1 INTRODUCTION TO MODERN WORLD HISTORY, 1500-1800 HIST 1370 W, SECTION 3: FALL, 2012. Department of History, The University of Manitoba Erik Thomson Fletcher Argue 452 Erik.Thomson@ad.umanitoba.ca Office hours: Mondays, 5:00-6:20, or Mondays, 6:30-9:30. by appointment. This course is an introduction to modern world history from roughly 1500 to 1800. World history means, most clearly, a geographical scope that includes all of the different areas of the globe, but it also implies a style of history that strives to identify the causes of profound changes. The chronological period of 1500-1800 certainly saw profound changes. It used to be described as the period of the Rise of the West, but while the increasing technological and military power of European states certainly plays a role during the period, historians have seen many other important features of the period such as increased exchange both peaceful and hostile amongst different peoples, the construction of new styles of states, the development of new types of scientific knowledge and technologies, and economic, demographic and commercial development. Through developing a command of the knowledge of the features and changes of the period, students will also cultivate an understanding of the historians basic tools, including critical analysis of primary and secondary sources, bibliographic research, synthetic argumentation, and clear prose. Required Text: Available for Purchase at the Bookstore Peter von Sivers, Charles A. Desnoyers, and George B. Stow, Patterns of World History, Volume 2: since 1400. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. You will also be expected to access and have available in class on-line journal articles and primary sources. Assignments Essay 1: 20 %: Primary Source Analysis, 6 pages (1500 words). Due week III, 24 September. Read Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, The Turkish Letters. Edward Seymour Forster, trans. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005, originally Oxford University Press, 1927), letter 3, pages 85-168. (Available at Google Books, and on reserve at Dafoe Library.) The thirty-two year old Busbecq served as an ambassador to the Ottoman Empire on behalf of Ferdinand of Habsburg, who would soon become Holy Roman Emperor. Although he wrote to another diplomat and friend, he probably always intended the letters for publication. The letters first were printed in Latin in 1581.
2 How did Busbecq describe the Ottoman people, polity, manners and customs? Try to tease out of the reading not only facts about the Ottomans, but about how Busbecq viewed the world. Did the political context, in which the Habsburgs feared the advance of the Ottoman Empire, shape his account? Were there other things he found interesting? Remember to focus your paper so that it contains a clear argument and ensure that your evidence based on a close reading of the source supports your argument. Essay 2: 20 %: Article Analysis, 6 pages (1500 words). Due Week XI, 19 November. Read and analyze the articles listed in one of the sections below. In six pages, explain the authors arguments, and why and how they agree and disagree. You might consider the reasons for their disagreement. Do they use different types of sources? Are they inspired by different theories? If the authors disagree, can their differences be resolved? What further questions might be posed in order to resolve their disagreements? Group A: Globalization and Economy Dennis O. Flynn and Arturo Giráldez, Born with a silver spoon : the origins of world trade in 1571, Journal of World History 6, 2(1995): 201-222. Jan de Vries, The limits of globalization in the early modern world, Economic History Review. 63, 3 (2010): 710-733. Group B: Empire and Knowledge Richard Grove, Indigenous knowledge and the significance of South-West India for Portuguese and Dutch Constructions of Tropical Nature, Modern Asian Studies 30, 1 (1996): 121-141. James D. Tracy, Asian Despotism? Mughal government as seen from the Dutch East India Company factory in Surat, Journal of Early Modern History 3, 3 (1999): 256-279. Group C: Courtesans and Confucian Culture Monica Merlin, The Nanjing Courtesan Ma Shouzhen (1548-1604): Gender, Space and Painting in the late Ming Pleasure Quarter, Gender and History. 23, 3 (Nov. 2011): 630-652. Harriet Zurndorfer, Prostitutes and Courtesans in the Confucian Moral Universe of Late Ming China (1550-1644), International Review of Social History. Vol 56, supplement 19. (Dec. 2011): 197-216. Research Assignment: 15 %: Due Week VIII, 29 October. Invent a question about world history during the period covered by the course. Pose the question in a concise form, and explain it in a paragraph. Then, prepare a bibliography including at least three primary sources, six monographs, and six peer-reviewed articles. The monographs and articles should be recent within the last fifteen years, preferably unless there is a specific reason that older articles are valuable. Make sure you use a range of bibliographic tools, including online databases such as Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life, the library catalog and World Cat, and printed bibliographical guides to
