OFFICE New Millenium Hall B125 OFFICE HOURS To Be Announced TIME CLASSROOM LOCATION professordenton@gmail.com * Please leave the fields blank which haven t been decided yet. [COURSE INFORMATION] COURSE DESCRIPTION & GOALS PREREQUISITE The modern era of world history is the time period when what had formerly been an underdeveloped barbarian appendage of the Mediterranean Europe came to dominate the globe. The central historical question of this course is how did the West become the West? To address that question, in we will pursue what one scholar has described as a non-eurocentric explanation of a world that has European features. That explanation will focus on contingency, accident, conjuncture, focusing specifically on the importance of China and India, and the commodities or silver, sugar, slaves, cotton, and opium. No background knowledge is required or expected. COURSE REQUIREMENTS I expect you to attend class sessions and complete the readings before each class session. You will post a question about the reading the evening before each class and you participate in writing exercises or mini-quizzes in class. These exercises will prepare you for the synthetic essays you will write on your mid-term and final exams. Participation (30%): This will include the questions that you post on YSCEC, the in-class writing exercises, and any in-class mini-quizzes on the readings. GRADING POLICY Mid-term (30%): The mid-term will include a series of passages from the primary source documents that you will need to identify and explain their significance, as well as a synthetic essay that will ask you to incorporate your interpretation of the documents and lecture material. Final (40%): The final will include identifications from the primary source documents as well as a synthetic essay that asks you to think comprehensively about the western tradition from antiquity to the present-day. TEXTS & REFERENCES Textbook: The required text for this course is Robert B. Marks, The Origins of

2 the Modern World (2002). Because supply of this book is limited in Korea, you are encouraged to order the book on-line before the start of class. In addition, I would like you to purchase a copy of Karl Marx s, The Communist Manifesto (1848). Reader: In addition to the two required books, the remaining primary and secondary source required readings for this course will be contained in a course reader, available for purchase at the copy center of New Millenium Hall. A tentative list of these readings to be excerpted is indicated below. These readings will be updated before the beginning of classes. INSTRUCTOR S PROFILE Chad Denton teaches European history at Yonsei University. He received his BA in History and Literature at Harvard University and his MA and PhD in History at the University of California, Berkeley. [WEEKLY SCHEDULE] * Your detailed explanations would be very helpful for prospective students to get a pre-approval for credit-transfer from their home university in advance. 2 T. Introduction Eurocentrism and the Master Narrative of World History --Marks, Origins of the Modern World, Introduction 1 (07.02 ~ 07.04) The Rise of the West? The Biological Old Regime 3 W. The Biological Old Regime --John Brooke, Climate, Human Population and Human Survival: What the Deep Past Tells Us About the Future, Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective 8, vol. 5 (May 2012) --Marks, Origins of the Modern World, Chapter 1 4 Th. Agrarian Society --Ernst Gellner, Nations and Nationalism --Marks, Origins of the Modern World, Chapter 2 2 (07.08 ~ 07.11) 8 M. The Mongols --Giovanni da Piano Carpine, History of the Mongols (ca ) --Güyük Khan, Letter to Pope Innocent IV (1246) --William of Rubruck, Religious Debate at the Khan s Court, Clothing and Social and Religious Customs,

3 China India & the Indian Ocean Dar al-islam Africa Europe and the Gunpowder Epic from The Journey of William Rubruck to the Eastern Parts of the World, , as Narrated by Himself (ca. 1256) 9 T. Medieval Africa and Islam --The Koran (ca ) --Al-Bakir, Glimpses of the Kingdom of Ghana (1067) --Al-Umari, On Mansa Munsa, King Who Sits on a Mountain of Gold (ca ) --Ibn Battuta, On Mali, from The Journey (1354) 10 W. Indian Ocean --Zheng He s Inscription (1431) --The Commentaries of the Great Afonso de Albuquerque (1557) 11 Th. Portuguese in Africa --Nzinga Mbemba (Affonso I), letters to Manuel I and King Joao III ( ) --Marks, Origins of the Modern World, Chapter 3 3 (07.15 ~ 07.18) Empires, States & the New World 15 M. Columbus and the New World --Christopher Columbus, Journals 16 T. The Conquest of the Aztecs --Bernal Diaz, The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico 17 W. Sugar & the Slave Trade --John Oldmixon, The British Empire in America (1708) 18 Th. Mid-term Exam 4 (07.22 ~ 07.25) The Industrial Revolution --Marks, Origins of the Modern World, Chapter 4 22 M. Revolution in the Caribbean --Society of the Friends of Blacks, Address to the Nation on the Abolition of the Slave Trade (1790) --Antoine Barnave, Speech to the National Assembly (1790) --Anonymous, My Odyssey (1793) --Toussaint L Ouverture, letters, ( )

