HISTORY 1CC3 Study Guide - Winter 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes -
HISTORY 1CC3
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
Rise of Empires Notes
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LECTURE 1: 6 big themes: -History and thinking about time: Braudel: political, cultural,
geological, Crosby’s seams of Pangaea
-Themes of interaction and movement: peace and violence
→Three ages
→Age of violent death, age of war and disease, age of death by decay in affluent society
-Role of empires in advancing global interaction
-Confronting and discussing Eurocentrism
-Reading history from the current day backwards
-What is an empire?
LECTURE 2: →Role of empires in advancing global integration: Type of rule, forms of
expansion, land and sea networks, cross cultural enclaves, movement of knowledge and
belief
→Empires with better networks expand faster and evolve
→Some empires absorbed other empires, i.e. Spain and the Aztecs
→General points about Archaic empires:
-Type of rule: personal by warriors or dynasty, unstable
-Territorial state systems were more fluid than later
-Strategy of expansion was to coordinate not assimilate
-Forms of expansion: invasion, enclaves, slaves
-Land and sea networks: silk road and indian ocean
-Cross cultural enclaves: resident merchants from another culture
-movement of knowledge and belief: pilgrims and prophets
-Movements is slow and progressive
-Examples to be covered: Byzantines, Mongols, Ottomans
→Global integration of Islam
→”Black death” caused mass movement and caused by it due to fleas etc
→Why have so many overseas empires been European?
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
-What are potential mistakes that can be encountered when seeking answers?
-Solutions to the dilemma posed by the reality of European empires and our concern
about mistaken explanations?
→significant developments from the past
• The origins of continuous contacts among distinct civilizations
• Trade networks and the importance of cross-cultural trade in world history
• The movement over great distances and obstacles of “biota”: people, plants,
animals, and diseases
• The movement and modification of ideas
• The origins of “the fiscal-military” state: states capable of protracted warfare
• The origins of capitalist economies and industrial economies
• Episodes of arrogance, conflict, and determination to change others (settler-
indigenous contact); episodes with continuing relevance
→Merits of reading history backwards:
• Even if looking backwards has problems, it is superior to decontextualized (mis)
information: the snippets of news and – worse - tweets. Opinions are worthless.
Reasoned opinions anchored in ‘fact’ are not. (Fake news!)
• Historical inquiry forces rigor, exposes facile thinking, puts superficial
generalizations on notice.
• Historical inquiry alerts us to the roots and persistence of some conundrums in
human affairs. You cannot make sense of the world’s economy, conflicts,
population distribution, and engagements between ‘settler’ and ‘indigenous’
populations without understanding the events that produced them.
• Contemporary globalization arose from processes of worldwide uneven
development often advanced by empires.
• Historical inquiry can reveal - with both wonder and censure - the ways in which
human interaction has transpired. But let’s avoid “teleological” interpretations:
ie. The idea that the present emerged inevitably and progressively out of the past.
Historians like to show that there are paths not taken, alternatives, and accidents.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Lecture 1: 6 big themes: -history and thinking about time: braudel: political, cultural, geological, crosby"s seams of pangaea. Themes of interaction and movement: peace and violence. Age of violent death, age of war and disease, age of death by decay in affluent society. Lecture 2: role of empires in advancing global integration: type of rule, forms of expansion, land and sea networks, cross cultural enclaves, movement of knowledge and belief. Empires with better networks expand faster and evolve. Some empires absorbed other empires, i. e. spain and the aztecs. Type of rule: personal by warriors or dynasty, unstable. Territorial state systems were more fluid than later. Strategy of expansion was to coordinate not assimilate. Land and sea networks: silk road and indian ocean. Cross cultural enclaves: resident merchants from another culture. Movement of knowledge and belief: pilgrims and prophets. Black death caused mass movement and caused by it due to fleas etc.