In this course, we will study the history of Europe over the last five hundred years or so (that works out to roughly one year per three minutes of class time!) in order to understand the complex underlying processes and the powerful, remarkable people that have shaped it.
We will start our journey in a world full of knights, peasants, and witch-hunts that may seem unrecognizable to us at first glance. As we start moving towards the present, we will see that Europe has always been a meeting place of different civilizations, peoples, and states that have interacted with each other in both destructive and creative ways.
We will also learn about wars, revolutions, ideas, books, religions, and art that have shaped the “Western” world we currently live in and take for granted.
The course also puts significant emphasis on building critical historical skills and on helping you to write more effective history essays and to become a better historian.