Course Description

Welcome! This site is for students, parents, teachers and anyone else interested in the tenth-grade World History 2 Course at Santa Fe Prep.

The overall course covers the history of the world from roughly 1500 to the present. The first quarter opens with the time when Asia was the center of world affairs, then traces European encounters with Asia and the Americas, and the complex interactions and consequences of the so-called "Columbian Exchange" between Europe, Asia, the Americas and Africa. The first quarter ends with a survey of the European Renaissance and Reformation, in both its local and global dimensions. The second quarter will focus on the rise of absolute monarchies and new ideas and practices, especially with the scientific revolution and Enlightenment. The second quarter ends with assessments of the legacies of the French Revolution, Napoleon and the emergence of the British Empire. The third quarter starts with the implications of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars in the wake of the Congress of Vienna, i.e., the discourse on rights, reaction, revolution and reform, the rise of new ideologies, in particular, Classical Liberalism, nationalism, and romanticism, and conservative reactions to the changes wrought by the American and French Revolutions. The course then examines the rise of industrialization and social change in 19th-century Europe, and the emergence of middle and working class cultures, followed by new iterations of liberalism and conservatism, the proliferation of more ideologies, e.g., socialism, communism, ultranationalism, social Darwinism, and antisemitism. Then the course examines the unification of the Italian and German nation states, and the creation of the modern welfare state. From there the course traces the rise of a new wave of Western imperialism, followed by the rest of the world's reactions to the rise of European empires and ideas, and in particular, the emergence of industrial Japan and their surprising victory over Russia. The third quarter ends with the outbreak of the First World War. The fourth and final quarter surveys the effects of the First World War, followed by the brief peak of classical liberal nation states and promises for peace, and the rapid rise of authoritarianism, in both communist and fascist variations, with a special focus on the rise of Nazism, the Nazi racial transformation of Germany and the Holocaust and Shoah of modern Europe. The fourth quarter concludes by looking at the causes and effects of the Second World War, the Cold War, the end of European empires in Asia and Africa, the emergence of the Modern Middle East and China, the end of the Cold War, history since 1989, all the way to the present, including current events.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Week 6 Reading Questions: Africa in the World



For Monday, October 1, 2012:
1. Follow the world news over the weekend, and be prepared to talk about what is going on.

2. Start strategically reading the book you have selected for your research and the upcoming book review project. (For some, this still means turning your research proposal in and selecting a book to begin your research and the book review process).

3. Read Charles Mann, "Family Values," in 1493, pp. 393-410, and provide comprehensive answers to the following questions (TURN IN in class):

What was the casta system, how was it supposed to function, and how did it work?
See also Maria Elena Martinez, "Social Order in Spanish New World", PBS online


For Day 2: Read Charles Mann, "Bad Beginnings," in 1493, pp. 369-382, and prepare comprehensive answers to the following questions for discussion (DO NOT TURN IN; just prepare for discussion and reading quiz):

What is the history of sugar? How does the history of sugar connect to the history of slavery and what were the results? 
For Day 3: Read Charles Mann, "Forest of Fugitives," in 1493, pp. 421-442, and prepare comprehensive answers to the following questions for discussion (DO NOT TURN IN; just prepare for discussion and reading quiz):

What are quilombos and what do they tell us about the early modern history of Africans in the Americas? 
In other words, what are the myths about Africans, particularly African slaves in the Americas, and what does the latest research tell us?
 
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)