HISTORY OF
WESTERN CIVILIZATION

Prehistory through
the Renaissance & Reformation

office room LC304
office hours Wednesdays 11am-12noon and by appointment
phone 703/450-2503 or -2505
bblois@nvcc.edu

this syllabus may be accessed at www.nvcc.edu/home/bblois

If you want to go to a specific part of the syllabus,
choose the following shortcuts:

· Schedule of Class Meetings

· Required Readings

· Grading

· Midterm Examination

· Individual Projects

· Course Description

· Course Goals

· Needed Skills

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Perry, Western Civilization, any ed., vol.I (the bookstore has the current, 7^th edition)
Gilgamesh
Machiavelli, The Prince

The campus bookstore will also stock one recommended title for this course, Islam: History, Religion, and Civilization by Seyyed Hossein Nasr

also it is possible some selected readings TBA will be kept at the library circ desk reserve shelves for HIS 101/Blois

students will also be asked to consult and critique a website in-progress of your instructor’s authorship, WesternCivWashington

class attendance 20%
midterm exam 35%
projects and papers 25%
final examination 20%

MIDTERM EXAMINATION--will consist of three sections: a map identification quiz, an essay, and capsule biographies; before the test, we will review the relevant textbook maps (from which the quiz items will come), and discuss a set of potential essays and bio subjects from which, at the time of the test, your instructor will make selections; relative grade weighting for each section of the test will be announced in advance; the midterm exam will account for 35% of the final grade for HIS 101 and without a passing grade for the midterm examination (ie, a grade of "D" or above) it will be impossible to pass this course

TWO SHORT PAPERS—at dates specified supra, two short 2-3 page papers must be submitted; the first reviewing one or more aspects of the epic Gilgamesh and the second concerning Machiavelli’s The Prince; specifics of these two assignments will be addressed in class, and both works will be discussed in class prior to submission deadlines

INDIVIDUAL PROJECTS--each student will design, with the instructor's assistance, three individual projects due at the end of the course: 1. an annotated bibliography of ten (10) sources (websites, online full-text articles/books/video/etc) for a topic of your choice relevant to the course and approved by the instructor [annotations must discuss the utility and validity/veracity of each source] (4-5 pages); 2. a movie/video review on a relevant work (2-3 pages); 3. a review of a museum collection or exhibition relevant to the course (2-3 pages); these papers should be typed, dbl-spaced, with 1" margins; style, source selection, and other matters of form will be discussed in class; project papers will account for 25% of the final grade; all papers for this course (except exams) will receive a one-half letter grade bonus if reviewed prior to submission in the campus Writing Center; for all papers, style and mechanicals (spelling, grammar, etc) will count for and against you

CAMPUS AND COLLEGE LIBRARY RESOURCES—The online NVCC library catalog may be accessed at http://www.nvcc.edu/library

OPTIONAL ACTIVITY—In early December, I invite you to the National Gallery of Art in Washington for a one-hour walking tour of the gallery’s Renaissance paintings led by your instructor. Though this activity is strictly optional, extra course credit will be afforded those who participate, and the tour may form the subject of the required museum paper.

COURSE DESCRIPTION: HIS 101 surveys selected events, personalities, and trends in the history of Western civilization from earliest times through the Renaissance and Reformation; the instructor's approach is episodic--that is, some topics will be covered in comparative depth, while others will get very short treatment or none at all; most classes will consist of a topical lecture (see class schedule) and a period of discussion of a reading, a handout, or questions that arise from the class; some classes will include slides or video; at least one (optional) class session will take place in Washington, DC (normally at the National Gallery of Art)

GENERAL COURSE GOALS: by completing this course, students will

1. acquire and be able to demonstrate a basic factual awareness of European history's broad outlines in premodern times

2. develop a general knowledge of how historians think and work and how the skills of the historian, including especially the ability to think analytically and critically, are transferable to broader concerns of individuals and societies

3. develop a sense of the value, and limitations, of comparing current events with the past, searching for the "lessons" of history

4. demonstrate basic competence in researching and writing brief essays drawing on their interpretation of European history

