CORE 131 Western Civilization to 1914
CORE 131 Western Civilization to 1914 |
|
|
PART I The Study of History and the formation of the Ancient West
|
Big Questions |
Links to Websources |
| How do historians study, divide up, and understand our past? |
[What is History?; The Historical Method; Sources used for History] |
| What important cultural survival techniques did our ancestors invent? | |
| What often-ignored problems did civilization create? |
[Becoming
Human; Caves
of Lascaux; |
| What did various Middle Eastern civilizations contribute to the West? |
Code
of Hammurabi
[full
version of Law Code of Hammurabi;
Commandments;
|
| How did the Greeks and later Hellenistic rulers succeed and fail in politics? | Revolution |
| How did Gręco-Roman culture expand through and unify the Mediterranean, Western Europe and the Middle East? | Apology of Socrates |
| How did the Rome grow from a city-state to an empire unifying the Mediterranean? |
Rome
in Defeat read these three "pages:" 1, 2,
3
(Click on each number).
[The battle
of Trasimeno; The
Illustrated History of the Roman Empire]; |
| How did the new religion of Christianity begin? |
Matthew
18 and Matthew
19
[See also persecutions; From Jesus to Christ; The Roman World of Jesus; Patron Saints] |
| How did the Roman Empire fall in the West, yet last another 1000 years in the East? |
contra>Roman
Imperialism
[Some
(Sometimes Silly) Explanations for the Fall of Rome;
|
PART IIa The Medieval West
|
Big Questions |
Links to Websources |
| How did German rule combine with the Roman heritage int eh West? |
Conversion
of Clovis (You don't have to consider "The Incident of the
Vase at Soissons," although it is interesting).
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (just on Alfred see year 878) [Lindesfarne Gospel (click on Pinnacles of Anglo-Sazon Art)] |
| How did the Franks and the Carolingian family succeed briefly in uniting a Western European empire, but ultimately fail? |
Charlemagne
[Vikings] |
| How did the feudal politics and manorial economics change government and the creation of wealth? | Homage and Fealty |
| How did more centralized governments form in Western Europe? |
William
the Conqueror
[Domesday
Book; first
crusade;
|
| How did the reforms of monks lead to a reform of the wider Church and the creation of the medieval papacy? |
Life
of St. Bernard (You only have to consider the first life, not the
one beginning "From the Acta Sanctorum of Arnold...,"
although it is interesting).
[Life
in a medieval monastery--
|
| How did the popes fight with kings and other religious movements? | Dictatus Papæ |
|
How did the revival of trade & towns change the West? |
Conversion of Peter Waldo;
[Luttrel
Psalter (click on Glimpse of Medieval Life); |
PART IIb Early Modern Europe
|
Big Questions |
Links to Websources |
| How did late medieval monarchs concentrate still more power? | Golden Bull |
| How did the Renaissance promote the West's transition into modernity? | The Prince, Chapter 18 |
| How did the Western Latin Church begin to split apart during the Reformation? | Luther Against the Peasants |
| How did further divisions among Christians culminate in wars over religion? | Pope Pius V's Bull Against Elizabeth |
| How did the "Voyages of Discovery" begin colonial imperialism by Europeans? | Columbus
letter
[slaveship; Food and Columbus; Spices (Duyfken Voyage Recreation); Australia] |
PART III The Modern World
|
Big Questions |
Links to Websources |
| How did the First Scientific Revolution energize economics and society? |
Galileo [See also Sci-Rev-Weblinks; ANSPRACHE VON JOHANNES PAUL II. ...] |
| How did Enlightenment thinkers conceive of improvements to human society? |
Voltaire
[Progress] |
| How did absolutism gain ascendancy in Early Modern Europe? |
Louis
XIV's court Peter the Great (Consider just Bishop Burnet's bio). |
| How did democratic forms of government spread in the West? | Petition of Right |
| How did the revolutionaries in France execute political changes? | |
| How did war alter the French Revolution and cause Napoleon's rise and fail? |
Napoleon's "state of the empire" [Waterloo] |
| How did competing ideologies offer alternatives in the 19th Century? | Carlsbad Resolutions |
| How did inventions and capitalism produce the Industrial Revolution? | Loss of Wool Spinning |
| How did socialists address problems manufactured by the Industrial Revolutions? | Gotha Program (1875) |
| How did naturalistic science generate new and unsettling knowledge? | Sigmund Freud on Civilization |
| How did the Europeans come to dominate Asia and Africa? | pro> Imperialism, 1884 |
| How did the United States of America become a world power? | |
| How did various nationalisms unify and divide Western nations? |
Mazzini's On the Duties of Man Realpolitik of the Ems Dispatch [Germany] |
| How did nationalism spur the decline of the Ottoman Empire? |
All topics are tentative; the instructor may change them at his discretion.
Some general sites that have valuable information, if you want to learn more on many subjects in Western Civilization:
Hyperhistory <http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/History_n2/a.html> has many maps, timelines, and brief historical overviews.
Richard Hooker, World Cultures, <http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/110/110RES.HTM> has various learning modules, atlases and other resources.
Stephen Kreis, The History Guide <http://www.historyguide.org/index.html> contains lots of lectures on Western Civilization.
World History at Frank Smitha.com <http://www.fsmitha.com/index.html> contains timelines, maps, descriptions, some opinions.
History of Costume <http://www.siue.edu/COSTUMES/history.html>.
Web Chronology Project of North Park University <http://campus.northpark.edu/history/WebChron/index.html>.
Gerhard Rempel's lectures: <http://mars.acnet.wnec.edu/~grempel/courses/wc1/lectures.html>.
History at Bedford St. Martin's: <http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/history/> contains maps, textbook supplementary material, useful information about studying history and links to other sites.
Articles, books, and links at <http://historicaltextarchive.com/>.
Paul Halsall, Internet History Sourcebooks Project <http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/>.