This course is an introduction to European history from around 1500 to the present. The central questions that it addresses are how and why Europe—a small, relatively poor, and politically fragmented place—became the motor of globalization and a world civilization in its own right. Put differently, how did "western" become an adjective that, for better and often for worse, stands in place of "modern".

This course introduces students to European history from around 1500 to the present. During this time, a small, poor, and fragmented Europe became a world civilization, whose political, cultural, and economic power now touch the four corners of the globe. Our course will ask how and why this happened. How, in other words, did “modernity” become “western,” for better and worse? As we cover this half-millennium, we will look at major landmarks in European cultural, intellectual, social, political, and economic development: the Renaissance, the epochal expansion of Europe into the new world, the break-up of Latin Christianity into the competing religious communities, the construction of the modern state, the formation of overseas empires and the coming of capitalism, the Scientific Revolution, the French Revolution, liberalism and the industrial revolution, socialism and the rise of labor, modern colonialism, the world wars, communism and capitalism, decolonization, the Cold War, and the formation of the European Union.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills