EARLY EXPEDITIONS and ASIAN TRADE

                                           Silk Road and Arab Sea Trade


                                            Routes followed by Ibn Battuta and Marco Polo

                                                         Marco Polo

                                              Ibn Battuta

                                          Mongol World Empire and globalization

                                  
                                  Ming China and Zheng He Expedition


                                                     Zheng He


                                                    Coin commemorating Zheng He

HIST 106 SPRING 2011

HIST 106          THE MAKING OF THE MODERN WORLD, 2       SPRING 2011

Boğaziçi University Department of History

Coordinator: Noémi Lévy Aksu

e-mail: noemi.levy@boun.edu.tr

Office hours: Monday, 14.00-15.00 and by appointment

Teaching Assistants:

Sinem Erdoğan        sinem.erdogan@boun.edu.tr      (Head TA)

Kerim Kartal           qerimqartal@yahoo.com

Tanya Lawrence       tanya.lawrence85@gmail.com 

Orçun Okan             orcun.okan@boun.edu.tr

Ayşe Esra Şirin       ayseesrasirin@gmail.com

Gizem Tongo          gizemtongo@yahoo.com

Lectures: MWF 4, GKM

Discussion sessions: Fridays

Web: http://hist106-2011spring.blogspot.com/

Course Description:

The Making of the Modern World (Hist 105; Hist 106) is a two-semester elective course providing a thematic history of the world from ancient to modern times. The course surveys the major patterns and events of human activity from a global perspective within a broad chronological framework, while familiarizing students with interactions, parallelisms, and incongruities in the historical and cultural patterns of diverse societies and civilizations. The course aims to develop an understanding of modes and patterns of historical change, and provides a perspective on the complex ways in which the legacy of the past shapes our present.

Hist 106 explores the paths of specific historical change in the early modern and modern periods in different regions of the world, covering the period between the later 15^th and the early 20^th centuries. Therefore the course is as much about the Renaissance and Reformation in Europe as about culture and society in the early modern Middle East; as much about transformations in European feudalism as about the methods of rule of East Asian polities; as much about the revolutions of 1789 and 1848 in Europe as about the transformation of Ottoman political power in relation to the Habsburg and Russian empires. Issues regarding political, cultural, ideological and institutional structures and transformations that ushered in the modern era are discussed, as well as aspects of daily life and material culture. Connections and interactions across spatial and cultural divides remain a focus throughout the survey.

Format:

Hist 106 is team-taught by members of the History Department. Lectures of each week will be followed by one-hour discussion sessions led by the teaching assistants on Fridays.

There are two types of reading for the course. Two textbooks [P.N. Stearns, M. Adas, S.B. Schwartz, M.H. Gilbert, World Civilizations: The Global Experience (New York, 2007), and C. A. Bayly, The Birth of the Modern World, 1780-1914 (Oxford, 2004)], provide an introduction and background to the topics to be covered in the lectures. The primary source readings for each week introduce a set of particular issues and themes directly related to the lecture topics. The Friday sections with the teaching assistants will be devoted in part to the in-depth discussion and interpretation of the primary sources, and in part to the discussion of the main themes and issues of the week.

It is highly important that you participate fully in the course by attending the lectures, doing the readings (preferably before lectures, certainly before the Friday discussion hours), and partaking in the discussions led by the teaching assistants.

All readings will be available as electronic documents on the Boğaziçi Library website (go to Catalogue Search; Search Course Reserves). Stearns, et. al, World Civilizations: The Global Experience is also available in the Boğaziçi University Bookstore. Lecture outlines and course announcements will be posted on the course website.

Requirements: (There are no pre-requisites for Hist 106.)

Mid-term exam:              40%

Final exam:                     45%

         Pop quizzes, attendance and participation in discussion sessions    15%

SYLLABUS

21 February M                        Introduction                         Lévy Aksu

A.) DISCOVERIES AND EXPANSION

           

23 February W  Early Expeditions and Asian Trade      Esenbel

           

25 February F  European Expansion in the
 Atlantic and Indian Oceans      Lévy Aksu                                         

1. Discussion :   Introduction

B.) RELIGION, CULTURE AND SOCIETY IN THE EARLY MODERN ERA

           

28 February M  The Renaissance in Italy and Northern Europe     Kafescioğlu        

2 March W  The Reformation and Counter Reformation:
  Change in Society and Culture        Terzioğlu                                    

4 March F   Society and Culture in the
  Early Modern Middle East    Kafescioğlu

 

2. Discussion: The court, the city, religious reform

Readings and sources: Stearns, ch. 20 (pp. 438-442), ch. 22 (478-486)

-Renaissance maps

-Francis Drake, Voyages, 1580

Suggested source: Paul Lunde, “Piri Reis and the Columbus Map,”
and “A Muslim Discovery of the New World”

Suggested film: Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance       

C.) THE AGE OF ABSOLUTISM: STATE-BUILDING AND POLITICAL CONFLICT   

 

7 March M    The Power of the Prince:
  the Renaissance State  Kafescioğlu

9 March W   The Power of the Prince:
  post-Mongol Middle East  Terzioğlu
                                                                               

11 March F  Ottoman Absolutism and its Limits   Terzioğlu

3. Discussion: Mirrors for princes

Readings and sources: Stearns, ch. 26, ch. 27 (pp. 601-612), Bayly, ch. 1

Machiavelli, from The Prince, 16-19, 67-71 [parts IV ve IX]  

Castiglione, from The Book of the Courtier

Mustafa Ali, from The Tables of Delicacies

                       

14  March M  Absolutism in South Asia: The Mughal Empire    Toksöz

16 March W   Tokugawa Centralized Feudal Order in Japan      Esenbel

18  March F    The Ming Bureaucratic Empire in China              Esenbel

4. Discussion: Absolutism in Asia

Yamamoto Tsunetomo, (1659-1719), Hagakure and The Way of the Samurai, pp. 473-480.

From the Fatwa on Jizya by Aurangzeb

D.) REASON AND REVOLUTION

 

21 March M  Absolutism at its Peak: France in the Seventeenth Century    Eldem                                                                                                                                          

23 March W  Absolutism challenged: The English Revolution and Political Reform    Eldem                                                                                                      

25 March F  The Enlightenment and the Power of Reason   Eldem

5. Discussion: Critique of Absolutism

Readings and sources: Stearns ch. 22 (pp. 486-496), Bayly ch. 2

Voltaire, from the English Letters

Montesquieu, from The Persian Letters

                                                                                                         

28 March M   An Enlightenment Experiment:
    The American Revolution   Mazzari                                                    

30 March W   The End of an Age:  the French Revolution   Eldem

                                                   

1 April F   Transition to capitalism: agricultural origins    Terzibaşoğlu 

6. Discussion: Enlightenment and Revolution

Readings and sources: Stearns ch. 28, Bayly ch. 3

Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen

Rousseau, from The Social Contract

From The Encyclopedia: “Philosophe”

Suggested film: Danton

E.) AGE OF CAPITALISM

                                                                                 

4 April M   Diverging Paths: Mercantilism vs. Free Trade     Terzibaşoğlu   

6 April W   Industrial Revolution               Terzibaşoğlu

8  April F    Colonialism and imperialism:
                 a project for world domination   Terzibaşoğlu

 

7. Discussion: Review for the midterm exam

Reading: Stearns, pp. 631-639, Bayly, ch. 4, review ch. 2

11 April M                  MID TERM EXAM                         

13 April W   Society Transformed: Peasants, Workers,
                   Consumers  and Capitalists             Terzibaşoğlu

 

F.) STATES AND NATIONS

15 April F    Napoleonic Europe          Deringil

8. Discussion:  Social transformations in the age of capitalism

Readings and sources: Stearns ch. 29, Bayly ch. 5

Karl Marx and Friedrichs Engels, from The Communist Manifesto

Engels, “Industrial Manchester”

18 April M   Nations and nationalism in Europe        Deringil

                                    

20 April W   Towards a Europe of Nations and Latecomers     Deringil

22 April F     19th century Ottoman transformations   Deringil

9. Discussion: Perspectives on the nation  

Readings and sources: Bayly, pp. 199-212; and pp. 218-227.

Renan, What is a nation ?

25 April – 29 APRIL   SPRING BREAK

2 May M    Old Empires, the Struggle for Survival: the Habsburg Case   Ersoy

4 May W    The British Colonial Empire: 19^th century India    Toksöz

 

G.) REVOLUTION, WAR AND MODERNITY

6 May F   Revolution and Nationalism in China      Esenbel

10. Discussion:  State reforms and social transformations

Readings and sources: Stearns, pp. 700-714 (ch. 31); pp.724-732 (ch. 32); Bayly, pp. 212-218

Ahmet Midhat, from the Basis of Reform

From the Gülhane Edict

9 May M      Reform as Resistance: Meiji Modernity
                    and Japan’s Asian Empire                     Esenbel                                                    

11 May W    Anti-colonialism and Nationalism in South Asia    Toksöz

                                                                                                        

13 May  F     The Great War                                    Toksöz 

           

11. Discussion: Reform and Revolution: Westernism versus Asianism

Readings and Sources: Stearns ch. 31, ch. 32 (735-743), Bayly, ch. 11

Fukuzawa Yukichi, (1835-1901) Civilization and Enlightenment, pp. 705-707.

Sun Yat-Sen, (1866-1925), The Three Principles,  pp.767-771.

From the Reports of the Proceedings of the Indian National Congress, “Origin and Composition of the Congress”.

Suggested: Amur Society (Black Dragons), Anniversary Statement, 1930, pp. 951-953.

                  Liang Ch’i-Ch’ao,  (1873-1929) A People Made New, pp. 755-759.

16  May  M     The Russian Revolution        Toksöz

18 May W    Interwar Europe       Lévy Aksu

                                                                                                         

20 May F      World War II           Lévy Aksu

                                            

12. Discussion: War and Revolution

Readings and sources: Stearns, ch. 32, 33, 34; Bayly, ch. 13,

Barkley’s Letters

Lenin, “Our Party Programme”

Suggested film:  All Quiet on the Western Front

23 May M     Anti-colonialism and Orientalism    Ersoy

25 May W     Women, Power and Modernity: cross-cultural perspectives     Öztürkmen                                                                                                                

How to Reach Online Primary Sources

It is required for all the students to read the primary sources for the discussion sessions which are held on Fridays. To reach the online primary sources, please follow the steps below:

Log on to the Boğaziçi University Library Webpage at http://www.library.boun.edu.tr/,
Then click "Catalog Search,"
Click "Course Code" on the right column,
Type in HIST 106, and you will see all the required sources.