Mar 28, 2024  
2013-2014 Official General Catalog 
    
2013-2014 Official General Catalog [Archived Catalog]

HIS 100 - The Rise of the West: 1500-Present


Introduction to both the study of history and the evolution of modern society, including its basic ideas, values and institutions, through an examination of Western Civilization.  The Age of Transition - the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment.  The Industrial Transformation, appearance of modern constitutional and authoritarian government, major socio-political ideologies - liberalism, socialism, communism, nationalism, imperialism, fascism, totalitarianism.  The intellectual crisis of the 20th Century, World Wars I and II; the Rise and Fall of the Cold War.

Credits: 3
Hours
3 Class Hours
Course Profile
Learning Outcomes of the Course:

Upon successful completion of this course the student will be able to:

1.  Distinguish primary and secondary sources in history.
2.  Read primary sources in history and formulate pertinent inferences and interpretations.
3.  Identify some of the methods used by historians and social scientists to study the past.
4.  Identify and describe the main political, economic, social, cultural, and religious conditions of late medieval/early modern Europe (1450-1789).
5.  Identify and explain the increasing conflicts between a traditional, aristocratic society and emerging “modern” movements in the economic, political, social, cultural, and religious arenas.
6.  Describe the industrial transformation and evaluate its consequences.
7.  Identify and describe the movements of the 19th century age of “isms,” including Imperialism, and evaluate their impact on European and non-European societies.
8.  Explain why World War I was the product of mounting tensions within an increasingly “modern” European nation-state system.
9.  Explain and assess how WWII grew out of a failed European peace and a series of interwar crises.
10.  Explain and evaluate the impact of communism and fascism on 20th century European civilization.
11.  Identify and analyze the competing historical interpretations of the Cold War and the subsequent collapose of the Soviet Union.
12.  Describe the factors giving rise to decolonization of the European empires and evaluate its consequences, focusing especially on the rise of globalization.