5. improve their writing, library, and computer skills

ENTRY LEVEL SKILLS: students should be able read and digest college level text books; the total assigned reading for this course (from text and paperbacks) is approximately 700 pages; note-taking will be important, as will be the ability to identify geographic locations; the ability to compose and then record from memory answers to biographical and essay questions is also very important; rudimentary typing and computer skills are highly desirable

CLASS ATTENDANCE--your instructor places great emphasis on class attendance and participation

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AUGUST 27

Course Intro/Prehistory/Urban Revolution in the ancient Near East      back to Schedule

The introductory history survey remains an important element in the general education curriculum of most colleges and universities. The fortunes of such courses have ebbed and flowed but, since their introduction in the 1920s and 1930s, courses in the history of civilization in American institutions of higher education have proved durable. Since our nation's entry into world affairs approximately seventy-five years ago, it has become far more important than earlier for Americans to frame a credible and usable story of Europe, past and present. Especially for university students, few courses have as much potential for breaching what Bertrand Russell described as the "tyranny of the local" as the civilization survey.

Anthropologists and archaeologists tell us that, since the first appearance of our human ancestors, the species has lived three very different lifestyles: as nomadic hunter/gatherers, as settled farmers, and as city dwellers. Town life, or civilization, and the writing of history have traveled together through the last five thousand years, forming a record of human hopes, fears, and accomplishments on which this course is based.

Before history, there was a time, until about 10,000 years ago, when nomadism was state-of-the-art for everybody. Because of the low populations density this regime demands, the earth was thinly but evenly peopled during the Old Stone Age. Then, while some continued to live as nomads, others began to settle in communities and work the soil, giving birth to agriculture and to the era of the New Stone Age. By 3000 BC, some of these communities had become large and complex enough to merit the term "town" or "city." At about the same time, writing evolved as a necessary skill for some people living the increasingly complex urban lifestyle, and with the conscious, written chronicling of human accomplishment, ends the long period known as prehistory.

Histories of civilization, this one included, normally begin their story with the Sumerians, a southern Mesopotamian people who loom large in the development and diffusion of social institutions and mentalities. This continuity is especially apparent in the other Mesopotamian societies, but the Sumerians seem also to have stimulated, by their example, developments in the Nile valley and elsewhere.

READ: textbook pp 5-16, 23-30

You will find extensive info on Gilgamesh at

http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/MESO/GILG.HTM and

http://www.akkad.com and several versions of the epic may be found, in full text, on the web

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City recently hosted "Art of the First Cities," a major exhibition of Mesopotamian artifacts. Information may be found at the museum’s website.

SEPTEMBER 3

History begins in Iraq back to Schedule

Today we will discuss the Sumerian epic Gilgamesh, about which you will later write a short paper. We will also have a guest presentation by Dr Sam Kubba, author of book-length studies of ancient Mesopotamian material culture and architecture.

A few places to check for latest information about the fate of Mesopotamian antiquities during the current Iraq war are the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute, the periodical Minerva, the University of Pennsylvania’s museum site (http://www.upenn.edu/museum), and the online site Virtual Baghdad.

SEPTEMBER 10

Egypt--Gift of the Nile        back to Schedule

One of the first societies of the ancient world to achieve that collection of attributes constituting civilization was Egypt. Moreover, the Egyptians' accomplishments in monumental architecture, medicine, religion, pictorial art and other pursuits have been imitated or adapted by many subsequent societies. This fact constitutes the surest testimony to the genius and energy of this longest-lived of all ancient civilizations.

Long before the rise of either Greece or Rome, Egypt, which would later become a part of each of these societies, and by this fact alone an influence on each, enjoyed an incredibly long period of security, stability, and prosperity that allowed one of history's greatest cultural efflorescences. We must credit the river's predictable (and manageable) floods, the rich alluvial soil it deposited along its banks, and the broad eastern and western deserts bordering Egypt for providing a most fortuitous set of conditions for social development.

