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.

Thursday, October 1, 2015

Week 7 - The Italian Renaissance

Monday through Friday, October 5-9, 2015
*Leading Questions: In what ways was the Renaissance a new development, strikingly different from the preceding Middle Ages? How might the "newness" of these developments be minimized or reinterpreted as an evolutionary continuation of the Middle Ages? How did the Northern Renaissance differ from the Italian Renaissance? What was particularly humanistic about the cultural productions and attitudes of the Renaissance? How were ideas like those found in Machiavelli's The Prince appropriate to the historical realities of his time?
**Readings: Sherman, "The Renaissance," in Western Civilization, 291-315; SEE ALSO: Online Primary Source Investigator, Chapter 10, “A New Spirit in the West”.
- Remember to prepare Current Events Chronicle sections of student binders for review NEXT WEEK. 
- Also remember to write a self reflection on your work as part of the grading process for the final week of the quarter; DUE by Friday, 10/16.

Day 1: The “Rebirth” of Western Civilization.
- In-class: Current event chronicles and reports.
- In-class: Read "A New Spirit in the West: The Renaissance, ca. 1300-1640," in Western Civilization, ed. Dennis Sherman and Joyce Salisbury, pp. 291-298 (including the inset text on the printing press; stop before "The Politics on Individual Effort"). Make sure to take notes on the following key terms and persons, and answer the following question, which will be graded as part of preparation and participation in the discussion on Day 2/3 during library time.
- Key Question: Why did the Renaissance start in Italy?
- Key Terms: The Renaissance, the Middle Ages, the Black Death, the classics, individualism, secularism, humanism and patrons.
- Key Persons: Giotto, Petrarch, Michelangelo, Alberti, Christine de Pizan, and Cosimo de Medici.

Day 2/3: The Renaissance in Art History
- In-class during long periods:  Guest lectures by Ellen Zieselmann, Curator of Education at New Mexico Museum of Art.
- Homework for Day 4: Read "The Politics of Individual Effort," in Western Civilization, ed. Dennis Sherman and Joyce Salisbury, pp. 298-304. Make sure to take notes on the following key terms and persons, which will be the basis for a graded discussion in class on Day 4.
- Key Terms: Italian city states, the Bonfire of the Vanities, the Papal States, the Great Schism, and theocracy.
- Key Persons: The Medici, Savanarola, the Borgia family, Pope Julius II, and Machiavelli.


Day 2/3: Independent Research.
In-library: Check homework notes on the reasons why the Renaissance started in Italy; time for research, reading, composition, and consultation with instructor, librarians and tutors.

Day 4: Modern or Medieval? The Continuities and Breaks in European Culture.
- In-class: Create PERSIA notes on 14th/15th-century Italy.
- In-class: Discuss the key terms and persons and homework question. ALSO: Read, interpret and discuss the primary source handout: #1. Francesco Petrarch's Letter to Boccaccio, #2. Peter Paul Vergerio, "On the Liberal Arts," p. 6, and #3.  Raphael's painting, "The School of Athens: Art and Classical Culture," found on p. 313 of the textbook.
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