Instructor: Cyriaque Beurtheret, Ph.D
Course Description:
The purpose of this course is to offer to students an appreciation of the World we know today, through a better understanding of the forces that shaped its civilizations since 1500. The interest of this course lies in the privilege we have of seeing the evolutions, ruptures, and imbrications of many civilizations interacting for five centuries, which help us to understand better our present world.
How has this modern World history course contributed to my general education?
“We are not makers of history, we are made by history”. This Martin Luther King quote has never resonated with me so much as how it does now. History has always been defined as that boring class you skip when in high school; but after years of education (getting done with High school) the value of history is now more important than ever. Many important events happing today show how some things never change (politics, human rights violations, gender discrimination) and with the use of technology many of this news/information is at our fingerprints, but is that was we would consider “ultimate truth”? Being in this class has taught me how to critically think about events and issues going on today from a different perspective. We never realize we always get told one side of the story when in reality there is two or more that have not been told.
The intangible value that education has given me is unmatched, and this class is an example of it. When you are in discomfort with what you hear or even if you disagree whit what the instructor is stating as a fact that is the moment you start critically thinking either to oppose to what is being said, or change your perspective towards and issue you though you knew very well. This course, is a great add to your general education because what is being told in the classroom, being discussed with enough evidence and proof you will not find it anywhere else.
Another important part of this class was Communication. We were asked to prepare as many presentations as we wanted to the class with infinite number of topics we could talk about. I did two of there were I first talked about the Spanish inquisition and then about The Spanish civil war. Both of these historic events, I briefly heard about but by studying them, understanding them and explaining them to the class I was able to acquire substantial knowledge and propose a counter argument of what regular historians have always defended as the “Ultimate truth”; at the same time, I go to learn about many other different topics from my classmates that for a weird reason I understood better than if the professor would have explain it.
Lastly, Substantive Knowledge was the middle point of critical thinking and communication. Knowing about a particular event, doing research, writing papers, etc. were clear examples of how knowledge was a fundamental part of the class, and not only momentarily (like when we study for a math test and five seconds later we forget everything we just read) but more of an individual interpretation of history that we will carry with us, forever.
“History repeats itself” Karl Marx knew what he meant when he wrote this quote. History is there to teach us, that many generations ago someone made the same mistake or though like you could do something. But history is also to be written and as a new generation in a world of chaos, war and natural disasters we are here to rewrite history and learn from those who were here before us how to properly do it.
The intangible value that education has given me is unmatched, and this class is an example of it. When you are in discomfort with what you hear or even if you disagree whit what the instructor is stating as a fact that is the moment you start critically thinking either to oppose to what is being said, or change your perspective towards and issue you though you knew very well. This course, is a great add to your general education because what is being told in the classroom, being discussed with enough evidence and proof you will not find it anywhere else.
Another important part of this class was Communication. We were asked to prepare as many presentations as we wanted to the class with infinite number of topics we could talk about. I did two of there were I first talked about the Spanish inquisition and then about The Spanish civil war. Both of these historic events, I briefly heard about but by studying them, understanding them and explaining them to the class I was able to acquire substantial knowledge and propose a counter argument of what regular historians have always defended as the “Ultimate truth”; at the same time, I go to learn about many other different topics from my classmates that for a weird reason I understood better than if the professor would have explain it.
Lastly, Substantive Knowledge was the middle point of critical thinking and communication. Knowing about a particular event, doing research, writing papers, etc. were clear examples of how knowledge was a fundamental part of the class, and not only momentarily (like when we study for a math test and five seconds later we forget everything we just read) but more of an individual interpretation of history that we will carry with us, forever.
“History repeats itself” Karl Marx knew what he meant when he wrote this quote. History is there to teach us, that many generations ago someone made the same mistake or though like you could do something. But history is also to be written and as a new generation in a world of chaos, war and natural disasters we are here to rewrite history and learn from those who were here before us how to properly do it.
Changes and evolutions in the modern World history
Since the begging of the 1500's there had been periods of ups and down, change in governments and struggles for power. Due to the change in times and new eras, new ideas also emerged with time. The middle Ages: Humanism and Renaissance made huge changes to what we today understand and see, as well as the art and schools of thought. Later, we see The protestant reforms and how the idea of renaissance and humanism challenged and made people think differently about the church, which led to the catholic church splitting and having to address religious concerns, politics and lowered its power over territories. The ideas of Luther, marked a new era for religious not only in Europe but in the world, where different branches were split from Catholicism.
In the Early moder era, we see how europe encounters the world but colonizations and invading lands. Under the current kings and monarchies in Europe (kings of absolute divine right) the idea of conquista was not only to acquire wealth or territory, it was to expand christiandom around the globe and spread crostianism to these new colonies. From this, many conflict happened and brutal colonization took place when for the first time, natives and conquistadors were facing with each other.England, Spain and France had the most colonies around the globe, and they traded with each other, even with China and India (which is how colonization happened on the first time, to find and alternative to the trading route with India taken by the muslims). But trade after colonilism wasnt only goods as cotton, cocoa and coffee, it was also slaves. The Atlantic trade routes was when slaves were brought into The americas, where plenty of abuse happened as well.
