HY118
Faith, Power and Revolution: Europe and the Wider World, c.1500-c.1800
This information is for the 2024/25 session.
Teacher responsible
Dr Gagandeep Sood SAR 2.07
Availability
This course is available on the BA in History, BA in Social Anthropology, BSc in History and Politics, BSc in International Relations and History, BSc in Politics, BSc in Politics and History, BSc in Politics and International Relations and BSc in Social Anthropology. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course is available with permission to General Course students.
Course content
In this course, students are introduced to the international history of the early modern period by studying the complex political, religious, military and economic relationships between Europe and the wider world. The period between 1500 and 1800 is a crucial period in international history. In political terms, it covers the rise of major dynastic states, with increasingly centralised institutions and concepts, such as absolutism, to promote the authority of the monarch, as well as the challenges to that authority and growing interest in political and social reform, culminating in the revolutions covered at the end of the course. Internationally, the period witnessed the gradual consolidation of leading European powers, as reflected in the Treaty of Westphalia (1648), with formerly peripheral states emerging to vie with older powers by the early eighteenth century. At the same time, the rise of major Islamic empires in Eurasia and the growing contact between Europe and the wider world give students important points of comparison between European and non-European regimes. The intellectual, religious and cultural developments of the period contextualise and rationalise the major political developments. The course discusses the influence of key movements, such as the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, which re-ignited an interest in the Classical past and fostered a culture of systemic enquiry into the natural world. Yet religion remained a vital component in the world-view of contemporaries, whether Christian, Muslim or Jewish. This worldview was subject to challenges throughout the period, as during the Reformation, and often sought to impose its own orthodoxy, whether through religiously-motivated conflicts or the persecution or conversion of certain groups. The course seeks to familiarise students with some of the most significant issues and current debates on these aspects of the period. While its scope is necessarily broad in nature, the course will help students to deal with the dynamics of continuity and change over a long stretch of time.
Teaching
10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the AT. 10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the WT. 1 hour of classes in the ST.
There will be a reading week in week 6 of the Autumn and the Winter Terms.
Formative coursework
One essay in the Autumn Term. One essay in the Winter Term. There may also be a mock exam in the Spring Term.
Indicative reading
Beat Kümin (ed.), The Early Modern World, 3rd Edition (2018) D208 E81
Charles Parker, Global Interactions in the Early Modern Age, 1400–1800 (2010) HN13 P23
Euan Cameron (ed.), Early Modern Europe: An Oxford History (2001) D228 E11
Chris Cook and Philip Broadhead, The Routledge Companion to Early Modern Europe, 1453-1763 (2006) D208 C77
Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500-2000 (1989) D217 K31
Richard Bonney, The European Dynastic States, 1494-1660 (1991) D228 B71
William Doyle, The Old Order in Europe, 1660-1800 (1992) D273.A3 D75
John F. Richards, The Unending Frontier: An Environmental History of the Early Modern World (2005) GF13 R51
Merry E. Weisner, Christianity and Sexuality in the Early Modern World: Regulating Desire, Reforming Practice, 2nd edition (2010) BT708 W65
Marshall Hodgson, Rethinking World History: Essays on Europe, Islam and World History (1993) D21.3 H69
Stephen F. Dale, The Muslim Empires of the Ottomans, Safavids and Mughals (2010) DS292 D13
Richard M. Eaton, India in the Persianate Age, 1000–1765 (2019) DS452 E11
Jack Goldstone (ed.), Revolution and Rebellion in the Early Modern World (1991) D210 G62
K. N. Chaudhuri, Asia before Europe: Economy and Civilisation of the Indian Ocean from the Rise of Islam to 1750 (1990) DS339 C49
Assessment
Exam (100%, duration: 3 hours) in the spring exam period.
Key facts
Department: International History
Total students 2023/24: 44
Average class size 2023/24: 15
Capped 2023/24: Yes (45)
Value: One Unit
Course selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.
Personal development skills
- Leadership
- Self-management
- Team working
- Problem solving
- Application of information skills
- Communication
- Specialist skills