This course will survey the history of Western Civilization from the beginnings of human civilization in the Near East to the Reformation in Europe. Students will be introduced to the political, economic, social, and cultural foundations of Western Civilization events including, but not limited to, the Protestant Reformation, exploration and colonization in the Americas, the Scientific Revolution, the Age of Enlightenment, political revolutions, the rise of industrialization, both World Wars, the Cold War, and the emergence of globalization.
Prerequisite Courses
Prerequisites
(LIBR 150 may be taken concurrently)
Competency
Humanities and Fine Arts
Course Outcomes
After successfully completing the course, the learner will be able to:
- Recognize the status of Europe at the time of the Scientific Revolution and subsequent impact of the Enlightenment.
- Outline the origins, events and results of the First World War and the unstable peace which followed.
- Analyze the causes of the Great Depression and its worldwide impact.
- Correlate the connections between the American and French revolutions.
- Discuss the political, industrial and economic climate and changes in western civilization from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century.
- Identify the basic teachings of liberalism, nationalism, conservatism, Communism, and Socialism in the nineteenth and twentieth century west.
- Explain the rise of totalitarianism which led to the Second World War and the Cold War.
- Describe how the fall of the Iron Curtain offers new opportunities and challenges to the west and its position in world events