Course Introduction

This course introduces students to major themes in European history during the centuries between the late Middle Ages and the French Revolution, a period full of cultural creativity, political experimentation, and social change. At the beginning of this period, Europe lost over a quarter of its population to epidemic disease; later its predominant religion, Christianity, experienced a crisis in the spiritual authority of popes and, as a result of the Protestant Reformation, the collapse of its institutional unity. In many respects, Europe in 1400 was a backwater by comparison to the cultural and political powerhouses of the Islamic world, India, and China; at the period’s end, Europeans had conquered the Americas, created the foundation of a global economy, and were poised to extend their domination, commercial and political, across Africa and much of Asia. Throughout this era, Europeans experimented with political forms as various as republicanism during the English revolution and royal absolutism in the reign of Louis XIV, the “Sun King.” Partly as a result of market expansion, the pace of social change accelerated, too, even as the barriers of social and gender status grew more inflexible. To recapture some of the social, cultural, and political fertility of these centuries, this course will focus on the following themes: the evolving relationship of the individual to God and to society at large; conflicting theories about the nature of political authority; changes in the relationship between gender and power; transformations in nature of scientific knowledge; and the rise of the modern state.

General Education Credits:
This is the second of a three-part survey of European history and culture. The student who completes this course will earn four credits toward the sixteen needed to meet the university's requirement in the Social Sciences (Group II).

History Major Credits:
The four credits earned in this course will be counted toward the 45 credits needed for the history major. Note that only graded credits count toward the major in history.