Prerequisite
English 100/101 and History 233
Course Description
The post-classical world (ca. 500 C.E. to ca. 1500 C.E.) laid the foundations for our modern world. A list of those foundations include the expansion and subsequent collapse of Byzantium; the nomadic invasions of western Europe and the development of feudalism; the rise of a militant Christianity under Charlemagne and the later Crusades; the rapid geographic dispersion of a militant Islam; the diffusion of Indian classical culture to Persia and Southeast Asia; the reunification of China under the Sui and Tang dynasties, the commercial revolution of the Sung dynasty, and the cultural revival of the Ming dynasty; the warfare and territorial organization that characterized Japanese feudalism; the development of states in eastern and southern Africa; the urban civilizations of Mesoamerica; and the settlement of the Polynesian peoples throughout the Pacific. Examining these topics, the course will stress issues of gender, class, religion, and social change in Asia, Europe, Africa, the Americas and Oceana. The course will explore the historiography of the era in depth.