Egypt's development, beginning around 3000BC, can be traced through five major periods: Old Kingdom, First Intermediate Period, Middle Kingdom, Second (Hyksos) Intermediate Period, and New Kingdom. Approximately 2000 years had passed when the New Kingdom entered decline, still 1000 years before Caesar and Christ. In Egypt we encounter the first highly developed theologies, those of the sun gods Amon-Re and Aton; we also find the first historical individuals to stand forth in sympathetic and recognizable dimensions: Narmer, unifier of the two lands; Zoser, Khufu, and Imhotep, kings and architect responsible for the birth of the pyramid age; Hatshepsut, first woman to govern in her own right; Akhnaton and Nefertiti, odd couple rulers during the short-lived Amarna heresy; and Tutanhkamun, boy ruler whose pharaoh's grave was the only one to survive inviolate into our own century.

read: textbook pp 16-23

please check out these websites:

http://www.kv5.com

You may also want to search such things as ‘Narmer palette’, Nefertiti, JoAnn Fletcher, Zahi Hawass, Kent Weeks, Mark Lehner, Joyce Tyldesley, Donald Redford, Bob Brier, Egyptian Museum-Cairo, and Barbara Mertz. Two new Egyptian exhibitions will soon open at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore.

also for SEPTEMBER 10…

‘His majesty herself’: Hatshepsut/also Akhenaton, Nefertiti, and Tutankhamun back to Schedule

Today we will discuss certain Egyptian personalities from the XVIIIth dynasty who, though dead nearly 3500 years, are fixtures in 20^th-21^st century memory

SEPTEMBER 17

Legacies of the Greeks/Athenian Democracy: ‘the school of Hellas’      back to Schedule

With the Greeks, modern societies begin to see themselves mirrored in the life of a people of antiquity. Whole realms of endeavor, familiar to us, were not only equally familiar to the ancient Greeks, but were for them, no less than for us, subject to much commentary and reflection. Politics, from the Greek polis (city), and economics, from ecos (household), are just two examples. Also indicative of the Greek penchant for categorization and systematization of thought and activity are the many survivals of the Greek language in the modern academic (itself a Greek term) curriculum: poetry, music, biology, physics, history, and mathematics are some disciplines originating with the inquiries of the Greeks, who also saw athletics (yet another of their concepts) as an integral component of education.

The political history of the Greeks is preserved in sufficiently full and rich detail that it has formed a corpus of object lessons for all subsequent western peoples, beginning already with the Romans. The allure of certain places and moments in the Greek experience remains pronounced. When Voltaire adjudged classical Athens one of the four or five truly exciting, not to mention great, periods in the history of civilization, he was expressing a commonly held view.

Also remarkable, at least at first glance, are the many ironies and inconsistencies exhibited in Greek life and politics: history's first democratic political system excluded all women and based itself on a very extensive slavery; a society avowing the virtue of panhellenism (Greek unity) could never achieve it; and, of the luminaries of Greek philosophy, most, including Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were profoundly antidemocratic.

READ: textbook pp 51-99

Pericles' "Funeral Oration" may be found at

I suggest that you compare it to a recent presidential speech or radio broadcast text. Type "White House" into a search engine. For the second time since antiquity, Greece will host the modern Olympic Games in 2004 (the other such time was 1896), and the web should already have numerous sites relating to the upcoming Athens Olympics.

SEPTEMBER 24

Live fast, die young: Alexander the Great and the Dream of Empire     back to Schedule

In the fourth century BC, the accomplishments of the "Golden Age" of Greece were consolidated into a portable body of knowledge and spread throughout the eastern end of the Mediterranean world. An interesting point about the spread of the Hellenic achievement is that it was begun by a non-Greek who carried Greek civilization to other non-Greeks. The individual referred to, of course, is Alexander the Great, a Macedonian.

The term usually applied to the period of this diaspora of Greek ways is the Hellenistic Age (distinguishing it from the earlier Hellenic). In two ways this unit prepares us for moving on to the study of Rome. Alexander's conquests foreshadowed the even greater area encompassed by the Roman Empire, and the culture of Rome would become, by the early years of the Empire, thoroughly Hellenistic.

