The history of Britain, albeit with primary emphasis on England, from the advent of the Tudors through the revolutions of the mid-17th century. Principal concentration on political, religious, and social developments. No prerequisites other than some sense of general European history in the age of the Reformation.

In 1485 at the conclusion of the Wars of the Roses, England was a small and impotent European nation whose government had virtually collapsed and whose intellectual, cultural, and political institutions were insignificant and outdated by broader European standards. Two centuries later, in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, England was an emerging superpower with a global empire, it was one of the thriving intellectual and cultural centers of Europe, and it had developed new political ideas and institutions which would soon sweep the world. History 151A is at heart an attempt to understand this remarkable transformation, a process which will take us through such topics as the Protestant Reformation and the rise of puritanism; the English Revolution and the development of Republicanism; and the growth of English Imperialism from Ireland to North America and the development of the slave trade. It was also take us, along the way, through sex scandals at the royal court, early modern communism, the conundrum of Queen Elizabeth’s gender, and Sir Francis Drake’s astonishment at the freezing cold of San Francisco Bay.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills