Course info

This course will introduce students to the history of the world from the Mongol Conquests until the Opium Wars (ca. 1250–1860). We will focus particularly on the ways in which the world became inter-connected in the nearly seven centuries under review. We will emphasize the major political, religious, and cultural transformations of the time, focusing especially on the history of empires. We will also pay particularly close attention to the role of religion in impacting and shaping people’s lives and the early modern world more broadly. Specific topics will include the Mongol invasions, China and India’s economic power, global labor systems and trade networks, the Columbian exchange, European imperialism and resistance to it, imperial power in Eurasia, the Atlantic Revolutions, and the Great Divergence debate.