World History 500-1800- Period 2 Social Sciences & Humanities Program Fall 2019 Semester - Amsterdam

Studying global and world history is a response to increasing awareness of the growing interconnectedness of the various regions of the world, as a result of the circulation of people, goods and ideas. In the last two decades it has developed into a strong international, dynamic and productive discipline in the field of history research and education. The focus of this discipline are the deep underlying material and sociocultural structural changes, which shaped the human experience. It is a form of Meta History; a historical narrative that puts events, phenomena and processes in a broad context. Characteristic of this historical approach is that it does not focus specifically on civilizations and nation states, but on processes, whereby thematic research is focused on comparisons and differences within and between the regions of the world. The course World History is non-Eurocentric, because all Units of study are treated equally, as such non-Western concepts and local knowledge are included. The first-year programm (from c.1000 to c.1850) provides background knowledge for this course.

Contact hours listed under a course description may vary due to the combination of lecture-based and independent work required for each course therefore, CEA's recommended credits are based on the ECTS credits assigned by VU Amsterdam. 1 ECTS equals 28 contact hours assigned by VU Amsterdam.