4 and its Consequences, T. Industrial Revolution --Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto (1848) 24 W. Nationalism and the Eastern Question in Ottoman Egypt --Napoleon Bonaparte on Egypt (1798) --Al-Jabarti, Chronicle of the French Occupation (1798) --Al-Jabarti, Mohammed Ali s Tax Inspectors from The Chronicles (1809) --Firman of Appointment of Muhammad Ali as Pasha of Egypt Issued by Ottoman Sultan (1840) 25 Th. The Opium Wars --Lin Zexu, Letter to Queen Victoria (1839) --Algernon Thelwell, The Iniquities of the Opium trade with China (1839) --Samuel Warren, The Opium Question (1840) --Bombay Times, Editorial (May 23, 1839) --Leeds Mercury, Editorial (September 7, 1839) --Punch, Important News from China (1841) --Marks, Origins of the Modern World, Chapter 5 29 M. The Scramble for Africa --Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness ( ) --Edmund D. Morel, King Leopold s Rule in Africa (1904) --Mark Twain, King Leopold s Soliloquy (1905) --An Answer to Mark Twain (1907) 5 (07.29 ~ 08.01) The Gap 30 T. Darwin and Social Darwinism --Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man (1871) --Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Foundations of the Nineteenth Century (1899) --Karl Pearson, National Life from the Standpoint of Science (1900) --Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes (1914) --Sir Harry Johnston, The Backward Peoples and our Relations with Them (1920) 31 W. Japanese Nationalism

5 --President Fillmore, Letter to the Emperor of Japan (1852) --Kume Kunitake, Records of my Visits to America and Europe ( ) --Declaration of War on Russia: Imperial Rescript and Official Response from Russia (1904) --Lt. Tadayoshi Sakurai, The Attack upon Port Arthur (1905) --Okuma, Fifty Years of New Japan ( ) --Theodore Roosevelt, The Threat of Japan (1907) 1 Th. World War I --[Major Aziz Ali-al-Misri], Announcement to the Arabs (1914) --Sir Henry McMahon, Letter to Ali Ibn Husain (1915) --The Balfour Declaration (1917) --Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck, My Reminiscences of East Africa (n.d.) --Walter Douglas Downes, With the Nigerians in German East Africa (1919) --Woodrow Wilson, Speech on the 14 Points (1918) --Marks, Origins of the Modern World, Conclusion 5 M. World War II and Global Conquest --Hitler, Hitler s Second Book (1944) 6 (08.05 ~ 08.08) Change or Continuity? 6 T. Cold Wars --Li Shaoqi, How to Be a Good Communist (1939) --Joseph Stalin, The Soviet Victory: Capitalism versus Communism (1946) --Winston Churchill, An Iron Curtain has Descended Across the Continent (1946) --General Douglas MacArthur, Report to Congress, Old Soldiers Never Die (April 19, 1951) --US First Army Headquarters, How to Spot a Communist (1955) 7 W. Hot Wars --Marjane Satrapi, selections from Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (2003) --Osama Bin Laden, Declaration of Jihad Against the United States (1996) --George W. Bush, We Wage a War to Save

6 Civilization Itself (2001) --John Rapley, The New Middle Ages, Foreign Affairs vol. 85, no. 3 (2006) 8 Th. Final Exam

Final Exam Review. Unit One ( ) Old World Challenged Chapters # 1,2,3

Final Exam Review. Unit One ( ) Old World Challenged Chapters # 1,2,3 CHY4U West and the World Final Exam Review Unit One (1500-1715) Old World Challenged Chapters # 1,2,3 Medieval times Age of Reason and Scientific Revolution Renaissance Age of Exploration Reformation Absolute