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HIS-122 Modern World History

A survey of modern world history since 1500; from the European colonization of the Americas in the 16th-17th centuries, to the 18th century Atlantic Revolutions, the 19th century Latin American Wars of Independence and the "Scramble for Africa," the Ming and Qing dynasties of China, the Meiji Restoration in Japan, the Russian Revolution, the 20th century age of total War, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and the Fall of the Soviet bloc Significant attention will be given to the frequent, and consequential, interactions between global civilizations and cultures during the "Age of Overseas Discovery," the "New Imperialism" of the Victorian era, World Wars I and II, the Great Depression, the birth of the atomic age, the Cold War, the post-1945 era of decolonization, and emergence of the European Union and the Third World. This course carries SUNY General World History and Civic Engagement credit.

Credits

3

Department

  • Social Science

Course Rotation Schedule

  • Fall: In Person, Online
  • Spring: In Person, Online
For more detailed course information view the Course Outline

HIS 122: Modern World History

Department

Social Science

Course Description

A survey of modern world history since 1500; from the European colonization of the Americas in the 16th-17th centuries, to the 18th century Atlantic Revolutions, the 19th century Latin American Wars of Independence and the "Scramble for Africa," the Ming and Qing dynasties of China, the Meiji Restoration in Japan, the Russian Revolution, the 20th century age of total War, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and the Fall of the Soviet bloc Significant attention will be given to the frequent, and consequential, interactions between global civilizations and cultures during the "Age of Overseas Discovery," the "New Imperialism" of the Victorian era, World Wars I and II, the Great Depression, the birth of the atomic age, the Cold War, the post-1945 era of decolonization, and emergence of the European Union and the Third World. This course carries SUNY General World History and Civic Engagement credit.

Credit Hours

3

Contact Hours

Lecture3
Lab0
Other0

Grading Scheme

Letter

SUNY General Education Course

  • World Languages

Course Learning Outcomes

  1. Students will identify some of the major events, issues and themes of modern world history.
  2. Students will describe the distinctive features, and historical development, of at least one modern civilization or culture in relation to other regions of the world.
  3. Students will describe the structures, systems, and interrelationships among civilizations and cultures after 1500, and their impact on well-being and sustainability during the modern era.

Topic Outline

  1. 1. New encounters and European exploration
  2.     a. The age of global exploration
  3.     b. Aztec and Inca Empires
  4.     c. The "Columbian Exchange"
  5.     d. Portuguese and Spanish empires
  6.     e. British, French, and Dutch colonialism
  7.     f. Africa and the slave trade
  8.     g. The "Little Ice Age"
  9. 2. Europe enters the modern age
  10.     a. Renaissance, Reformation, and Scientific Revolution
  11.     b. Absolutism and constitutionalism
  12.     c. The Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment
  13.     d. The French Revolution and the Age of Napoleon
  14. 3. The Muslim empires
  15.     a. The Ottoman Empire and Islam
  16.     b. The Safavid Empire (Persia)
  17.     c. The Mughal Empire (India)
  18. 4. The East Asian world
  19.     a. Southeast Asia: Indonesia and Malaysia
  20.     b. The Ming dynasty in China
  21.     c. The Qing dynasty (Manchus)
  22.     d. Japan: from civil war to the Tokugawa shogunate
  23.     e. Korea: under the Chinese shadow
  24. 5. The 19th-century Atlantic world
  25.     a. American Revolution
  26.     b. Wars for independence in Latin America
  27. 6. Industrialization, nationalism, and reform in the 19th century
  28.     a. Global impact of the Industrial Revolution
  29.     b. Technological change: from the transatlantic (telegraph) cable to the
  30.        transcontinental railway
  31.     c. Marxism, socialism, and class conflict
  32.     d. The Victorian "Great Age of Reform"
  33.     e. Nation-building in Europe and the Western Hemisphere
  34.     f. Russia under the czars
  35. 7. "New imperialism" in Southeast Asia, India, and Africa
  36.     a. Motivations and means
  37.     b. Pax Britannica: the apogee of the British Empire
  38.     c. The Raj, the development of India, and the Indian Mutiny of 1857
  39.     d. French Indochina
  40.     e. The "Scramble for Africa"
  41.     f. South Africa: the Boer War and the creation of the apartheid system
  42. 8. The fall of China and rise of Japan
  43.     a. Qing collapse
  44.     b. Sun Yat-sen and the Republic of China
  45.     c. Opium War and the Boxer Rebellion
  46.     d. Japan: Westernization and the Meiji Restoration
  47. 9. First World War, 1914–19
  48.     a. Short-term and long-range causes
  49.     b. Trench warfare and the Western Front
  50.     c. The Eastern Front and peripheral theaters (Africa and the Middle East)
  51.     d. Lenin, the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, and communist ideology
  52.     e. Paris peace treaties, mandates, and the postwar world settlement
  53. 10. Interwar period, 1920–39
  54.     a. India: Gandhi and Nehru, Muslims and Hindus
  55.     b. Ottoman collapse and the creation of the modern Middle East
  56.     c. Chiang, Mao, and the emergence of Communist China
  57.     d. Women's suffrage and mass consumerism
  58.     e. The Great Depression
  59.     f. Imperial Japan
  60.     g. Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy
  61.     h. Stalinist Russia
  62. 11. Second World War: the global perspective, 1939–45
  63.     a. Revisionism and the road to World War II
  64.     b. Spanish Civil War
  65.     c. War in Western Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, 1939–45
  66.     d. The Holocaust
  67.     e. Eastern Front, 1941–45
  68.     f. Pacific War, 1941–45
  69.     g. Hiroshima and the birth of the atomic age
  70.     h. Tehran, Yalta, Potsdam, and wartime diplomacy
  71. 12. The Cold War and a bipolar world
  72.     a. The Iron Curtain and the emergence of the Soviet bloc
  73.     b. The global effects of "Americanization" and bipolarity
  74.     c. NATO, the Warsaw Pact, and the U.N.
  75.     d. From Stalin to the Brezhnev era
  76.     e. East Asia in transition, 1950–1976
  77.         i. Mao Zedong, Communist China, the "Great Leap Forward," and the
  78.            "Cultural Revolution"
  79.         ii. The Korean War
  80.         iii. The Vietnam War
  81.     f. Decolonization and independence in India, Africa, and the Middle East
  82.     g. The global "space race"
  83. 13. Post–Cold War world
  84.     a. Collapse of the Soviet bloc
  85.     b. Collapse of Yugoslavia and the resurgence of Serb nationalism
  86.     c. Arab-Israeli conflict, Arab nationalism, and the transformation of the
  87.        Islamic world
  88.     d. Global interdependence in the modern era
  89.         i. European integration and the EU
  90.         ii. China's market reforms and shifting foreign policy
  91.         iii. Third World
  92.         iv. 9/11 and the global "War on Terror"
  93.         v. Pandemics and climate change