Europe and the World in the Early Modern Era:From the “Age of Discovery” to WWI.

The most important manuscript map surviving from the early Age of Discovery, the Cantino World Map is named for Alberto Cantino, an Italian diplomatic agent in Lisbon who obtained it in 1502 for the Duke of Ferrara. It was covertly copied without authorization. It incorporates extensive new geographical information based on four series of voyages: Columbus to the Caribbean, Pedro Álvarez Cabral to Brazil, Vasco de Gama followed by Cabral to eastern Africa and India, and the brothers Corte-Real to Greenland and Newfoundland. Except for Columbus, all had sailed under the Portuguese flag. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CantinoPlanisphere.png)

Globalization and Global InteractionsIn the world today there is a great deal of discussion about the term Globalization. While globalization has to deal with global interactions, it is not a very easy term to pin down. In their book Western Civilizations, Judith G. Coffin and Robert C. Stacey point out some of the difficulties with the term globalization: “[it] can be misleading, for it suggests a uniform, leveling process, one that operates similarly everywhere. Globalization has very different and disparate effects, effects shaped by vast asymmetries of power and wealth between nations or regions.”1 That is why I use term global interactions, by this I mean when people of different cultures or geographic regions interact with each other, these processes are not universal – they are unique for each case. They are often also reciprocal interactions where both parties will be impacted by the interaction.

Scope and ObjectivesThis class will show that these global interactions are not particularly new, and in fact they have been happening for some time throughout history. This class will also explore some of the similarities and differences in the ways that global interaction has taken place in the Early Modern World. Because the scope of this class is so massive – this is after all a survey course

1 Judith G. Coffin and Robert C. Stacey, Western Civilizations: their culture & their history (New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 2009) 764.

that attempts to covers world history from the events leading up to the “Age of Discovery” until the events leading up to World War I – there will be things that will have to be glossed over. This does not mean that the events not covered in this course are not important to the study of World History, but because of time and thematic constraints there is only so much material that we will be able to cover.

Map of Medieval Saharan Trade routes circa 1400 CE, centered on Niger

Class PoliciesAttendance & Participation – Because of the size of this class, attendance is not kept explicitly. However, this is a not a class that you will be able to pass without showing up and doing the work, and in order to receive a good grade in this class you will need to show up and do your work.Make-up Exams – Apart from documented cases of emergencies, make-up exams will not be given. If you know ahead of time that you will not be able to make it to an exam, tell me so that we may be able to work out taking the exam in advance sometime.Honor Code – Plagiarism & cheating are wrong. The university’s policies on these issues can be viewed in its honor code (attach link to university’s honor code).Grades – The grading scale for this class is as follows: 59 and below = F; 60-62.999 = D-; 63-66.999 = D; 67-69.999 = D+; 70-72.999 = C-; 73-76.999 = C; 77-79.999 = C+; 80-82.999 = B-; 83-86.999 = B; 87-89.999 = B+; 90-92.999 = A-; 93-100 = A.

AssignmentsThere will be three exams spaced evenly throughout the semester and a final exam that will be a take home exam that is due digitally to me by the posted exam time. These exams will not only demonstrate the student’s knowledge of the material covered in class, but also their ability to write concisely and think critically about what they have learned.

The First Three Exams – will be a non-cumulative mixture of identification of terms (people, places, events) and short essays that will be done in class.The Final Exam – as previously mentioned will be a take home exam. This exam will consist of 4 questions, one each coming from the 4 sections of the class that are broken up by the other exams. Of these 4 questions the student will chose 2 and write a 3-5 page essay for each question. These essays will be open note and therefore will be more scrutinized and graded harder than the previous in class short essays.

<-Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川 家康?, January 31, 1543 – June 1, 1616) First Tokugawa Shogun

Class ScheduleWeek 1 - Introductions1st Class: Introduction to the course and its structure and goals.2nd Class: The World Before “The Age of Discovery”

Before European Hegemony: The World System A.D. 1250-1350 , Janet Abu-Lughod (1989) “How To Read a Document,” Mark A. Kishlansky

3rd Class: Venetian & Genoan Maritime Trade A.F.L. Beeston “Idrisi’s Account of the British Isles” (1950) Rustichello da Pisa & Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo, c. 1300 (translated with notes by

Hugh Murray, 1845).

