Journal Entry History

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Spring 2022 HISTORY 111 – WORLD HISTORY SINCE 1500 (Gen. Ed., HS, DG)

University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Humanity and Fine Arts, Department of History

University Without Walls Instructor: Jorge Minella

[email protected] COURSE DESCRIPTION In this course, students are invited to explore the continuities, connections, trends, and ruptures in world history from the late fifteenth century to the present. Throughout the semester, we will investigate the historical processes that formed the modern world, including cross-cultural interactions, capitalism, global migration, colonization and decolonization, nationalism and imperialism, trade networks, revolutions, and war. The course emphasizes the multiple perspectives and experiences that shaped world history, including the determinant role played by non-European societies in making the modern world. Course readings include a textbook and a set of primary sources that provide a window into the diverse human experiences in history. Course assignments include quizzes, primary sources and film discussion, and a final essay. General Education (HS, DG) General education courses aim to broaden the students’ minds and experiences by equipping them to act thoughtfully and responsibly in society, make informed judgments, and live lives dedicated to service, continued learning, and the joys of intellectual pursuits for a lifetime. This specific course offers students an overview of world history since 1500, broadening their cultural, historical, and philosophical perspectives. Additionally, course assignments are designed to improve critical and analytical skills essential to students’ intellectual and professional success. This course fulfills the Historical Studies (HS) and Global Diversity (DG) requirements, as described below. Historical Studies (HS): The course’s readings, lectures, and assignments will expose students to historically significant events, developments, or processes that formed the modern world as a way of teaching them to understand the present and inquiry into the future. The course assignments are centered on the collective discussion of historical documents, allowing students to understand history as an exercise of rigorous research and interpretation, rather than a collection of facts, dates, and names, or simply a matter of opinion. Global Diversity (DG): This course offers the opportunity to learn about societies, cultures, and environments beyond the boundaries of the United States. The course invites students to read about, discuss, and analyze a wide range of social, cultural, and political perspectives that have shaped the modern world. By discussing global historical processes, the course explores aspects of the histories of Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe, focusing on the complex interaction among them from the late

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fifteenth century onwards. The primary sources discussed in the assignments include documents produced by people from different times and parts of the world, exemplifying diverse experiences and points of view. Learning Objectives Students will be able to:

• Develop an appreciation for historical perspective and global diversity. • Identify the basic concepts, interpretations, and trends of world history since

1500. • Discuss the continuities, connections, and ruptures of the historical processes of

modernity. • Interpret primary sources.

REQUIRED BOOKS Bonnie G. Smith, Marc Van De Mieroop, Richard von Glahn, Kris Lane. World in the Making: A Global History, Volume Two: Since 1300. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. Additional readings are available on Blackboard Learn, the course’s learning management system. ONLINE COURSE EXPECTATIONS (NETIQUETTE) The course uses Blackboard Learn. Although this course is fully asynchronous, it should not be a lonely venture. Students benefit more from forming a learning community. A learning community is a group of people who are willing to help each other. Students will be required to communicate with each other and the instructor in discussion forums, e-mail, and other means during the course. Keep in mind that respectful and meaningful communication is essential to forming a thriving learning community capable of attaining the course’s goals. I will communicate with the class through Blackboard’s announcements and a discussion forum that will remain open throughout the course to exchange ideas, impressions, and questions about the activities and materials we discuss. Please, feel free to reach out to me privately at any point during the course. You can use Blackboard’s Mail Tool or directly write to my e-mail. Please, expect 24 hours for an answer. Online office hours are available by appointment. I strongly encourage you to reach me to schedule an online meeting to talk about the readings, assignments, or any problem that may appear during the course.

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DISABILITY STATEMENT The University of Massachusetts Amherst is committed to making reasonable, effective and appropriate accommodations to meet the needs of students with disabilities and help create a barrier-free campus. If you have a documented disability on file with Disability Services (www.umass.edu/disability), you may be eligible for reasonable accommodations in this course. If your disability requires an accommodation, please notify your instructors as early as possible in the course so that we may make arrangements in a timely manner. TECHNICAL SUPPORT Please let me know if you have any questions about navigating the course’s learning management system. Alternatively, if you need assistance with technical support to participate in this course, please review our Student Orientation & Resource Area or Contact 24/7 Support. You will have the option of e-mail, live chat, or phone. ACADEMIC HONESTY POLICY STATEMENT Since the integrity of the academic enterprise of any institution of higher education requires honesty in scholarship and research, academic honesty is required of all students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Academic dishonesty is prohibited in all programs of the University. Academic dishonesty includes but is not limited to: cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, and facilitating dishonesty. Appropriate sanctions may be imposed on any student who has committed an act of academic dishonesty. Instructors should take reasonable steps to address academic misconduct. Any person who has reason to believe that a student has committed academic dishonesty should bring such information to the attention of the appropriate course instructor as soon as possible. Instances of academic dishonesty not related to a specific course should be brought to the attention of the appropriate department Head or Chair. The procedures outlined below are intended to provide an efficient and orderly process by which action may be taken if it appears that academic dishonesty has occurred and by which students may appeal such actions. Since students are expected to be familiar with this policy and the commonly accepted standards of academic integrity, ignorance of such standards is not normally sufficient evidence of lack of intent. For more information about visit http://umass.edu/honesty

