Syllabus

HIST 106: THE MAKING OF THE MODERN WORLD, 2 SPRING 2008

Coordinator: Çiğdem Kafescioğlu

e-mail: kafescio@boun.edu.tr office hours: Monday 10:00-11:45, TB 410A

Teaching Assistants: A. Abdullah Saçmalı [abdullahsacmali] (Head T.A.), Seren Akyoldaş, Melek Cevahiroğlu, Rezzan Karaman, Uluğ Kuzuoğlu, Ayşe Tek Başaran

Lectures: MWF 4, GKM

Discussion sections: Fridays, Kuzey Park, hours TBA

Web: hist-106.blogspot.com [also accessible through hist.boun.edu.tr]

Course Description:

The Making of the Modern World (Hist 105; Hist 106) is a two-semester elective course providing a thematic history of the world from ancient to modern times. The course surveys the major patterns and events of human activity from a global perspective within a broad chronological framework, while familiarizing students with interactions, parallelisms, and incongruities in the historical and cultural patterns of diverse societies and civilizations. The course aims to develop an understanding of modes and patterns of historical change, and provides a perspective on the complex ways in which the legacy of the past shapes our present.

Hist 106 explores the paths of specific historical change in the early modern and modern periods in different regions of the world, covering the period between the 15^th and the early 20^th centuries. Therefore the course is as much about the Renaissance and Reformation in Europe as about culture and society in the early modern Middle East; as much about transformations in European feudalism as about the methods of rule of East Asian polities; as much about the revolutions of 1789 and 1848 in Europe as about the transformation of Ottoman political power in relation to the Habsburg and Russian empires. Political, cultural, ideological and institutional structures and transformations that ushered in the modern era are discussed, as well as aspects of daily life and material culture. Connections and interactions across spatial and cultural divides remain a focus throughout the survey.

Format:

Hist 106 is team-taught by members of the History Department. Lectures of each week will be followed by one-hour discussion sessions led by the teaching assistants on Fridays.

There are two types of reading for the course. Two textbooks [P.N. Stearns, M. Adas, S.B. Schwartz, M.H. Gilbert, World Civilizations: The Global Experience (New York, 2007), and C. A. Bayly, The Birth of the Modern World, 1780-1914 (Oxford, 2004)], provide an introduction and background to the topics to be covered in the lectures. The primary source readings for each week introduce a set of particular issues and themes directly related to the lecture topics. The Friday sections with the teaching assistants will be devoted in part to the in-depth discussion and interpretation of the primary sources, and in part to the discussion of the main themes and issues of the week. Five historical movies or documentaries related to course themes will be screened through the semester.

It is highly important that you participate fully in the course by attending the lectures, doing the readings (preferably before lectures, certainly before the Friday discussion hours), and partaking in the discussions led by the teaching assistants.

All readings will be available as electronic documents on the Boğaziçi Library web site (go to Catalogue Search; Search Course Reserves). Stearns, et. al, World Civilizations: The Global Experience is also available in the Boğaziçi University Bookstore. Lecture outlines and course announcements will be posted on the course website.

Requirements: (There are no pre-requisites for Hist 106.)

Mid-term exam: 40%

Final exam: 50%

Attendance and participation in discussion sessions: 10%

HIST 106 THE MAKING OF THE MODERN WORLD, 2 SPRING 2008

WEEK I

20 February W Introduction (Kafescioğlu)

A.) DISCOVERIES AND EXPANSION

22 February F Early Expeditions and Asian Trade (Esenbel)

Reading: Stearns, chapter 20 (pp. 434-438)

WEEK II

25 February M European Expansion in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans (Terzibasoğlu)

27 February W Ottoman Expansion and the East-West trade (Terzioğlu)

: B.) RELIGION, CULTURE AND SOCIETY IN THE EARLY MODERN ERA

29 February F The Renaissance in Italy and Northern Europe (Kafescioğlu)

Discussion : Discoveries and expansion

Readings and sources: Stearns, chapter 21, ch. 24 (pp. 514-531), ch. 26 (pp. 569-576), ch. 27 (pp. 592-601)

Francis Drake, Voyages, 1580

Paul Lunde, “Piri Reis and the Columbus Map,” and “A Muslim Discovery of the New World,”

Ma Huan (1380-1451), The Overall Survey of the Ocean’s Shores, pp. 368-372.