Alexander's military exploits are virtually unmatched in all history. Never has one man, at so young an age, taken a army farther or to greater glory. Legend says that, upon conquering all of the Persian Empire and more, he sat down and wept because, at age twenty-eight, there was nothing left for him to do. IN fact, there was much to do, which brings us to the enigma of Alexander. What plans did he have for the huge area he had come to govern personally? Was he interested simply in glory and personal accomplishment? Or did he have a plan for establishing a functional humanism within his domain--a policy that would have meant equal treatment for Greek, Persian, Macedonian, and Egyptian? Was he trying to do what Rome would later achieve--establish universal citizenship within a family of nations all treated as equals, breaking with the Greek habit of regarding all other peoples as barbarians, fit for little more than slavery? The rapid spread of Alexander's hegemony and his early death prevent us from settling such questions, and Alexander's plans for his empire must remain one of history's larger "what if" queries.

Irrespective of these problematics, much is known about Alexander--probably more than about anyone until his time. This is so because, prior to setting out for Asia, he hired numerous historians to document his progress. In the career of Alexander the Great, we can also study the "great man" in history. How free was he in his actions? To what extent was he, as an historical actor, made up, costumed, and equipped with lines to speak by circumstances of time and place over which he had little, if any, control?

READ: textbook pp 103-117

You will find an excellent, recent site re Alexander at

Not one, but two films about the life of Alexander are now in pre-production. One is to be directed by Oliver Stone, the other by Baz Luhrmann. Stories about the casting of Colin Farrell, Leonardo DiCaprio, Angelina Jolie, et al in one or the other of these films are starting to appear routinely in motion picture websites.

OCTOBER 1

Rome--Republic and Empire     back to Schedule

Many people automatically associate the words "decline and fall" with the society and civilization of the Romans, but we should remember that it is the magnitude of Rome's achievement that makes its demise such a turning point in history. Roman power, or imperium, spread to an unprecedented extent in time and space. For a thousand years, the Romans were either acquiring or maintaining control of the entire Mediterranean coastline, not to mention extensive territorial holdings in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Roman rule made the Mediterranean a secure and private lake. Mare nostrum, our sea, the Romans called it, a maritime highway over which passed the commerce which provided an economic justification for Roman power.

The Romans bequeathed three great legacies to subsequent times: language, law, and religion. Latin became parent to half a dozen modern European languages; Roman law has been drawn upon ceaselessly by politicians and jurists (including the writers of the US constitution); and Roman religion, which very late in imperial history became Christianity, became the cultural center of gravity for Medieval Europe.

The Romans were great consolidators of political power, but this did not prevent them from also sharing political and citizenship rights with most of the empire's constituent nationalities, accomplishing history's first functional toleration of national differences and realizing a pragmatic "humanism" which may have been what Alexander intended for his own empire. With Rome, ancient civilization reached both its high point and terminus, though the subsequent medieval civilization, born in the "wild West" of the empire, would have been unimaginable without its deep Roman roots.

Both Christian theology, with its appeal to the downtrodden, and the Christian church, drawing on Roman administrative practices, were propelled to success largely by late imperial social, economic, and intellectual conditions. Whether in these years Christianity, as a religion, weakened or strengthened Rome prior to its eventual collapse, the church did, later, become the steward of Rome's legacies in both western and eastern Europe.

From its original appeal to Jewish messianism, Christianity, under the tutelage of St. Paul, was translated into a doctrine with an appeal to many peoples, and was transported to Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy itself. Roman persecution of Christianity was, though intermittent, inevitable given the refusal of Christians to perform the few patriotic rituals demanded by the civic religion of the empire. What was far from inevitable was the ultimate triumph of Christianity during the fourth century, when it was first tolerated and later sanctioned as the official state religion of Rome. This success owes, in part, to the ability of Christianity to ingest and synthesize elements of many of its rival mystery religions.

Once embraced by Rome, the church spread throughout the empire, and its operations ceased being clandestine. The church's ambivalence toward Rome, even after the edicts of Constantine and Theodosius, can be seen in the monastic movement and the writings of Jerome, Augustine, and others. As western Rome declined, the papacy, in line of descent from Augustus no less than from St. Peter, began a consolidation of power which would culminate in the papal monarchy of the Middle Ages.

