Circulations: European Imperialisms and the Beginnings of Globalization, c.1492-1800

Undergraduate / Graduate

We live today in a dramatically interconnected world, which social scientists often study through the lens of globalization. Why did our globe begin to become so radically interconnected, and when did this process start? Is the history of globalization the same as "global history?" Using the lens of rapidly geographically expanding European empires in the early modern world, our course will explore these questions and more. Rather than being a strictly economic or commercial history of early modern European imperialism, our course will examine three topics which have drawn the attention of historians in recent years: the circulation of people, the circulation of goods, and the circulation of ideas around the globe through the networks of European empire in the early modern period. Through developing our shared understandings of tools, evidence, and arguments historians have used to tackle these complex topics, we will grow our capacity for evaluating wide-ranging claims about the past as well as our knowledge of a dynamic and vibrant field of current historical research.