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, January 31, 2014

Week 5 - The Nation State, Nationalism, and Statebuilding

Monday through Friday, February 3-7
Long periods: Work on the book review projects, reading and writing.
Parent Drop-in Day, Wednesday, 2/5
Book review drafts DUE by the end of the day, Friday, 2/7.
No quiz this week.

Day 1, Monday, 2/3: What is the nation?
In-class: Read the primary source handout from Ernst Renan, "What is the nation?," and discuss the following questions: What is the nation? In what ways is nationalism still a potent force in today's world? What do you think are nationalism's benefits in our times? Are there any drawbacks?
Homework for Day 2: Read “Nationalism and Statebuilding: Unifying Nations, 1850-1870,” in The West in the World, eds. Sherman/Salisbury, pp. 577-585 (up until the section "The Fight for National Unity in North America"), define the following key terms and persons and prepare notes on the question below:
Key terms: Nation, nation state, nationalism, Italian unification, German unification (Wars for unification), realpolitik, autocracy.
Key persons: Louis Cavour, Guiseppe Garibaldi, Otto von Bismarck.
Key Question: Analyze the methods used by leaders such as Cavour and Bismarck to achieve national unity, and compare with the efforts during the revolutions of 1848.  
 
Day 2: Italian and German Unification.
In-class: Discuss how Italian and German leaders unified their respective nations.
Homework for Day 3: Read “Nationalism and Statebuilding: Unifying Nations, 1850-1870,” in The West in the World, eds. Sherman/Salisbury, pp. 585-593, define the following key terms and persons and prepare notes on the question below. Note the chronology on p. 589.
Key terms: The Dual Monarchy, Balkan nationalism, the Crimean War, Alexander II's "Great Reforms," and serfs.
Key persons: Napoleon III, and Alexander II.
Key question #1: How did leaders such as Napoleon III in France and Alexander II in Russia employ nationalism in their countries' state-building?
Key question #2: In what ways was nationalism divisive in the Austrian and Ottoman empires?

Day 3: Nationalism in North America, Eastern Europe and the Ottoman Empire.
In-class: Discuss and compare the role of nationalism in North America, France, Russia, Austria and the Ottoman Empire.
Homework for Day 4, Friday, 2/7: Turn in draft of the book review project. 


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