The course provides an overview of world history from "prehistory" (the era before the emergence of "civilizations" and the written word) to about 1450 of the Common Era (CE). It will use Volume 1 "Through the Fifteenth Century" of Robert Strayer & Eric Nelson's book Ways of the World: A Brief Global History with Sources, 5th edition (Macmillan Learning, 2022), with the Achieve learning platform. Topics to be covered include "big history" and cosmic history", the rise and globalization of farming and "civilizations", the appearance of cities, states, empires and social inequality (including caste, class, patriarchy and slavery), the emergence of world religions, the Silk Roads (by land, sea & sand) and other long-distance webs and networks, and the importance of the Mongols in the 13th and 14th centuries CE. It ends by looking at contintuity and change in the worlds of the fifteenth century.
- Profesor: Carey Watt