HIST 104: History of World Civilization since 1500

Citrus College Course Outline of Record

Citrus College Course Outline of Record
Heading Value
Effective Term: Fall 2020
Credits: 3
Total Contact Hours: 54
Lecture Hours : 54
Lab Hours: 0
Hours Arranged: 0
Outside of Class Hours: 108
Strongly Recommended: ENGL 101.
District General Education: D1. History and Political Science
Transferable to CSU: Yes
Transferable to UC: Yes - Approved
Grading Method: Standard Letter, Pass/No Pass

Catalog Course Description

The course offers a survey of world civilizations from 1500's regional isolation to modern-day globalism and its issues and problems. Consideration will be given to the political, economic, social, and intellectual forces present in the rise of the modern world. Particular focus will be given to the interrelatedness of historical events and on the comparisons of cultures and societies in a historical perspective. College-level reading is strongly advised. 54 lecture hours.

Course Objectives

  • Demonstrate an understanding of civilization through multiple analytical categories such as race, class, gender and ethnicity.
  • Analyze ways in which human groups have interacted with one another, including trade, migration, warfare, cultural exchange, and biological exchange, from 1500 C.E. to present.
  • Compare the distinctive forms of political, social, and economic organization and explain their historical significance.
  • Demonstrate the ability to interpret primary and secondary sources and to compose an argument which uses them, as appropriate, for support.
  • Identify major discoveries, inventions, and scientific achievements and explain their historical significance.
  • Analyze historical developments across national, regional, and cultural boundaries.
  • Explain the ways in which the world's physical environment has been affected by developments in human history.
  • Explain the historical significance of cultural developments in areas such as art, music, architecture, literature, and religion through a comparative perspective.

Major Course Content

  1. Early Modern Empires (1500-1700)
    1. Early Modern Systems: Conquest, Trade, and Disease
    2. New Empires and Recovery
      1. Muslim Empires: Ottoman and Mughal
      2. Ming China and Tokugawa Japan
      3. Africa: Songhai, Kano, Benin, Kongo, Zimbabwe, Mali
      4. Americans: Incas, Aztecs, Cherokee, Navajo, Lakota
      5. Pre-urban Oceania
      6. Europe: Renaissance, Reformation, and Mercantilism
    3. Early Modern Contacts and Globalism
      1. Atlantic World, Exchange, and Exploitation
      2. Pacific Incursions, Reactions, and Isolation
      3. Colombian Exchange and Consumption
  2. Age of Revolution and Imperialism (1700-1900)
    1. Revolutions in science and technology; Enlightenment
    2. Concepts of democracy
      1. Political Revolutions and Reactions
    3. Economic relations
      1. Industrialization
      2. Consumption
      3. Globalization
    4. New Imperialism
      1. Indigenous Americans: end of isolation
      2. North America: independence
      3. South America: colonialism
      4. Africa: slave trade and partition
      5. Asia: end of isolation
  3. Global Strife in the 20th Century (1900-1945)
    1. World War I and its global repercussions
    2. Revolutions in Russia and the Colonial Empire
    3. Great Depression
    4. World War II and its global repercussions
    5. Economic, technological, sociological changes
  4. Cold War Era (1945-1991)
    1. Post-War Polarization
    2. Decolonization and development in the Third World
    3. Conflicts between Northern and Southern Hemispheres
    4. Fall of the USSR
    5. Globalism: Looking into the Future
      1. Political, economic, and social concerns of the world
      2. Planet at risk: global environment

Suggested Reading Other Than Required Textbook

Miguel-Portilla, Miguel, Broken Spears - primary source Schivelbusch, Wolfgang, Tastes of Paradise - secondary source Webster, Donovan, Aftermath - Narrative text
Selected scholarly articles

Examples of Required Writing Assignments

Students will write a 3-5 page essay on each of the assigned texts. They will be asked to synthesize the supplemental reading with the presented course material.

Examples of Outside Assignments

Students will complete weekly chapter questions, complete worksheets that guide them in reading primary sources, and will take objective quizzes on assigned readings.

Instruction Type(s)

Lecture, Online Education Lecture

IGETC Area 3: Arts and Humanities

3B. Humanities

IGETC Area 4: Social and Behavioral Sciences

4F. History