Europe and the World: Capitalism, Culture, and Politics (1200-1750)

After completing this course students are able to:

1. identify main trends in pre-modern european and world history in the period 1200-175
2. distinguish different historiographical interpretations of the late medieval and early modern period
3. interpret primary source material from the period under study
4. communicate findings orally and in writing      

Relationship between assessment and learning goals:

Description of assignment	Assesses course goals
1. assignment 1 2. assignment 2 3. final assignment	1,3,4 2,4 1,2,3,4

This course gives a chronological overview of European history in the early modern period, while also covering the borderlines with medieval, modern, and world history. Developments during the early modern period, which spans from roughly the late fifteenth to late eighteenth century, laid the foundations for present-day Europe. States took on recognizable forms, merchants discovered new markets within and outside of Europe, and the Reformation, the scientific revolution and the Enlightenment yielded new insights and worldviews. Our perspective will include economic, political, social, and cultural aspects of different periods in the early modern age. The course develops a critical perspective towards widely disseminated notions about modernization, that described medieval and early modern society only as ‘stages’ in the development to modernity. Therefore, the course focuses on periods of a shorter time span within the early modern period, uncovering their idiosyncrasies as well as the interaction between different spheres: economy, political structures, mentality, etc. Generally speaking, specific themes are selected to enable the students to develop insight into the characteristics of these periods. From this starting point, finally, the subject of long term developments and trends are addressed. The subtle balance between the need to see similarities, structures and developments, and the necessity to discover ‘the past as another country’ forms the nexus of the course.
 
Format
The course begins with a short introductory lecture highlighting central themes. Having already studied the texts, students can use these lectures to ask any questions they may have. The core element follows in the longer sessions during which students give short oral presentations and chair the resulting discussions. Historical sources are used for classroom close-reading and students exchange their interpretations of the texts; questions from the course manual can also be debated. Students have the main responsibility for this longer session, guided by the teacher.