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.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Week 8: War and Revolution, Part II

February 19-22

*Leading questions: What were the causes of the war, and who, if anyone, was to blame? How did people experience the war on the home fronts and battle fronts? Was the Peace of Paris a success or failure? Why is the First World War considered a dividing line between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries? Why did the Russian Revolution occur? How and why were the Bolsheviks able to gain and maintain power?
**Readings: Roberts, "The Great War 1914-1918," in A Short History of the World, 427-433, Sherman, "War and Revolution: 1914-1920," in Western Civilization, 203-216

Day 1: The Approach to Disaster: The Origins of the First World War
In-class: Look at the timeline and introduction to "War and Revolution: 1914-1920," in: Sherman, Western Civilization, pp. 207-208. 
*Secondary sources: Hartmut Pogge von Strandmann "Germany and the Coming of the War,"and Hew Strachan "The Outbreak of the First World War," in: Sherman, Western Civilization, pp. 216-217; review the reading from the weekend, "The Approach to Disaster" and "The Great War 1914-18," in: Roberts, A Short History of the World, pp. 427-433, and discuss the origins of the First World War. 
**Discuss the homework question: What were the origins of the First World War? (Will be collected at the end of the week).
***Key Terms and Persons: Sarajevo, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Gavrilo Princip, The Black Hand, The Dreadnought, The Triple Entente, The Triple Alliance, The Schlieffen Plan, Belgium Neutrality. 

Homework:
*Primary sources: "Reports from the Front: The Battle for Verdun, 1916," Wilfred Owen, "Dulce et Decorum Est," Evelyn Bluecher, "The Home Front," in: Sherman, Western Civilization, pp. 208-209; see also "The Great War 1914-18," in: Roberts, A Short History of the World, pp.431-433.
**Visual sources: "World War I: The Front Lines," C. R. W. Nevinson, "The Paths of Glory," and "World War I: The Home Front and Women," in: Sherman, Western Civilization, pp. 213-215.
***Using the primary sources, prepare an answer to the question: What was the war like on the front lines and the home fronts (Will be collected at the end of the week)?   

Additional Resources:
The British National Archives: The First World War Sources for History 
PBS Portal to further resources on the Great War 

Day 2: The Experience and Impact of the Great War
In-class: Read Bonnie S. Anderson and Judith P. Zinsser, "Women, Work, and World War I," in Sherman, Western Civilization, pp. 218-219; discuss the exprience and impact of the First World War.  
***Key Terms and Persons: Verdun, The War Poets, Wilfred Owen, Evelyn Bluecher, the "Silent Dictatorship".

Homework:
*Primary sources: "Program of the Provisional Government in Russia," V. I. Lenin, "April Theses: The Bolshevik Opposition," and V. I. Lenin, "Speech to the Petrograd Soviet - November 8, 1917: The Bolsheviks in Power," in: Sherman, Western Civilization, pp. 210-211.
**Secondary source: Robert Service, "The Russian Revolution," in Sherman, Western Civilization, p. 220; see also"Institutionalized Revolution," in; Roberts, A Short History of the World, pp. 436-439.
***Using both the primary and secondary sources, prepare an answer to the question:  Why did Bolsheviks resort to terror in the Russian Revolution?

Day 3: The Russian Revolution 
In-class: Discuss the origins of the Russian Revolution and the Bolshevik resort to terror.
***Key Terms: Nicholas II of Russia, The Russian Revolution, Soviets, V. I. Lenin, the Mensheviks, the Bolsheviks, and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

Homework:
*Primary source: Woodrow Wilson, "The Fourteen Points," in: Sherman, Western Civilization, pp. 211-212.
**Secondary sources: Gordon A. Craig, "The Revolution in War and Diplomacy," and Arthur Walworth, "Peace and Diplomacy," in: Sherman, Western Civilization, pp. 217-218 and 219-220; see also "The Post-War World," in: Roberts, A Short History of the World, pp. 433-436.
***Using the secondary sources, prepare an answer to the question: What were the effects of the First World War?  
****Key Terms and Persons: Woodrow Wilson, Wilson's Fourteen Points, Armistice, the Paris Peace Conference, and the League of Nations.
*****Projects: IR: reading/research; submit formal proposals for capstone projects.

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