Forging the West: A World History of Europe, 1215-1788

• • Week 1: Byzantium, Islam, and, Christianity
  • Week 2: Creating Christendom
  • Week 3: Structures of Hegemony in the Medieval World
  • Week 4: The Century of Crisis
  • Week 5: Renaissance and Renewal
  • Week 6: European Exploration and Exploitation
  • Week 7: Religion, Reformations and Politics
  • Week 8: The Emergence of the State through Conflict
  • Week 9: Republics, Science, and, Technology
  • Week 10: Trading People
  • Week 11: Enlightenment and Commerce
  • Week 12: Coloniser and Colonised
  • Week 13: Revision

No eligibility requirements

Special requirements

• OtherDetails -

  Students who have an Academic Standing of Suspension or Exclusion under Macquarie University's Academic Progression Policy are not permitted to enrol in OUA units offered by Macquarie University. Students with an Academic Standing of Suspension or Exclusion who have enrolled in units through OUA will be withdrawn.

In 1215 CE, a Mongol army led by Genghis Khan conquered the Chinese city of Zongdhu (present-day Beijing), creating the basis for the largest contiguous land empire in human history. That same year, leaders of the Latin Church met for the Fourth Lateran Council in Rome at the other end of Eurasia, establishing western European Christian doctrine for the next three centuries. These civilizations soon came into contact as the Mongol Empire enabled commerce and cultural exchange between east and west Eurasia. This unit explores how the increasingly complex network of connections that linked Europe and the wider world between the High Middle Ages and the eve of the modern era helped to create the particular society and culture that we today frequently refer to as “the West.” We focus on the historical contingency of this creation and the ways in which both European and non-European influences and factors forged the idea of the West. From medieval encounters between Christianity and Islam to eighteenth-century encounters between Pacific Islanders and Europeans, from the thirteenth-century Eurasian economic world system to the truly global economy that emerged after 1500, from the horseback empire of the Mongols to the martime empires built by European states, we explore the transformation of the premodern world. The unit considers these processes from both European and non-European perspectives.

• Short weekly quiz (20%)
• Document Exercise, (30%)
• Reflective essay (50%)