Western Civilization Course Description and Objectives
Course Description:
Welcome to Western Civilization and a new year at MCHS! Western Civilization is all about how the interactions of the past affect the issues of today. Through the use of a multitude of social studies disciplines, such as psychology, geography, sociology, and historical inquiry we will create a mental image of how we got to the point we are at. In this class we will be covering a massive amount of years, however it is more important to me that you understand WHY more so than When. In this class I will be teaching from the perspectives of WHY, What, Where, and When in that descending order with the most emphasis on Why something happened and how that event has affected how we live today.
Text: Prentice Hall World History Connection to Today- The Modern Era 2005
Course Objectives:
Semester 1
Semester 2:
Welcome to Western Civilization and a new year at MCHS! Western Civilization is all about how the interactions of the past affect the issues of today. Through the use of a multitude of social studies disciplines, such as psychology, geography, sociology, and historical inquiry we will create a mental image of how we got to the point we are at. In this class we will be covering a massive amount of years, however it is more important to me that you understand WHY more so than When. In this class I will be teaching from the perspectives of WHY, What, Where, and When in that descending order with the most emphasis on Why something happened and how that event has affected how we live today.
Text: Prentice Hall World History Connection to Today- The Modern Era 2005
Course Objectives:
Semester 1
- Identify Renaissance artists and explain how new ideas affected the arts of the period
- Describe European searches for a direct route to Asia.
- Analyze the impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade.
- Generate an opinion of how Louis XIV became an absolute monarch
- Outline the events that led to the American Revolution
- Explain how Napoleon built an empire and what challenges the empire faced
- Explain how the political crisis of 1789 led to popular revolts.
- Analyze why life changed as industry spread.
- Explain what caused urbanization and what life was like in the new industrial cities.
- Analyze how the spirit of reform spread in 1830.
Semester 2:
- Describe the impact of new technology on industry, technology, and communication
- Describe how Germany became an industrial giant.
- Explain why the problems of industrialization contributed to the outbreak of the revolution.
- Summarize how American democracy grew before and after the Civil War.
- Explain why Western imperialism spread so rapidly.
- Describe how WWI became a total war.
- Analyze how the Communist state developed under Lenin.
- Describe how the Great Depression began and spread and how Britain, France and the US tried to address it.
- Summarize the rise of authoritarian rule in Eastern Europe in the 1920’s and 1930’s.
- Analyze the threat to world peace posed by dictators in the 1930’s and how Democracies responded.
- Understand the horrors of the genocide the Nazis committed.