Course Description
World War I was a global conflict in every sense of the term. All corners of the Earth played a major role. While traditionally studies of World War I have focused on Europe, this class will take a much more expansive view to show how this war was truly the end of an era in World History. While beginning in Europe, we will quickly move on to Asia to discuss the rise of Japan and the beginnings of Japanese expansion that would help drag the world eventually into another world war. Then the focus will shift to the way the war affected European colonies across the globe, especially India and in Africa, beginning the independence movements in many of those areas. And, of course, the war in the Middle East would come to shape relations between the West and the Muslim world for the next hundred years. Finally, the Armenian Genocide and the Russian Revolution were directly related to the changes brought on by the war, and this course will study them in detail. Through archival movies and the writings of the actors involved, this course will help students to understand why World War I shaped the next century of history and still has a major effect on us today.
Course Credits: 3
Student Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Explain the outbreak of the war in a worldwide setting, dealing with the political, social, and economic forces that brought on this conflict. Moreover, students will learn the what made this war such a turning point in world history, and why the outcome of this war is still being felt today.
- Develop an ability to make sense of the past by reconstructing causal patterns, identifying trends, and making informed comparisons between different historical cases as well as to grasp the influence of varied and complex historical factors on the lives of individuals in societies.
- Develop competency in critical thinking, the ability to evaluate a position of an argument, and competency in written communication.