European Transformation and the New World integrates geography, history, economics, civics, and archaeology providing students with a comprehensive social studies experience. The study of these various disciplines also helps students understand how we construct knowledge from the past as well as how our ideas about the past inform our understanding of the modern world. In so doing students gain an inclusive understanding of the emergence of Europe from the Dark Ages, the flourishing of culture and innovations during the Renaissance, and the founding of the United States as a new nation. This course references themes and concepts of the ancient world from sixth grade and provides a basis for the study of the modern world in eighth grade.