Week 2 – Iberia & The World1st Class: Caravel Ships & Royal Ambitions

Explore George R. Shwarz’s “Caravel” Website: http://nautarch.tamu.edu/shiplab/01George/index.htm

2nd Class: Portuguese Empire Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)

3rd Class: Spanish Empire The Jesuits: their foundation and history, Barbara Frances M. Courson (1879)

Week 3 – Inca, Aztec & the Conquistadors1st Class: The Four Lands Together – The Incan Empire

History of the Incas, Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa c. 1570 (translated with notes by Sir Clements Markham, K.C.B., 1907)

2nd Class: The People from Aztlan – The Aztec Empire ““Their Cortés and Our Cortés”: Spanish Colonialism and Aztec Representation,” Michael

Schreffler (2009)3rd Class: Conflict & Los Conquistadores

The second letter sent from Fernando Cortés to Emperor Charles V (1519)

Tokugawa Yoshinobu (1867-1868), the last Shogun, in French military uniform, c.1867->

Week 4 – The Emergence of Other European Exploration & Lasting Effects of the Age1st Class: Dutch 80 Years War & the new Dutch maritime power

“Dutch Maritime Power and the Colonial Status Quo, 1585-1614” Engel Sluiter (1942) Letter from William II, King of the Netherlands, to Bakufu, Shogun of Japan, (1845)

2nd Class: English Emergence on the scene Journals of Captain James Cook (1769)

3rd Class: Lasting Global Impacts of “The Age of Discovery” The Age of Discovery: Impact on Philippine culture and society, Belinda A. Aquino & Dean T.

Alegado

Week 5 1 st Class: EXAM

Week 5 – Ming & Qing Dynasty 2nd Class: The Empire of the Great Ming

Miu Family Instructions Visual Source: Confucian Architecture

3rd Class: Nomads from the North – The Qing Dynasty Lin Zexu Kang Yuwei, Empress Dowager, and Liang Qichao

Week 6 – Japan & the Tokugawa Shogunate1st Class: Warring Countries

Tokugawa Laws and Instruction Visual Source: The Art of the “Floating World”

2nd Class: Closure of Ports3rd Class: Re-opening of Ports & the Meji Reform

Sakuma; Oki; Okubo; Ito; Yamagata

Week 7 – Russia & the Romanovs1st Class: Ivan the Terrible & Time of Trouble2nd Class: Opening of Siberia3rd Class: Peter the Great

Peter the Great’s Russian Reforms: Decrees on the Duties of the Senate; Education of the Nobility; Students Abroad; Factories; the Academy

The Pugachev Rising – Peasants and Government Reactions

SPRING BREAK

Week 8 – Early Ottoman Empire & Persian Empires1st Class: “Osman’s Dream” – The Ottoman Empire

Islamic Art & Architecture, Robert Hillenbrand (1999) – Chapter 10: The Ottomans2nd Class: Safavid Empire & Abbas the Great

Islamic Art & Architecture, Robert Hillenbrand (1999) – Chapter 2: The Abbasids3 rd Class: EXAM

A token from 1793, showing the East India Company's "bale mark" on the right face

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00routesdata/1600_1699/eastindiacompany/eastindiacompany.html

Week 9 – Africa Leading up to the Dutch 1st Class: Timbuktu & Mali Kingdom2nd Class: Songhai Kingdom 3rd Class: Sea Pirate States & A Dutch Colony in Cape Town

Week 10 – India & East India Co.1st Class: Babar Invades India & Akbar the Great

Memoirs of Babur2nd Class: Origins of the East India Company

Rammohun Roy, The British East India Company, and the Abolition of Sati3rd Class: East India Company

Romesh Chunder Dutt

Week 11 – Africa & Europe1st Class: Slave Trade

Notes on the French Slave Trade, Joseph Crassons de Medeuil (1784-1785) “The Collaboration of Labor: Slaves, Empires and Globalization in the Atlantic World, ca. 1600-

1850,” Richard Drayton (2002)2nd Class: “Scramble for Africa”

Social Life of the Swahilis, Carl Veltin (Late 19th Cent.) Imperialism, J. A. Hobson (1902) Confession of Faith, Cecil Rhodes (1877) The Diary of Hamman Yaji (1920)

3 rd Class: EXAM

Week 12 – Conflicts in Colonization1st Class: French War in Algeria2nd Class: South African Wars

The White Man’s Burden, Rudyard Kipling (1899) Shooting an Elephant, George Orwell (1936)

3rd Class: French & Indian/British & French War

Week 13 – Revoluciòn 1st Class: Liberté, Égalité Fraternité – French Revolution & Napoleon

What is the Third Estate? Abbé de Sieyés (1789) The Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789); The Declaration of the

Rights of Woman, Olympe de Gouges (1791) Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke (1790) Report on the Principles of Political Morality, Maximilien

Robespierre (1794) The Napoleonic Code (The French Civil Code), Napoleon Bonaparte (1804

2nd Class: Iroquois League, American Independence & Spanish American Wars The Declaration of Independence,Thomas Jefferson (1776)

3rd Class: Revolutions of 1848, Greek Independence & Indian Rebellion of 1857 Mughal Proclamation

2000-wén banknote from

the Qing Dynasty

Week 14 – Approaching a World at War1st Class: Ottoman Troubles & Napoleon in Egypt2nd Class: Russo-Japanese Wars, Turkish/Russian Wars

Memoirs of Catherine the Great (c. 1755)3rd Class: The Crimean War

Week 15 – A Bullet that led to Bombs1st Class: Trouble in Europe Leading up to WWI 2nd Class: REVIEW DAY