READ: textbook pp 120-194

The role of the US in the contemporary world has spawned considerable debate about whether or not American foreign and military policy have become "imperial" in a way harking back to Roman times. Scanning the op/ed pages of major newspapers will reveal frequent commentary on this subject, as will a visit to current or recent issues of periodicals like "Foreign Affairs".

OCTOBER 8

"I’m gonna get Medieval on your ***": from the ‘Dark Ages’ to the Black Death    back to Schedule

Roman civilization declined and evolved, if it did not truly "fall." Barbarians did indeed (to paraphrase Cavafy) provide a kind of solution to late Roman decrepitude, and many early medieval practices and institutions clearly are blendings of Roman and (largely Germanic) barbarian elements. A good example is the political consolidation of the Franks, through the time of Charlemagne, a process that literally began as western Rome was expiring but which allowed for the revival of the imperial idea and its conveyance into Medieval times.

In politics and economics, feudalism and manorialism were progressive Roman-Germanic compounds which withstood the disruptive aspects of the Viking or Norman invasions. These, to be sure, had a constructive aspect as well--the Normans created efficient, lasting governments in parts of Europe as far removed as Britain and Russia. Likewise, the civilization of early Medieval Europe was a blend of Roman and barbarian elements productive of enough energy and accomplishment as to call into serious question the concept "Dark Ages." Church and state alike, especially in the time of Charlemagne, worked to preserve and convey the classical tradition, while at the same time vernacular languages were nonetheless replacing Latin in both popular speech and in literature.

Some centuries after the collapse of Roman authority in the West, Medieval Europe could lay claim as successor to Rome's imperial greatness, and in the time of Charlemagne (circa 800) such claims, if still audacious, had a least some substance. In the period between the collapse of western Rome and the rise of the Carolingian state, two other heirs of Rome, both in the east, exhibited far greater potential: the Byzantine, or East Roman, state and the nascent civilization of Islam. Each made the early Medieval West appear backward by comparison. Constantinople was much older and prosperous and Baghdad more vital, ambitious, and expansionist than any of Rome's western successors.

Unfortunately for Byzantium and Islam, geographic proximity led to bitter competition and protracted conflict. Indirectly at least, the more backward West benefitted from this strife by standing apart from it, at least until the onset of the Crusades around 1100, while also being able to incorporate many cultural and technological borrowings from the East (or, just as often, from Islamic Europe, ie Spain).

An agricultural revolution preceded and no doubt enabled virtually all Medieval progress, whether economic or cultural. With the growth of towns and the return to a monetary economy the stage was set for a renascence of culture and rise of uniquely Medieval accomplishments such as universities, the Gothic style, and scholastic philosophy.

READ: textbook pp 199-226

For Einhard's ninth century biography of Charlemagne see:

also for OCTOBER 8

Medieval Achievement and Decline      back to Schedule

Politically, as well as culturally, the church dominated the nations of the West, giving rise to church-state conflict as strong kings and emperors appeared in Germany and, later, in France and England. A church which had to face the new realities of urbanizing societies, a changing and rapidly growing economy, and contentious secular authorities had, itself, to become a far more dynamic institution. Even the church's dominance in education faced challenges in the form of Abelard and Aquinas, as well as from interest groups and associations of academics and students. The world of the High Middle ages had become far more complex, interesting, and challenging. Of all institutions, the church faced the greatest problems from this new reality.

The status of Medieval women rose in the twelfth century and after, with the spread of Mariolatry and courtly love, but the actual roles available to women within society were no different than those possibilities already open to Roman women--besides marriage and the family, only limited participation in business and religion.

The first experiments with what would come to be termed the nation-state occurred in the Middle Ages. Both England and France exhibited dramatic growth in royal political power and in the administrative and bureaucratic buttresses necessary for the regular exercise of such power. From different starting points and by differing routes, but largely in response to one another's political affairs, England and France, from around the year 1000 until the conclusion of the Hundred Years' War in the 1450s, went from being intertwined feudal monarchies

to being two of the earliest examples of ambitious, efficient, and very nearly absolutist monarchy, though Magna Carta kept England from a fullblown absolutism.

