• Academic Credits: 3
  • SAS Core: HST
  • Mode of Instruction: Lecture
  • Syllabus:  pdf Summer 2022 (131 KB)

    Syllabus Disclaimer:  The information on this syllabus is subject to change. For up-to-date course information, please refer to the syllabus on your course site (Canvas, etc.) on the first day of class.

  • Course Description

    This course surveys European global expansion from the fifteenth century to the present. We will pursue to understand the evolution of Europe's global reach as well as the political, economic, social, and cultural consequences worldwide. We begin by looking at the mindset of the earliest “pathfinders,” those who backed them financially, and the major empires they conquered. Developing commercial and then industrial capacity from a position of relative backwardness compared to the Ottoman, Mughal, and Ming and Qing empires, several powerful European nation-states came to dominate world trade and financial operations. Understanding the evolution of European power through expansion helps you understand our world today and especially our current “globalization.”