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GRADING AND ASSIGNMENTS Students are required to complete the following graded assignments. All assignments are due on Sundays, at 11:59pm (EST/EDT); see course schedule below. Please, see Blackboard for further instruction about the assignments. Personal Journal (four entries, 5% each) You will keep notes about the course content in your Blackboard journal. To give flexibility regarding your interests, you can choose the course weeks you will add notes to the journal. You will be required to complete four journal entries (2 before or by week 6, and 2 after that). Only you and the instructor will have access to the journal. Try to answer the following questions in each of your journal entries:

• What interested you the most in the week’s course content? Why? • What about the concepts discussed this week? Did they help you understand the

historical process better, or not? How come? Comment on at least one concept and related event/process discussed in the textbook or lectures.

• What event, concept, or historical process remained unclear to you? Why? • How do you evaluate your learning process about world history so far?

Film Discussion (10%) We will have an informal conversation about the film The Battle of Algiers (1966), which discusses a process of mid-twentieth century decolonization. The activity uses VoiceThread, a tool on Blackboard that allows for asynchronous discussion through text, slides, audio, and video uploads. Students are welcome to participate using the format they wish. The film’s link is available on Blackboard. Lecture/Reading Quizzes (15%) Most of the course weeks include a 5 to 8 questions quiz referring to the week’s lectures and readings. You will have two attempts on each quiz, and instructions will be provided in lectures and on Blackboard about the types of questions included in the quizzes. The average grade of the quizzes comprises 15% of the final grade. Quizzes will be open between Fridays and Sundays. Primary Source Activities The course contains four collections of short excerpts of historical documents that illustrate specific events and processes discussed in the course. The documents are available on Perusall, an e-reader accessible from the course’s Blackboard page that allows for collective annotation of reading material. The historical documents collections are: Set 1 – Spanish America Set 2 – Asia and Global Trade Set 3 – The Atlantic Revolutions Set 4 – Decolonization in Africa and Asia

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The activities with the documents are the following: 1) Collective Reading and Annotation (four rounds, 5% each)

Groups of 4 students will work together (asynchronously) on reading and commenting on the primary sources. Students will use Perusall’s annotation tools to add highlights, comments, questions, and any thought that arises from the primary sources’ readings. Together, try to identify and comment on the purpose, the argument, the presuppositions, epistemology, and the relationships implied in the documents. If needed, revisit the lecture on primary sources and the Primary Sources Reading Guide available on Blackboard to help annotate. The collective annotation of the documents will help students build a base upon which to write the individual Primary Source Essays.

2) Primary Sources Essay

a) Essay Outline (pass/fail) b) Essay (20%)

The final essay should discuss one of the primary sources set discussed during the course. Please, feel free to choose the set that interests you the most among the available options. In the primary source essay, students are expected to demonstrate their ability to critically read a collection of primary sources and relate it to the broader themes, concepts, and historical processes discussed throughout the course. Essays should be 4 to 6 pages long (double-spaced). The assignment is divided into two parts: the essay outline and the essay itself. I will provide extensive feedback on the essay outline to help you succeed in the final essay. The essays should coherently discuss:

a) Why is the collection important? What historical process(es) do they reflect? b) What is the broader historical context of the document’s production? In other

words, what was happening in the world at the time that may have influenced the how and why of the documents’ production?

c) Briefly comment on each document’s purpose, argument, presuppositions, and truth content. (See primary source lecture and the Primary Sources Reading Guide)

d) How do the documents of the collection compare? How does the comparison help us understand the historical process(es) in question?

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COURSE SCHEDULE Week 1 (01/25 – 01/30) – Course Introduction Key concepts and ideas: global/world history, agency. Lectures

• World history? Since 1500? • The Americas before the colonial encounter.

Readings

• Chapter 15 - Empires and Alternatives in the Americas Assignments

• Lecture/reading quiz. Week 2 (01/31 – 02/06) – New Worlds Key concepts and ideas: colonialism, Columbian exchange. Lectures

• Iberian society and expansion. • Conquest and early colonization of the Americas. • Comment on primary sources and related assignment.

