Meeting times: MWF 10:00-10:50 in 100 WIL plus one-hour weekly sections
Email: imcneely@uoregon.edu
Phone: 541-346-4791
Office hours: MW 11:00-12:00 or by appt. in 319 MCK
Web: http://www.uoregon.edu/~imcneely
Christopher Columbus’ journey to the Caribbean in 1492 inaugurated the first truly global historical age. For the first time in recorded written history, humans from both hemispheres began to interact on a sustained basis. By 1800, the West, meaning Europe and its colonies abroad, had become the world’s dominant civilization. Interaction between “the West” and “the Rest” structures what we call the “modern” epoch—a period in global history that may finally be coming to an end in our own times.
In retrospect, we can say that the single most important event in establishing Europe’s global hegemony was the shift from land power to sea power that Columbus and his successors helped bring about. This is the transformation that occupies the first four weeks of class, in which we canvass the entire globe. But we don’t want to assume that this outcome was inevitable, much less the product of Europe’s inherent superiority. Columbus’ discovery of America was, after all, an accidental one, an attempt to connect Europe to the riches of the East.
Arguably it was China, not Europe, that was the world’s leading civilization until the very end of our period, with Islam and India not far behind. With this in mind, we spend the bulk of the course – six weeks in total – comparing Chinese and European societies between 1500 and 1800. Politics, war, religion, family, money, literacy, science, and ecology provide the bases for our exploration. Only by the end of the course will we have what we need to explain Western dominance without assuming that it will—or should—continue.
Section assignments require you to do the relevant reading well in advance. Section attendance is mandatory. To receive credit for a given section assignment, whether a quiz, paper, or exercise, you must attend the section where it is discussed. Once, and only once, you may turn in a make-up assignment for a missed paper or exercise. (For a missed quiz, write a one-page paper on the quiz topic mentioned.) Further absences will only be excused for documented medical or family emergencies.
Section assignments are graded on a “check” system (√ = B, √+ = A, √- = C). Good participation in section (or lack thereof) may add a + or a – to your recorded letter grade for that section. For example, if your assignment receives a √ (= B) but you perform well in section, your GTF will record a B+ (not an A) for that day’s section grade.
Cite, by page number in parentheses, any ideas or quotations not original to you and not common knowledge. Anything covered in lecture counts as common knowledge. Plagiarism, defined as “the inclusion of someone else’s product, words, ideas, or data as one’s own work” (http://www.uoregon.edu/~stl/programs/student_judi_affairs/academic-dishonesty.htm), will be punished harshly.
All the readings are available at UO Bookstore and on reserve at Knight Library.
PART I: LAND POWER AND SEA POWER
Note that the unit numbers below do not correspond exactly to the weeks in the term.
1. Eurasia and the Americas
(1/7) Introduction
(1/9) The Mongols, the Aztecs, and the Incas
(1/11) How to build a land empire: the Ottomans
Section (1/7): World atlas review
Atlas pages 66, 67, 75
Begin next week’s reading (Kristof and Levathes)
(1/14) China retreats and Islam expands
(1/16) Europe sets sail, with guns
(1/18) From Taj to Raj
Section (1/14): paper due. Based on what you have learned about the inhabitants of Malacca and Ceylon, write a one-page, single-spaced letter to the Chinese emperor urging the continuation of Zheng He’s explorations. Be sure to describe (a) what life is like in at least one of these places, and (b) what China stands to gain from continued contact with them.
*Nicholas Kristof, “1492: The Prequel”
*Louise Levathes, “The Strange Kingdoms of Malacca and Ceylon”
Atlas pages 68-9, 72, 76, 92
(1/21) Martin Luther King holiday
(1/23) Seaborne invaders: conquistadores and disease
(1/25) Colonization and the Columbian exchange
(1/28) The slave trade
Section (1/28): quiz on Diamond and Mann
*Jared Diamond, “Collision at Cajamarca”
*Charles Mann, “1491”
Atlas pages 81, 82-3, 84, 85
(1/30) Tokugawa Japan and Petrine Russia
(2/1) Oceania and the Enlightenment
Section (2/4): exercise. Comparative timelines. Bring your atlas to class. Student groups will use their atlases to prepare and then discuss two timelines, each listing the five most important world events from the early modern period, first from a Chinese perspective, then from a European one.
*Olaudah Equiano, Equiano’s Travels: His Autobiography (excerpts)
*Paul Erdmann Isert, “Eleventh Letter” from Letters on West Africa and the Slave Trade
Atlas pages 73, 71 and 79 (Russia only), 95
(2/4) Midterm exam
PART II: CHINA AND EUROPE COMPARED
5. The state
(2/6) The Chinese imperial system and the Manchu Conquest
(2/8) The European state system and the wars of religion
(2/11) Official religion in China and Europe
Section (2/11): paper due. Write a one-page, single-spaced defense of the Imperial Chinese justice system aimed at placating a modern American lawyer who thinks it is (1) abusive, (2) inefficient, and (3) superstitious.
Judge Dee, I-XXIII (skim), 1-87
Atlas pages 74, 86, 93
(2/13) Family life in China and Europe
(2/15) Popular religion in China and Europe
(2/18) Migration and stratification in China and Europe
Section (2/18): quiz. On Glückel, with comparative attention to the status and roles of women in Judge Dee.
Glückel, vii-xviii (skim), 1-119
Review Judge Dee, 61-87
(2/20) European high finance
(2/22) Chinese silver
(2/25) The Great Divergence
Section (2/25): paper due. Locate Kaifeng and Nanjing, China on p. 72 of your atlas. (Kaifeng hosted a community of Jews from at least the twelfth century C.E. Isolated from virtually all other Jews, this community survived largely without religious persecution. Nanjing was the capital of Kiangsu province mentioned in Judge Dee.) Write a one-page, single-spaced paper speculating on how Glückel’s life would have been different had she and her family lived as Kaifeng merchants in the late 1600s.
Judge Dee, 88-136
Glückel, 146-184
Atlas pages 78-9
(2/27) The Confucian examination system
(2/29) The European Republic of Letters
(3/3) Chinese opera and the European novel
Section (3/3): quiz. As you read, think about the difference between having status and having power.
Judge Dee, 137-223
PART III: WHY “WESTERN” DOMINANCE?
9. Science
(3/5) European mathematics
(3/7) Chinese medicine
Section (3/10): final exam review. Come prepared to provide an example of a way that Goldstone’s argument converges with, or differs from, the account of Western dominance developed in this class.
*Jack Goldstone, “The Rise of the West or Not? A Revision to Socio-Economic History”
Atlas pages 88-9, 90
(3/10) Refounding politics and society: “Western” revolutions
(3/12) Social revolt and political rebellion in China
(3/14) Conclusion
(3/17) Final exam: Monday from 10:15-12:15 in our classroom