3 identify sources. Explain in a final paragraph or two why you think these particular books and articles would help you answer your question and what other information you would ideally find to answer it. 3 Quizzes: 5 % each, thus 15% total. (Week IV, 1 October, Week IX, 5 November, and Week XII, 26 November. Quizzes will occur in class and cover geography, as well as other relevant information from the Patterns of World History text. Reviewing the end of chapter questions and the maps will help you on the quizzes. Final Exam: 30 %. The final exam will cover geographical and historical facts, demand the interpretation of primary sources, and contain a broad synthetic essay question that will ask you to bring together the different aspects of the course into a coherent argument. A note on academic honesty: Education and scholarship depends upon a certain sort of basic honesty. I expect that when you claim to have done work, you will actually have done it. When you use the work or ideas of another scholar or student, you must respect them by treating their work fairly and accurately, and give them public credit by citing them openly. Always err on the side of giving too much credit to others than too little. In formal essays, I prefer citations in footnotes using the form known as the Chicago humanities style; see the quick guide at http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html. The University cares about academic honesty as well, because it has to maintain a standard of fairness and equity. You can find its mandate on Plagiarism and Cheating and on Examination Impersonation in Section 8.1 of General Academic Regulations of the 2011-2012 University Undergraduate Calendar (http://crscalprod1.cc.umanitoba.ca/catalog/viewcatalog.aspx), but the Faculty of Arts requires me to repeat it here, as well. The common penalty in Arts for plagiarism on a written assignment is a grade of F on the paper and a final grade of F (DISC) (for disciplinary action) for the course. For the most serious acts of plagiarism, such as purchase of an essay and repeat violations, this penalty can also include suspension for a period of up to five (5) years from registration in courses taught in a particular department/program in Arts or from all courses taught in this Faculty. The Faculty also reserves the right to submit student work that is suspected of being plagiarized to Internet sites designed to detect plagiarism or to other experts for authentication. The common penalty in Arts for academic dishonesty on a test or examination is F for the paper, F (DISC) for the course, and a one-year suspension from courses acceptable for credit in the Faculty. For more serious acts of academic dishonesty on a test or examination, such as repeat violations, this penalty can also include suspension for a period of up to five years from registration in courses taught in a particular department or program in Arts or from all courses taught in or accepted for credit by this Faculty. Marking: I will make every effort to return papers within a week, and you will thus have considerable feedback before the voluntary withdrawal (VW) date of November 14, 2012. I will
4 take into account the quality and diligence of research, the creativity, strength, and coherence of thought and argument, and the correct use of grammar, usage, proofreading and citation. Since this is a course that meets the University Senate's W requirement, students must complete all essay assignments with a passing grade to pass the course. Extensions will not be granted except in highly unusual circumstances, which will usually require documentation. 4 % a day will be deducted for unexcused lateness. A +, 90-100 %: Exceptional: Astonishingly excellent work, which demonstrates originality and a singular command of the subject. A, 80-89 %. Truly excellent work, free from errors. B+, 75-79 %. Very good work. B, 70-75 %. Good. C+, 65-69 %. Satisfactory. C, 60-64 %. D, 50-59 %. F, 0-49 %. Other things the Faculty thinks you should know: Students who wish to appeal a grade given for term work must do so within 10 working days after the grade for the term work has been made available to them. If you do not pick up your work for four months after the end of the course, you will not only lose the incalculable benefits of my comments, but, as the Faculty puts it, the work will become the property of the Faculty of Arts and will be subject to confidential destruction. READING AND CLASS SCHEDULE Subject to Modification Readings should be prepared for the day noted, and especially the matters for discussion. Quizzes will cover the material on the chapter for that day. Patterns of World History= Peter von Sivers, Charles A. Desnoyers, and George B. Stow, Patterns of World History, Volume 2: since 1400. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. Week I: 10 th September: Introduction, Post Mongol Eurasia, and Geography and Firearms. Week II: 17 September: Ottoman and European Fiscal Military States. Read Patterns of World History, Introduction to Part IV and Chapter 17, and Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, The Turkish Letters. Edward Seymour Forster, trans. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana
5 State University Press, 2005, originally Oxford University Press, 1927), letter 3, pages 85-168. Week III: 24 September: Paper #1 Due! Reformation Europe and its Cultures Read Patterns of World History, Chapter 18. Week IV: 1 October: Quiz #1. Conquest and Columbian Exchange Skim Patterns of World History, Chapter 15, Read Patterns of World History, Chapter 18, and excerpts from Columbus s Journal and Cortes s Second Letter to Charles V, from the Internet History Sourcebook, and excerpts from de las Casas Brief account of the Destruction of the Indies. Week V: 8 October, No Class: Thanksgiving. Week VI: 15 October: The Slave Trade and the Atlantic World Read Patterns of World History, Chapter 19, and excerpts from slave and slavers narratives. Week VII: 22 October: The Mughal Empire and the Indian Ocean World Read Patterns of World History, Chapter 20, and selected sections of Abul Fazl s Ain i Akbari, available at the website PHI Persian Literature in Translation. Week VIII: 29 October: China and Japan. Read Patterns of World History, Chapter 21, and Kenneth Pomeranz, Political Economy and Ecology on the Eve of Industrialization: Europe, China and the Global Conjuncture, American Historical Review, 107, 2 (Apr. 2002): 425-446. Week IX: 5 November: Quiz # 2. The conquest of the Steppes. Read Patterns of World History, introduction to part 5 and Chapter 2, pages 858-868 and 878-882. Week X: 12 November: No Class: Remembrance Day. Week XI: 19 November: Paper #2 Due. Economic Change in the 18 th Century. Read Patterns of World History, Chapter 23, pages 786-796. Week XII: 26 November: Quiz #3: Revolutions and rights Read Patterns of World History, Patterns of World History, Chapter 22, pages 736-769, and rights documents. Week XIII: 3 December: Retrospect and review.