Readings

• Chapter 16 – The Rise of An Atlantic World. • Primary source: “How to read a primary source.” (available on

Blackboard\Perusall). Assignments

• Lecture/reading quiz. Week 3 (02/07 – 02/13) – Western Africa and the Atlantic World Key concepts and ideas: Atlantic world, slavery and slave trade. Lectures

• Western African societies. • Slave trade.

Readings

• Chapter 17 – Western Africa in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade 1450-1800. Assignments

• Lecture/reading quiz. • Primary sources (set 1) annotation Spanish America due.

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Week 4 (02/14 – 02/20) – Asia and Global Trade Networks Key concepts and ideas: global trade networks, orientalism. Lectures

• Trade and intrusion in the Indian Ocean and South Asia. • Political and cultural consolidation in early modern Asia.

Readings

• Chapter 18 – Trade and Empire in the Indian Ocean and South Asia 1450-1750. • Chapter 20 – Expansion and Isolation in Asia 1450-1750.

Assignments

• Lecture/reading quiz. • Primary sources (set 2) annotation Asia and Global Trade due.

Week 5 (02/21 – 02/27) – Crisis, Reform, and the Colonial Order Key concepts and ideas: colonial government, emergence of capitalism, environmental change. Lectures

• Early modern Europe: crisis and reform. • The colonial order in the Americas.

Readings

• Chapter 19 – Consolidation and Conflict in Europe and the Greater Mediterranean 1450-1750.

• Chapter 21 – Transforming New Worlds: The American Colonies Mature 1600- 1750.

Assignments • Lecture/reading quiz.

Week 6 (02/28 – 03/06) – The World so Far ~1500-1750 Lectures

• Review lecture. Assignments

• Two personal journal entries must have been completed by then. • Participation in Discussion Board or VoiceThread: mid-semester questions or

comments (bonus points).

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Week 7 (03/07 – 03/13) – The Atlantic Revolutions Key concepts and ideas: enlightenment, revolution. Lectures

• The enlightenment. • French Revolution, Napoleonic Wars, and Latin America.

Readings

• Chapter 22 – Atlantic Revolutions and the World 1750-1830.

Assignments • Lecture/reading quiz. • Primary sources (set 3) annotations The Atlantic Revolutions due.

Week 8 (03/14 – 03/20) – The Industrial Revolution Key concepts and ideas: industrial revolution, social class, gender relations. Lectures

• Early industrial revolution. • The industrial revolution and the world.

Readings

• Chapter 23 – Industry and Everyday Life 1750-1900. Assignments

• Lecture/reading quiz. Week 9 (03/21 – 03/27) – Nationalism and Imperialism Key concepts and ideas: nation-state, nationalism, imperialism. Lectures

• Nation-Building in the Americas, Asia, and Europe. • Imperial expansion in Asia and Africa.

Readings

• Chapter 24 – Nation-States and their Empires 1830-1900. Assignments

• Lecture/reading quiz.

Week 10 (03/28 – 04/03) – Imperial Conflicts, Resistance, and Revolutions Key concepts and ideas: mass society, state-building.

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Lectures • Imperialism and modern-state building explode: the Mexican Revolution. • World War I, the Russian Revolution, and the Paris Peace Conference.

Readings

• Chapter 25 – Wars, Revolutions, and the Birth of Mass Society 1900-1929. Assignments

• Lecture/reading quiz. Week 11 (04/04 – 04/10) – The World in Conflict Key concepts and ideas: economic crisis, mass mobilization, global conflict. Lectures

• The great depression. • Global conflict: World War II, perspectives from the center and the periphery.

Readings

• Chapter 26 – Global Catastrophe: The Great Depression and World War II 1929- 1945.

Assignments

• Lecture/reading quiz.

Week 12 (04/11 – 04/17) – Decolonization and the Global Cold War Key concepts and ideas: global cold war, global south, socialism, capitalism, development, decolonization. Lectures

• The Global Cold War: proxy wars, coups d’état, and revolutions. • Decolonization and Developmentalism in the “Third World.”

Readings

• Chapter 27 – The Emergence of New Nations in a Cold War World 1945-1970. Assignments

• Lecture/reading quiz. • Film discussion. • Primary sources (set 4) annotations Decolonization in Africa and Asia due.

Week 13 (04/18 – 04/24) – The Neoliberal Order and its Challenges Key concepts and ideas: neoliberalism, globalization.

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Lectures • The collapse of communism and the neoliberal order. • Course review and conclusion.

Readings

• Chapter 28 – A New Global Age 1989 to the Present. Assignments

• Lecture/reading quiz. • Primary sources essay outline due.

Week 14 (04/25 – 05/05) – Final Week Assignments

• Primary source essay due. • Four personal journal entries must have been completed by then.

Final available by 05/19