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Schedule of Lectures and Reading

Week I

Fernández-Armesto, The World: A History. Chapters 13 & 14: The World the Mongols Made & The Revenge of Nature
Get started with these. Next week we'll be discussing the Empires of the Mongols in some detail.

• Wednesday, September 5
  Discussion: History and the nature of historical sources.
• Friday, September 7
  Discussion: Computers and the Internet in the Humanities.

Week II

• Monday, September 10
  Workshop: Building the class timeline.
• Wednesday, September 12
  Lecture: The Battle of Leignitz: Geopolitics in the thirteenth century.
• Friday, September 14
  Lecture: The Battle of Leignitz II: Geopolitics in the thirteenth century.

Week III

Fernández-Armesto, The World: A History. Chapter 15: Expanding Worlds

• Monday, September 17
  Discussion: Preliminary Close Reading Exercise on this sellection from from Ibn Battuta's Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1354. This will be due on Monday of next week (Sept. 24). This will be 300–600 words (1–2 pages) of close reading of this passage in necessarily terse, yet elegant and properly cited prose. We will discuss this today in class. A summary prompt for this exercise can be found here.
• Wednesday, September 19
  Reading: Imperial Exam. Based on this excerpt from the Imperial Exam, what can we know about the Chinese society and government? How might such a society react to a catastrophe like the Black Death? What do sources from other regions tell us about the social consequences of the plague?
• Friday, September 21
  Discussion: Compare and contrast Pico Della Mirandola's Dignity of Man, and John Ball's Sermon. Do these texts in any way set the stage for the kind of imperialism described in this chapter? (A longer and more complete excerpt from Dignity of Man can be found here in a different translation.)

Week IV

Fernández-Armesto, The World: A History. Chapter 16: Imperial Arenas

• Monday, September 24
  Preliminary close-reading exercise is due today. Please remember that while this assignment will not have an impact on your final grade, it is nevertheless required.
  

  Chapter Review: Chapter 15 and the beginning of Chapter 16. For discussion today please consider: What were the most important factors that contributed to, or limited, Oceanic, or Maritime Imperialism especially in China and Europe? What encouraged Europeans to engage in Maritime Imperialism, what encouraged China to stop? Consider too, the nature of Empire: What makes an empire different from a "nation"?

• Wednesday, September 26
  Discussion: Primary source: Jan Van Linschoten on Dutch business in the Indian Ocean. What were the reasons for the success of the Dutch in the Asia Trade? What is a Joint-Stock Company?
• Friday, September 28
  Discussion: For discussion today, please read Gaspar Correa, 1502 (gaspar.pdf); Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq on Suleiman the Magnificent (lawgiver.pdf); and the documents in "Japan Encounters the West" (japanwest.pdf).

  How do the primary sources we have considered this week serve as evidence for the arguments that Fernández-Armesto makes in chapter sixteen?

Week V

Fernández-Armesto, The World: A History. Chapter 17: The Ecological Revolution

• Monday, October 1
  Workshop: Building the class timeline.
• Wednesday, October 3
  Discussion: Bartoleme de las Casas, excerpt from Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies (bartoleme.pdf).
• Friday, October 5
  Discussion: Bernal Diaz del Castillo, from The True History of the Conquest of New Spain (delcastillo.pdf), and an Excerpt from The Broken Spears (spears.pdf).

Week VI

Fernández-Armesto, The World: A History. Chapter 18: Mental Revolutions

• Monday, October 8
  Lecture: Reformation, Counter-Reformation, and the Triumph of the State in Europe.
• Wednesday, October 10
  Discussion: Domingo Navarete, “Of My Stay in the Kingdom of Macasar” (navarrete.pdf), and Matteo Ricci, selections from his Journals (ricci.pdf).
• Friday, October 12
  Discussion: Pope Paul III, Sublimus Dei (popepaul.pdf), and Saint Francis Xavier on conversion of the Indians (xavier.pdf).

