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Galleons and Galleys: Global Connections 1500-1800 (HI2C1)

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Please see MoodleLink opens in a new window for Lecture Capture, seminar questions, readings, and details about assessment.

Convenor: Guido van Meerbergen

Lecturers: Guido van Meersbergen, Rebecca Earle, Anne Gerritsen, Luca MolĂ , Giorgio Riello, Tom Simpson

Lecture Times: Thurs 09.00-10.00, FAB2.43
Seminar Times:
Thurs 12.00-13.00, FAB1.06 (Group 1); Thurs 13.00-14.00, FAB4.78 (Group 2)

TERM 2 ONLY

For full details, please see the Moodle pageLink opens in a new window (for registered students only)

The early modern world was a deeply connected one. Whether we focus on trade, science, empire, or the spread of material artefacts, plants, and diseases, we need a global perspective that takes account of the contributions of and effects on all parts of the world. Galleons and Galleys examines the history of global interactions in the period 1500-1800, focusing on the ways the movement of people and things shaped global history and the world we live in today.

Galleons and Galleys follows the circulation of people, commodities such as spices, porcelain, and textiles, food and animals, as well as technology and ideas. It deals with the connections created between empires and across cultural and religious divides. Such contacts resulted in power and prosperity for some, but also in the hardships of war, enslavement, and destruction for others. Over the course of three centuries, deepening global connections thus also produced deepening global inequalities. Students on this module will engage with the theoretical framework of global history, a new(ish) approach which Warwick has been at the forefront of developing. Drawing on the expertise represented at Warwick's Global History and Culture CentreLink opens in a new window, Galleons and Galleys introduces students to recent scholarship that reassesses the global role of early modern Europe and its relations with Asia, Africa, the Americas, and the Pacific.

This second-year undergraduate 15 CATS module runs for ten weeks in the Spring term. In this module students will:

  • Gain an understanding of non-European histories, and their connections with and impact on early modern European history.
  • Obtain knowledge of the processes which made the early modern world increasingly interconnected.
  • Engage with key concepts in global history such as "connections", "comparisons", "entangled histories", "micro-global" and "cultural exchange".
  • Engage with a wide range of approaches to history through primary and secondary sources.
  • Analyse a range of visual, material and textual sources.
  • Communicate ideas both orally and in writing.
  • Develop research skills, historiographical engagement, and critical analysis through essay writing.

There are no pre-requisite or post-requisite modules. However, students wishing to take this module are encouraged to consider also taking HI2B8 Caravans and Traders: Global Connections, 1200-1500.