070168 VO Introduction into Global History (a) (2013S)

This class will consist in lecture series supported by literature and provide a thematic introduction in approaches and topics of global history. Eric Vanhaute, Global History: an introduction, will provide the main background reading, supplemented by several articles. There will be a written examination at the end of the lecture series covering the lectures plus the obligatory reading. After some introductory comments on global history and other forms of history a selection of topics will be discussed, with an emphasis on the early modern era and on comparisons and connections.
Topics discussed will be: the role of geography and agricultural systems in global history, the Columbian Exchange, voluntary and involuntary intercontinental migration, intercontinental trade, differing modes of production and economic systems, the Great Divergence, differing forms of political organization: ‘state’, ‘nation’ and ‘empire’, empire building, knowledge systems, and technology and science