COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This course is the study of the social, economic, cultural, intellectual, political and diplomatic history of Modern Europe and its place in the history of the world from the fall of Constantinople to the fall of the Berlin wall and the Soviet Union. The course will be taught at a level and rigor equivalent to that required of students in a college freshman or sophomore Modern European History course. Students will develop an understanding of the major periods, ideas, movements, trends, and themes that characterize European history from approximately 1450-the high Renaissance-to the present. Students develop the ability to analyze historical evidence and express understanding and analysis in writing. The course will prepare students for the College Board examination in European History.

PREREQUISITES:

None

COURSE LENGTH:

Two semesters

REQUIRED TEXT:

The Western Heritage: Since 1300 (8th Edition), Kagan, Donald, Steve Ozment, and Frank Turner. Prentice Hall 2003. ISBN #0131828835

COURSE OUTLINE:

• Course Introduction
• Historiography
• Late Middle Ages
• Europe and the Renaissance
• The Reformation: Religious Differences
• Wars of Religion
• Absolute and Constitutional Monarchies
• Galileo and Modern Medicine
• Eastern Europe: The Rise and Fall of the Ottoman Empire
• Aristocracy: The Peasants of Europe
• Scientific Aspects of the Enlightenment
• The French Revolution
• Napoleon
• Revolutions of the 1800s; Liberalism and Conservatism
• Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions
• European Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century
• Nationalism
• Russian Revolution of 1905
• World War I
• World War I and the Russian Revolution of 1917
• Communism and Fascism
• Worldwide Depression
• World War 2 in Europe
• Division of Germany and the Cold War
• The Walls Fall
• European Unification