OBJECTIVE:

To help the students gain an understanding and in-depth knowledge of the important events that shaped Europe's history in the 20th century.

DESCRIPTION:

The class will cover all major events and figures of Europe.

COURSE CONTENT:

Royal absolutism:  Origins of Absolutism and absolute sovereignty.
The Age of Louis XIV and France.  Austria and the Habsburgs, Prussia and the Hohenzollern, Autocratic Russia.  Society, art and war in the age of Absolutism.

The Age of Reason:  Emphasis on human reasoning activated such concepts as the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment.
Art:  Rococo and Baroque.

Colonies:  Struggle of the European powers for world domination.
Constitutionalism and Enlightened Despotism.

French Revolution:  Origins of the revolution, the destruction of the monarchy, the Constitution of 1791 and the Legislative Assembly, National Convention, failure of the moderate regime, Reign of Terror, Thermidorean Reaction and the rise of Napoleon.

Age of Napoleon: Rise to power, Napoleonic Empire, domestic reforms, Continental System, Peninsular War, Russian invasion, the war of Liberation.  The Napoleonic legacy.

Congress of Vienna and the Concert of Europe.  Restoration and reaction across Europe.

New ideologies:  Conservatism, Liberalism, Socialism, Marxism, Nationalism, Racism.
The revolutions of 1848.

The Industrial Revolution and the rise of big business.  Agricultural Revolution.

France and the Second Republic. Count Cavour and the Italian Independence. Bismarck and the new unified Germany.

Ethnic Nationalism in Central and Southeastern Europe.  The Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary.  Turmoil in the Balkans.
 

TEACHING METHODOLOGY:

Lectures        45 Hours
Essays          15 Hours
 

ASSESSMENT:

Examinations                             80%
Essay/Quiz                                10%
Attendance/Participation           10%
 

PREREQUISITES:

None
 

RECOMMENDED TEXTBOOKS:

Anderson, Matthew Smith. Europe in the Eighteenth Century 1713-1783. Longman, 1987.

Hearder, Harry. Europe in the 19th Century, 1830-1880. Longman, 1988.

Lerner, Robert E.,  Standish Meacham, and Edward McNall Burns. Western Civilizations:
        Their History and Their Culture. Vol. 2, 13 ed. W. W. Norton, 1998.

Pennington, D. H. Europe in the Seventeenth Century. 2nd ed. Addison-Wesley, 1989.

Sherman, Dennis, ed. Western Civilization : Sources, Images, and Interpretations: Since 1660.
     Vol. 2, 4th ed. McGraw Hill, 1995.

Spielvogel, Jackson J. Western Civilization Since 1550. Vol. 2, 3rd ed. West, 1997.

Treasure, Geoffrey. The Making of Modern Europe 1648-1780. Routledge, 1985.