WEEK III

3 March M The Reformation and Counter Reformation: Change in Society and Culture (Kafescioğlu)

5 March W Society and Culture in the Early Modern Near East (Kafescioğlu)

C.) THE AGE OF ABSOLUTISM: STATE-BUILDING AND POLITICAL CONFLICTS

7 March F The Power of the Prince (Kafescioğlu)

Discussion: The court and the city

Readings and sources: Stearns, ch. 20 (pp. 438-442), ch. 22 (478-486)

Castiglione, from The Book of the Courtier

Mustafa Ali, from The Tables of Delicacies

Film: Florence

WEEK IV

10 March M Ottoman Absolutism and its Limits (Terzioğlu)

12 March W Absolutism in South Asia: The Mughal Empire (Toksöz)

14 March F The Ming Bureaucratic Empire in China and Tokugawa Centralised Feudal Order in Japan (Esenbel)

Discussion: Mirrors for princes

Readings and sources: Stearns, ch. 26, ch. 27 (pp. 601-612), Bayly, ch. 1

Machiavelli, from The Prince, 16-19, 67-71 [parts IV ve IX]

Yamamoto Tsunetomo, (1659-1719), Hagakure and The Way of the Samurai, pp. 473-480.

Film: The Merchant of Venice

WEEK V

17 March M Absolutism at its Peak: France under Louis XIV (Eldem)

19 March W Absolutism Challenged: The English Revolution (Eldem)

D.) REASON AND REVOLUTION

21 March F The Scientific Revolution: from the Renaissance to Newton (Eldem)

Discussion: Critique of Absolutism

Readings and sources: Stearns ch. 22 (pp. 486-496), Bayly ch. 2

Voltaire, from the English Letters

Montesqieu, from The Persian Letters

WEEK VI

24 March M The Enlightenment: Man as an object of science (Eldem)

26 March W An Enlightenment Experiment: The American Revolution (Mazzari)

28 March F Destroying the Ancien Régime: the French Revolution (Eldem)

Discussion: Enlightenment and Revolution

Readings and sources: Stearns ch. 28, Bayly ch. 3

Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen

Rousseau, from The Social Contract

From The Encyclopedia: “Philosophe”

Film: Danton

WEEK VII

E.) AGE OF CAPITALISM

31 March M Transition to capitalism: agricultural origins (Terzibaşoğlu)

2 April W Diverging Paths: Mercantilism vs. Free Trade (Terzibaşoğlu)

4 April F Industrial Revolution (Terzibaşoğlu)

Discussion: Review for the midterm exam

Reading: Stearns, pp. 631-639, Bayly, ch. 4, review ch. 2

WEEK VIII

7 April M Colonialism and imperialism: a project for world domination (Terzibaşoğlu)

9 April W MID TERM EXAM

11 April F Society Transformed: Peasants, Workers, Consumers and Capitalists (Terzibaşoğlu)

Discussion: Colonialism and imperialism

Readings and sources: Stearns ch. 29, Bayly ch. 4, 5

Karl Marx “The Revolt in India”

From the Description of Egypt

Film: A Passage to India

WEEK IX

14 April M Cultural transformations (Terzibaşoğlu)

F.) STATES AND NATIONS

16 April W Nations and nationalism in Europe (Deringil)

18 April F Towards a Europe of Nations and Latecomers (Deringil)

Discussion: Social transformations in the age of capitalism

Readings and sources: Bayly ch. 6

Karl Marx and Friedrichs Engels, from The Communist Manifesto

Balzac, from History of the Thirteen

WEEK X

21 April M Old Empires, the Struggle for Survival: Romanovs, Ottomans, and Habsburgs (Deringil)

23 April W NO CLASS

25 April F 19^th century Ottoman transformations (Deringil)

Discussion: Perspectives on the nation

Readings and sources:

Renan, What is a nation ?

Ahmed Midhat, from The Basis of Reform

WEEK XI

5 May M 19^th century Russian transformations (Deringil)

7 May W Reform as Resistance: Meiji Modernity and Japan’s Asian Empire (Esenbel)

G.) REVOLUTION, WAR AND MODERNITY

9 May F Revolution and Nationalism in China (Esenbel)

Discussion: Reform and Revolution: Westernism versus Asianism

Readings and sources: Stearns ch. 31, Bayly, ch. 11

Fukuzawa Yukichi, (1835-1901)Civilization and Enlightenment, pp. 705-707.

Amur Society (Black Dragons) Anniversary Statement, 1930, pp. 951-953.

Liang Ch’i-Ch’ao, (1873-1929) A People Made New, pp. 755-759.

Sun Yat-Sen, (1866-1925), The Three Principles, pp.767-771.

WEEK XII

12 May M The Great War (Toksöz)

14 May W The Russian Revolution (Toksöz)

16 May F Anti-colonialism and Nationalism in South Asia (Toksöz)

Discussion: War and Revolution

Readings and sources: Stearns, ch. 32, 33, Bayly, ch. 13, sources to be announced

Film: All Quiet on the Western Front

WEEK XIII

19 May M NO CLASS

21 May W Women, Power and Modernity: Cross-Cultural Perspectives (Öztürkmen)

23 May F The End of Empires (Terzibaşoğlu)

Discussion: Women and modernity

Readings and sources: Bayly, pp. 395-402, sources to be announced

26 May M The world between the two wars: an overview (Öztürkmen)