Istanbul, Turkey (Summer 2010)

Matthew T. Herbst, University of California San Diego

Email:  mtherbst@ucsd.edu

 

Course Description

MMW 4 provides a basic framework for understanding major trends, developments, and movements in world history from 1200 to 1750.   This is a period of tremendous transition, witnessing increased interaction between regions and cultures and new developments in technology, trade, political and philosophical ideas, scientific understanding, and religious beliefs.  We will examine a variety of medieval civilizations and encounter their growing ties and tensions as they transition through the early modern era.  We will study the expansion of inter-regional and then inter-continental trade networks from the Mongol conquests to the integration of the Americas into the system of Eurasian and African world trade which created a global network which systematically moved products, ideas, technologies, peoples, and diseases across cultural and continental divides.  We will look at indigenous responses to the growth of Western power and conclude with a consideration of religious and intellectual movements, including those for religious tolerance as well as those championing the spread of fundamentalist movements. 

 

Required Reading

1.       J. Bentley and H. Ziegler.  Traditions and Encounters.   A Global Perspective on the Past.  Volume B (1000-1800). 

2.            Kevin Reilly.  Worlds of History.  A Comparative Reader.  (Custom Edition for MMW 4). New York:   Bedford/St. Martin's, 2010.*

3.            Scholarly Articles and Readings Provided Electronically on Electronic On-Line Writing Guide: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/

 

III.   Course Assessment Design  

1. Writing Assignments (40%)
1. There will be three in class writing assignments which require you to consider the evidence presented in the readings to address a particular historical question (Weeks 2, 4, and 5).
2. Discussion and Participation (25%)
1. All students will be expected to participate during class discussion.
2. I will also ask you to write responses to particular readings and also arrange the class into a debate format over issues and topics.   
3. Note: Lecture and site visits are mandatory.   
3. Final Exam (35%)
1. Cumulative Final Exam during week 5. 

 IV.  General Course Schedule

            1.         Week 1:   The Medieval World

a.         Issues:  Distinguishing characteristics of medieval societies from East Asia (Song Dynasty) to sub-Saharan Africa (Mali) and W. Europe

            2.         Week 2:  The Mongol Impact—Empire, Trade, Disease

a.         Issues:  Role of Nomads in History, Mongol Eurasian Empire:  Connections and Interactions; Black Death and its Consequence, Rise of post-Mongol political powers in China, India, Russia, and Near East, including the Ottoman Turks

            3.         Week 3:   Interactions and Commerce

a.         Issues:  Emergence of centralizing monarchies in W. Europe; New Church-State Relations; European ventures abroad:  Africa, Indian Ocean, and the Americas, Trade, Conquest, and Consequences; Columbian Exchange; Catholic Missionary Activity Abroad:  The Jesuits.        

            4.         Week 4:  World Connected/World Exploited

a.        Issues:   Corporate ventures and the pre-eminence of Northern Europe:  Dutch World Commercial Empire and the Rise of England; World-wide global exchange:  Silver, Sugar, Slaves, Tea, Tobacco, etc; Slave Trade; Responses to W. Europe Abroad:   Russia, China, Japan, the Ottomans; Crisis of the Seventeenth-Century.

            5.         Week 5:  Science, Religion, and the New Theology

 

***A complete syllabus will be posted soon***