Week VII

Fernández-Armesto, The World: A History. Chapter 19: States and Societies

• Monday, October 15
  Discussion: Jean Bodin, from Six Books of the Commonwealth (bodin.pdf) & Hugo Grotius, selections from On the Law of War and Peace (grotius.pdf).
  What is Sovereignty? How did the religious wars in Europe in the 16^th and 17^th centuries contribute to the development of this idea? Who were the analogous political theorists in other parts of the world?
• Wednesday, October 17
  
• Friday, October 19
  Mid-Semester Break: No Class

Week VIII

Fernández-Armesto, The World: A History. Chapter 20: Driven by Growth

• Monday, October 22
  The close-reading exercise on Jean Nicollet is due today.
  Please also return to the question from last week about political theory. We've talked about the nature of Bodin's sovereignty; How did the religious wars in Europe in the 16^th and 17^th centuries contribute to the development of this idea? And especially consider political theory and organization in the Ottoman Empire, Mughal India, Safavid Persia, and China. Together we'll have a look at the Letter from Selim I to Ismail I.
• Wednesday, October 24
  Please read for today the excerpts from Malthus's Essay on the Principle of Population (malthus.pdf) & Condorcet's Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind (marquis.pdf). Consider for today what might explain the rapid world-wide population growth of the 18^th century, and more important, what historical consequences did it have?
• Friday, October 26
  We're meeting in the library today to dispell the mysteries of XML, HTML, and FTP. Make sure you bring your xml file with you on disk, or make sure you have it uploaded to your web directory.

Week IX

Fernández-Armesto, The World: A History. Chapter 21: The Age of Global Interaction

• Monday, October 29
  As we look this week at the expansion of 18^th century empires, let's review what we know about the "global" empires of the 16^th & 17^th centuries. What kinds of colonization and imperialism did we find there, and how are these likely to be different in view of the demographic and economic changes discussed in chapter 20?
• Wednesday, October 31
  Today we'll meet at the Library (in the basement, instruction rm. B) for an introduction to available historical resources relevant to your term papers.
• Friday, November 2
  Writing Workshop: Thesis Formulation

Week X

Fernández-Armesto, The World: A History. Chapter 22: The Exchange of Enlightenment
Read the chapter on the Enlightenment with special care, the ideas thought to characterize this era are profoundly influential to this day. Moreover, those ideas will figure prominently in the final weeks of this course.

• Monday, November 5
  Chapter Review: This week we need to consider the 18th century context that produces both slavery on a grand scale and the ideals of the enlightenment. Why does Fernández-Armesto begin chapter 21 with a discussion of the Sayid dynasty of Oman?
• Wednesday, November 7
  Discussion: What does race have to do with slavery? Please read and be prepared to discuss: Olaudah Equiano, from The Interesting Narrative & Phillis Wheatley, To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth….
• Friday, November 9
  Discussion: Compare and contrast Voltaire, On Universal Toleration & Baron de Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws. These two have quite different ideas, why are they both considered "enlightenment" thinkers?

Week XI

Fernández-Armesto, The World: A History. Chapter 23 & 24: The Energy Revolutions and The Social Mold

• Monday, November 12
  This week I'd like to continue with our discussion of some of the primary sources of the Enlightenment. What happened to these noble enlightenment sentiments and renaissance notions such as the "Dignity of Man" of Pico della Mirandola in the process of industrialization discussed in Chapter 23.
• Wednesday, November 14
  Discussion: Jean Jacques Rousseau: The Social Contract, 1763; Immanuel Kant defines the Enlightenment, 1784; & the Declaration of the Rights of Man 1791.
• Friday, November 16
  Discussion: Benjamin Disraeli, excerpt from Sybil, or The Two Nations, & Karl Marx, the Communist Manifesto

Week XII

Fernández-Armesto, The World: A History. Chapter 25: Western Dominance

• Monday, November 19
  Chapter review ch. 23&24
• Wednesday, November 21
  Thanksgiving Recess
• Friday, November 23
  Thanksgiving Recess

Week XIII

Fernández-Armesto, The World: A History. Chapter 26: The Changing State

• Monday, November 26
  the Term Paper is due in class today
  Discussion: For discussion today, please read that portion of James Monroe's message to Congress on December 2, 1823 known as the "Monroe Doctrine" and consider whether this doctrine is isolationist or hegemonic. Consider too what effect, if any, it may have had on imperialism in Africa and Asia.
• Wednesday, November 28
  Lecture: Comparative Colonization: the Algerian example
  Discussion: Rudyard Kipling, The White Man's Burden, and Edward D. Morel, The Black Man’s Burden.
• Friday, November 30
  Discussion: Albert Memmi, The Colonizer and the Colonized, part one "Portrait of the Colonizer".

Week XIV

Fernández-Armesto, The World: A History. Chapter 27 & 28: The Twentieth-Century Mind and World Order and Disorder

• Monday, December 3
  Discussion: Albert Memmi, The Colonizer and the Colonized, part two "Portrait of the Colonized".
• Wednesday, December 5
  Discussion: Albert Memmi, The Colonizer and the Colonized, Conclusion.
• Friday, December 7
  

Finals Week

FINAL EXAM:
Tuesday, December 11, 1:00 — 2:50 PM