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, April 28, 2016

Week 16 - 1989: The End of History?

Monday through Thursday, May 2-5, 2015.
Head's Holiday: Friday, 5/6 (No School).
Quiz 2.6 (the final online quiz!) opens Monday, May 2, at 3:30, and closes on Sunday evening, May 8 at midnight. This quiz covers the legacies of the Second World War, Cold War and Decolonization. 
Quiz 2.7 IN-CLASS matching quiz during long periods on key terms and persons from the legacies of the Second World War, Cold War and Decolonization. This quiz is open-note. 

Day 1: The End of History?
In-class: Review work on oral history interviews, last quizzes, capstone projects, and final exams.
Homework for Day 2/3: Read "The Collapse of Communism," in The West in the World, eds. Sherman/Salisbury, pp. 773-781, take notes on the following key terms and persons, and answer the following questions. 
Key terms and persons: The Berlin Wall, the Brezhnev Doctrine, Gorbachev, perestroika, glasnost, and the Velvet Revolution. 
Question #1: What were the causes of the collapse of communism?
Question #2: What were the effects of the end of communism?

Day 2/3 - Long periods: Capstone Research or Final Exam Prep.
Meet in the classroom for the matching Quiz 2.7, and then work in the library on the capstone projects, or review for the final exam. 
Capstone Due dates to remember:
- Capstone presentations and exhibitions will open Monday, 5/9 and run through the week of 5/26 (Please sign up in class for a presentation date).
- Final revisions to papers for extra credit submission to the Capstone archives are due no later than Friday, 5/13.
- Final revisions to capstone projects are due no later than Thursday, 5/26.

Day 2/3: The End of Communism.
In-class: Discuss the homework on the collapse of communism.
No homework over the weekend, EXCEPT work on the capstones or review for final exams. 

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