The capture of Jerusalem in 1099 by the First Crusade represented another turning point in the development of the Medieval West, which had, by the end of the eleventh century become sufficiently well-ordered and secure as to engage in the only long-lived (though sporadic) European expansion since the end of the Roman Empire. The Crusades likewise were testimony to the organizational powers of the papacy, at least in the case of the First Crusade. Subsequent crusades, often directed against fellow Christians in Asia Minor and Eastern Europe, were symptomatic, instead, of commercial or territorial greed. On balance, the Crusades both stimulated greatly the European demand for Eastern commodities and, paradoxically, devastated one of the prime sources for such imported luxuries, Constantinople.

A cluster of fourteenth century calamities serves as the punctuation mark separating the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Among these are the Hundred Years' War, the Great Schism in the church, and the most devastating pandemic in history, the Black Death. The Hundred Years' War accelerated already discernable tendencies in England and France toward consolidated national monarchies, while also eroding dramatically the position and the very ranks of feudal chivalry. Tendencies that would produce a fragmented Western Christendom were widespread during the several fourteenth century crises gripping the church and, in the short run at least, the church's problems simply accelerated the ascent of already rampant monarchies. The Black Death destroyed the workings of the highly sophisticated late Medieval money economy and, in its aftermath, hastened the demise of serfdom, thus helping to insure a vastly different foundation for the fifteenth century economic recovery.

READ: textbook pp 229-295

In November, a campus/community theater project will produce the play "The Lion in Winter" in the Waddell Theater (our classroom); anyone wishing to participate on-stage or behind stage may qualify for class credit; we will discuss this possibility throughout the semester

"Past Imperfect": Henry the Fifth and Joan of Arc on film back to Schedule

Today we will examine some prominent figures in Medieval history as portrayed in 20^th century feature films: Henry V, king of England, as portrayed in films adapted from Shakespeare’s play by Laurence Olivier (1946) and by Kenneth Branagh (1989) and Joan of Arc, as portrayed in a late 1920s silent film "The Passion of Joan of Arc".

For a lengthy listing of Medieval "Hollywood histories", see

http://www.fordham.edu/haslall/medfilms.html

Today we will also discuss and prepare for your in-class midterm exam, upcoming the following week.

OCTOBER 20-24

There will not be a class meeting this week. Instead, students will meet individually with the instructor for 10-15 minutes in his office (LC 304) to discuss their progress in the course and their tentative choices for course projects. Please contact Dr Blois at bblois@nvcc.edu or at 703/450-2503 by Monday, October 20 with your preferred day and time of day. As this week draws nigh, these appointments will be discussed in class.

OCTOBER 29

Midterm exam held in class today back to Schedule

NOVEMBER 5

The Renaissance—illustrated with paintings from the National Gallery of Art     back to Schedule

It was the nineteenth century which formalized the now common view of the history of western civilization as divided into the eras, or periods, of ancient, medieval, and modern. While people living at the height of the Roman Empire did not consider themselves "ancient," and an individual living in the Middle Ages could have had no awareness of what he or she was living "between," people living at the dawn of the modern age did have some appreciation of this fact and, in Italy, applied the term Rinascita (rebirth) to it around 1550. Even earlier, Petrarch had, around 1350, coined the term "Dark Age" to set off his own striving and energetic times from all which stood between himself and the end of antiquity, for whose revival--or rebirth--he, Petrarch, strove so devotedly.

What was reborn was an interest in and appreciation of the relevancy of the Roman, and later also the Greek, classics in the prosperous Italian cities of the early fourteenth century. In Italy there was a closer relationship with the classical past than elsewhere in western Europe. Italians lived literally amid the ruins of the Roman Empire. The revival came at this point in time because the Florentines, Milanese, Sienese, and others saw their own civilization as the first great urban age in a thousand years and, therefore, were much interested in whatever could be learned from an examination of their "roots" in Roman civilization. An element of nationalism was present in the Italians' attempt to assert the primacy of their history and institutions over the more recent association with the German emperors.

