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, April 15, 2016

Week 14 - The Cold War

Monday through Friday, April 18-22, 2016
Tuesday, 4/19: Award Ceremony - Cum laude Induction (Special schedule).
Wednesday, 4/20: The Upper School Talent Show (Special schedule).
Friday, 4/22: The Spring Fling (Special schedule).
Matching quiz on Fascism, Nazism, and the Holocaust on Friday, 4/22 (open note).

Day 1: The Origins of the Cold War. 
In-class: Wrap up discussions of the legacies of the Second World War, the Holocaust and Nuremberg Trials; begin to look at primary source evidence for the causes of the Cold War.  
Homework for Day 2/3: Read “Superpower Struggles and Global Transformation. The Cold War, 1945-1980s,” in The West in the World, eds. Sherman/Salisbury, pp. 737-747 (up until "East and West: Two Paths"), and answer the following questions.
Key Terms and Persons: Iron Curtain, the Cold War, the Berlin Blockade/Airlift, containment, the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, NATO, the Warsaw Pact, Senator Joseph McCarthy, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, China's Great Leap Forward, Mao's Cultural Revolution, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and détente.
Homework question #1: What was the Cold War? 
Homework question #2: Why did it occur? 

 Day 2/3 - Long Periods: Independent research presentations continue; time to work in library on oral history and capstone projects, and consult with instructors, librarians, and tutors.
Day 2/3 - Short Periods: The Cold War Heats Up.
In-class: Discuss the origins of the Cold War.
Homework for Day 4: Read “Superpower Struggles and Global Transformation. The Cold War, 1945-1980s,” in The West in the World, eds. Sherman/Salisbury, pp. 747-752, and answer the following questions.
Key Terms and Persons: The United Nations, the Berlin Wall, the Prague Spring, the welfare state, European integration, and the European Economic Community.
Homework question#1: How and why did Western Europe recover so quickly by the 1960s with such unprecedented prosperity and relative stability?
Homework question #2: How did recovery compare in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union?

Day 4: Superpower Struggles and Global Transformations.
In-class: Matching quiz on Fascism, Nazism, and the Holocaust (open note). Discuss the effects of the Cold War in Eastern and Western Europe and around the world.
Homework over the weekend: Work on oral history interview transcripts and/or the capstone projects; oral history transcripts are DUE by Friday, April 29 at the end of the day.
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