After the colonization period, after all the brutality human rights violations and abuse, there was a new era that will leave humanism behind, a revolutionary school of thought called the enlightment. This came from different writers and specialists mainly from england, france and colonies (such as the US and spanish colonies). This included many theroies like the human evolutgionary theory, darwinism, etc. This, were controverfsial and extremely dangerous for monarchies . Starting by France in the 18th century with the French revolution led by the elites manipulating the people following an enlightment ideal of non-monarchy that ended up in a bloody civil war in France. This event, gthe french revolution, opened a new era of not only rebellion of the people against the government but more of geopolitics, where France was a major player in the international arena and expansion in Europe. After this event happened, It was followed by a series of events such as the independence of many colonies like The US, South american colonies, Africa, etc. By this time, the U.S. with the help of France started to rise up as an independent state.
In the 1900 century, the transformation of the west was radical, this was due to the industrial revolution. Caused mainly by farmers moving to the cities seeking for more opportunities for a better paying job. During this time we see the rise of urbanism and far down we get to see the beginning of what we have today, ideologies; due to the triumph of the aristocracies power over man.
These differences and constant competition since the industrial revolution, led to what we3 know as World war I and World war 2. These two wars markled what it would be the first and second new world orders define by their elites costing millions in casualties and injured in order to obtain power. For World war 2 specifically, the interwar period was full of conflict and differences between countries in europe and the interference of the US. Germany, was hurt and broke after WWI. America and Great Britain supported the rise of Adolf Hitler because of his ideas to reconstruct Germany, little they knew he was going to become a monster and the origin to WWII.
Adversaries to the western, liberal democracies such as The soviet Union, Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany and the Japanese empire marked a time for the world powers to destroy this regimes that would think different than them. This war became a war in idologies, looking to see who has the best ideologies compared to the others. By the end of WWII, the conflict stopped byt resurrected in the 21st century in something called "the Cold War". This was a war between russia and The US in weapons, politics, propaganda, etc. This war, more than any other shaped how the world looks like and how, in reality has the power. Eastern and western europe, Asia, The middle east, America, ect are all divided in bewteen these two powers Russia and The U.S.
As we can observe, since the beginning of the 1500 century there has been a clear evolutionary process in the way history, politics and struggle of power has played out. Where in some cases it has cost millions of lives to control the world. World leaders today, do not play for the best interest of its citizens, they play for the best interest of elites. Many, if not all of the countries in the world implement this. Even those who portray a socialist/communist ideology still do so. The only thing that will have the world from having history repeats itself is to study, read and see different perspectives.
In the Early moder era, we see how europe encounters the world but colonizations and invading lands. Under the current kings and monarchies in Europe (kings of absolute divine right) the idea of conquista was not only to acquire wealth or territory, it was to expand christiandom around the globe and spread crostianism to these new colonies. From this, many conflict happened and brutal colonization took place when for the first time, natives and conquistadors were facing with each other.England, Spain and France had the most colonies around the globe, and they traded with each other, even with China and India (which is how colonization happened on the first time, to find and alternative to the trading route with India taken by the muslims). But trade after colonilism wasnt only goods as cotton, cocoa and coffee, it was also slaves. The Atlantic trade routes was when slaves were brought into The americas, where plenty of abuse happened as well.
After the colonization period, after all the brutality human rights violations and abuse, there was a new era that will leave humanism behind, a revolutionary school of thought called the enlightment. This came from different writers and specialists mainly from england, france and colonies (such as the US and spanish colonies). This included many theroies like the human evolutgionary theory, darwinism, etc. This, were controverfsial and extremely dangerous for monarchies . Starting by France in the 18th century with the French revolution led by the elites manipulating the people following an enlightment ideal of non-monarchy that ended up in a bloody civil war in France. This event, gthe french revolution, opened a new era of not only rebellion of the people against the government but more of geopolitics, where France was a major player in the international arena and expansion in Europe. After this event happened, It was followed by a series of events such as the independence of many colonies like The US, South american colonies, Africa, etc. By this time, the U.S. with the help of France started to rise up as an independent state.
In the 1900 century, the transformation of the west was radical, this was due to the industrial revolution. Caused mainly by farmers moving to the cities seeking for more opportunities for a better paying job. During this time we see the rise of urbanism and far down we get to see the beginning of what we have today, ideologies; due to the triumph of the aristocracies power over man.
These differences and constant competition since the industrial revolution, led to what we3 know as World war I and World war 2. These two wars markled what it would be the first and second new world orders define by their elites costing millions in casualties and injured in order to obtain power. For World war 2 specifically, the interwar period was full of conflict and differences between countries in europe and the interference of the US. Germany, was hurt and broke after WWI. America and Great Britain supported the rise of Adolf Hitler because of his ideas to reconstruct Germany, little they knew he was going to become a monster and the origin to WWII.
Adversaries to the western, liberal democracies such as The soviet Union, Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany and the Japanese empire marked a time for the world powers to destroy this regimes that would think different than them. This war became a war in idologies, looking to see who has the best ideologies compared to the others. By the end of WWII, the conflict stopped byt resurrected in the 21st century in something called "the Cold War". This was a war between russia and The US in weapons, politics, propaganda, etc. This war, more than any other shaped how the world looks like and how, in reality has the power. Eastern and western europe, Asia, The middle east, America, ect are all divided in bewteen these two powers Russia and The U.S.
As we can observe, since the beginning of the 1500 century there has been a clear evolutionary process in the way history, politics and struggle of power has played out. Where in some cases it has cost millions of lives to control the world. World leaders today, do not play for the best interest of its citizens, they play for the best interest of elites. Many, if not all of the countries in the world implement this. Even those who portray a socialist/communist ideology still do so. The only thing that will have the world from having history repeats itself is to study, read and see different perspectives.