The Renaissance itself, hard hit by the onset of the Black Death in 1347-1348, had to be reborn around 1450, after which time it gave color nd texture to a hundred years of political, economic, and religious life.

READ: textbook pp 301-321

Your museum paper is soon due. There are many virtual museums you might visit. Take a look, for instance, at

Some relevant individual museums are, for instance,

Or, type "British Museum" or "Louvre" into a search engine.

NOVEMBER 12

Renaissance Personalities—Machiavelli, Columbus, and Elizabeth   back to Schedule

A phenomenon, sometimes called the Age of Discovery, spanning the years 1450 to 1600, resulted in the triumph of commercial capitalism in Europe and the expansion of European power into most other parts of the world. Thus were produced colonial holdings which, in some cases, have only been dismantled in the last thirty years. Interestingly, the first colonial power, Portugal, survived to be also the last such power to retreat from India and Africa.

In the process of discovery and empire-building, the most famous name is, of course, Christopher Columbus. In the wake of his four voyages, not only Spain but most European nations took an interest in and began to acquire overseas possessions, took in vast new wealth, and began to behave like merchants--hence the term "mercantilism." Like many of his well-known contemporaries, Columbus (1451-1506) was a "Renaissance man." Like the Medici, he was very acquisitive; like the humanists, he placed great store in the classics (at least the classical geographers); like the creative artists of his day, he consciously sought fame.

The Spanish and Portuguese claims to, respectively, the New World and Africa produced the first international agreement of the new age of imperialism, the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), negotiated by the papacy. Excluded from this division of spoils were all other European powers; however, the subsequent explorations under the flags of England, France, and the Netherlands all resulted in gains for these new participants. A final element in the general European expansion was Russia's exploration and settlement of Siberia, making it the first European nation to establish permanent relations with China, the original lure for the wave of exploration.

READ: textbook pp 350-374

Machiavelli, The Prince

A full text version of The Prince is at

http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~pgrose/mach/

In 1992, the Library of Congress mounted an excellent Columbian quincentenary exhibition. You can still locate it within

The Library of Congress is currently exhibiting the 1507 Waldseemuller world map, which led to the name "America" being applied to both Western Hemisphere continents. Information about this landmark bit of cartography may be found in the LofC site.

Washington’s Folger Shakespeare Library recently hosted the exhibition "Celebrating Elizabeth I", and there is relevant information at http://www.folger.edu

NOVEMBER 19

AND

NOVEMBER 26

No class meetings on these two dates back to Schedule

DECEMBER 3

Wyclif, Hus, Luther and the Fracturing of Spiritual Europe    back to Schedule

Parallel to the rise of absolute or nearly absolute monarchies in Europe was the decline of the one institution most antithetical to the growth of royal power, the church. In the sixteenth century, in a variety of nations and for differing, though often similar reasons, the unity of western Christendom was broken.

Under diverse banners of "protest" and "reform," movements sharing a wish to vastly diminish if not destroy the power of Rome and the wish to both reorder and relax church ritual and organization gained strength, though all had to sooner or later put behind their rebellious origins.

Of all Protestant leaders, the most fractious was Luther, whose movement was as much a national as a religious one. In this sense, Luther was the true successor to both Wyclif and Hus, as he himself, when pushed to do so, acknowledged. The other large-scale national separation from Rome was accomplished by the English king, Henry VIII. Unlike Luther, whom he despised, Henry sought to remain utterly Catholic, but to become head of his own church, a ploy which, together with his confiscation of monastic property, vastly increased both his power and wealth.

John Calvin's movement was based more on class than on national interests, and was the first international alternative to Catholicism in Europe. If Luther's appeal was to Germans, Calvin's was to the nascent bourgeoisie, and Calvinist sects began to appear throughout Europe. Besides its place in the history of religion, Calvinism, identified in several theories with the rise of capitalism, also holds a prominent place in some accounts of European economic history.

READ: textbook pp 324-346

VIDEO AND DISCUSSION

we will watch the video

"The Dissenter", from the PBS series

And (maybe) discuss it with the author/director,

Dr. Theodore Rabb

Department of History

Princeton University