History 51

World History from 1500 to the Present (asynchronous web online course)

Catalog Description: A survey of the increased inter-connections of the world's civilizations from the conquest of the Americas to the dawn of the 21st century. Explores the history of the human community's political development, culture diversity, and economic globalization.

Prerequisite and requirements: None.

Number of Units: 3.

GE Category: C2 (Humanities).

This class is 100% asynchronous online with no class meetings or in-class examinations. World history in modern times is in part the story of worldwide attempts to respond, through resistance, accommodation, and cooperation, to the challenges of a new global civilization and its political, economic, and ecological disruptions. Amid the energies of intellectual revolution, nation-state building, and industrialization emerged a Europe that took over the world in the nineteenth century but almost destroyed itself in the twentieth. European institutions and ideas became so influential that “modern” and “Western” became synonymous as European imperialism and cultural power swept the globe. Yet this global international culture ceased to be exclusively European as people engaged it, both willingly and unwillingly, in East Asia, the Americas, Africa, the Islamic world, and elsewhere. The cultural conflict, economic transformation, ecological destruction, and political strife that came with this globalization continue to this day.

For more information, please view the syllabus for Summer 2021 (pdf format).