Comparative
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 World History
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Scope, Sequence, and List of Readings for World History
* Foundations * 600-1450 * 1450-1750 * 1750-1914 * 1914-Present*
References to "weeks" are suggestions for a 35 week course. The "WHY?" links are no longer available. Here are all the reading assignments in a list.


In this column: Reading Requirements

  • Readings for the weekly quiz (red STUDY)
  • Readings for possible comment on in class (green READ)
  • Optional on site Readings of BIOS, COT and CMP essays (black LOOK)
In this column: Suggested Readings
  • General scope and sequence (background material of weekly lectures)
  • Favorite articles noted with FAV
  • Off site suggested readings may not conform to History from a Biblical Perspective

("COT"= Change over Time, "CMP"= Comparative, "DBQ"= Document Based Question)
Reading Assignments I. Foundations (7 weeks)

WHY? (Teacher's comments on assignments and content)

STUDY: History from a Biblical Perspective and World views
READ: Plagiarism Policy
READ: Scriptures to Ponder
READ: Course Syllabus (links at the bottom of this page)

UNIT A (week 1): Orientation

WHY? (Teacher's comments on learning geography)

STUDY: Xeno Ch1 World History Overview
READ:
Introduction to the Middle East
LOOK: Introduction to Africa and Asia

CMP:
Discuss two ancient trade routes, e.g., Fertile Crescent and the Silk Road, such as the of the Middle East or the Nile River. In what form do these exist today?


UNIT B (week 2): World Geography Overview

WHY? (Teacher's comments on early civilizations)

STUDY: The Ancients
READ: Introduction to the Americas
LOOK:
Introduction to Europe and Oceania

CMP: Compare and contrast the roles of an archeologist and an anthropologist.
CMP: Compare and contrast two of the four River Valley Civilizations. (e.g., Nile vs Indus, Sumerians vs. Harappans)
CMP: Compare the descendents of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

UNIT C (week 3): Early Civilizations

WHY? (Teacher's comments on ancient empires)

STUDY: Xeno Ch5 Assyrian and Babylonian Empires

CMP: Analyze the expansion and administration of Cyrus the achaemenid (558 BC) against Darius the emperor of Persia (521 BC). Why was kingdom of Lydia in Anatolia so important to the Persians?
COT: Describe the causes, events, and effects of the Peloponnesian War.
CMP: Contrast the rise and fall of the competing city states of Athens and Sparta.
COT:
Identify the events that led to the conversion of the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire.
CMP: Compare the religious and political influence that led to the collapse of Han China and the Roman Empire.

UNIT D (week 4) : Empire Management and Migration

  • The rise and fall of Daniel's Statue: Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman Empires
  • The Problem of Evil
  • Focus on survival of Judaism, Medo-Persia
  • African Kingdoms and Asian Dynasties
  • Compare Nubia, Kush, Axum and Olmecs
  • The rise of Greece, city states, the Golden Age of Athens vs Sparta
  • Movements of Huns, Germans, Arabs
  • Collapse of Han China and Roman Empire

WHY?

STUDY: Historicity of the Bible
READ: Reading, Writing, and Researching for History
READ: Principles of Biblical Interpretation
LOOK: Logical Fallacies

DBQ: Babylon wasn't the only place steeped in mysticism when the Hebrews returned from captivity during the 6th century BC. Compare this with the sorcery of Kung Fu Tsu, Lao Tsu, Siddhartha Gautama, and/or Zoraster that same century.
DBQ: Contrast Hinduism and Buddhism in their differences with the older Brahmin traditions.
COT: Trace the spread of major language groups and the development of writing in Africa.
COT: Describe the onset of a few Roman Catholic doctrines and describe the modifications made by Papal authority and tradition.
COT: Trace the authentication of the New Testament canon.
COT: Describe the authorship of the Old Testament canon.

UNIT E (week 5) : Understanding Source Documents

  • Creation and Flood Myths, Oral History, Historical Fiction, Legends
  • Archaeology and the Old Testament
  • The Making of the Old Testament
  • Formation of the Canon of the New Testament
  • Is the Bible Reliable?
  • English Bible History
  • Biblical Manuscripts
  • E.g., Flood of Noah and Epic of Gilgamesh
  • Hammurabi's Code and Old Testament Law , more
  • Trustworthiness of Our Greek New Testament
  • Bias, Contextualization, Values of Cultures and Religions as filters
  • Importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls
  • Did Islam or Christianity preserve classical literature?
  • The historiography of world history
  • the science of inductive and deductive interpretation
  • Political Correctness, Revisionist History, Post Modernism, Modern Myths
  • Archaeology & the Patriarchs
  • WHY? (Teacher's comments on religious expansion)

    STUDY: Two Millennia of Church History
    COT: Describe the political situation in Judea from 400 BC to 100 AD. What effect did Greek philosophy, Hellenism and Roman policies have on religious freedom?
    COT: Describe Christian evangelism of the first three centuries in the Mediterranean region and Asia. Was it a result of persecution?
    CMP: What are the relationships between Islam and the Jewish and Christian religions. Are Islam's five chief obligations and restrictions tied more closely to Judaism or Christianity?
    COT: How did the Chavin cult influence ancient Andean society? Describe Inca social classes and the lack of merchants.
    COT: Describe religious toleration in Hindu India from the birth of Buddah through the incursion of Islam and the growth of Christianity following British colonialism.
    COT: Describe why Greek Mythology became part of the Roman Panthon and the influence that has on modern culture.
    COT: How did Christianity change from a Jewish sect to a gentile religion? Why was it attractive yet repulsive to the Romans?
    CMP:Compare the role of women in two different belief systems: Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Confucianism

    UNIT F (week 6): Religious Expansion and Division

    WHY? (Teacher's comments)

    STUDY: Review of Europe: 400 - 900 AD
    READ:
    CMP: Compare the religious art of the Byzantine Empire with that of the Tang Dynasty. What effect does religious zeal have on the production and destruction of art? Are there current examples?  
    COT: Explain the loss of power of the King through the Magna Carta and the creation of in England's Parliament.

    UNIT G (week 7): Economic Expansion and Political Consolidation

    • How dark were the Dark Ages? Augustine, Constantine, Charlemagne
    • The Barbarian Invasions and Recovery
    • Middle Age Monasteries and Manorialism, Feudalism to Nationalism
    • Development of European and Japanese Feudalism
    • Emergence of Tang China, Byzantine culture, Kievan Rus
    • Silk Roads, Saharan Sands, and Indian Ocean Trade winds.
    • Bantu migrations in Africa
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    * Foundations * 650-1450 * 1450-1750 * 1750-1914 * 1914-Present*
    Assignments II. 600-1450 (7 weeks) content

    WHY? (Teacher's comments)

    STUDY: Review of Europe: 900 to 1450 AD
    READ: The Unquenchable Light ch.3
    LOOK: Development from Medieval to Renaissance art.

    UNIT A (week 8): Global Renaissance

    WHY? (Teacher's comments)

    STUDY: Concise Political History of China

    LOOK:
    Optional (CLB example) The East

    UNIT B (week 9): Asian Powerhouses

    WHY? (Teacher's comments)

    STUDY:Top 100 Events of the Millennium

    UNIT C (week 10): Interdependence
    • Economics: supply and demand bring global awareness
    • Viking Exploration and Impact
    • Technology: transportation, communication, architecture and gunpowder
    • England and the Magna Carta
    • Spain and Ferdinand & Isabella

    WHY? (Teacher's comments)

    STUDY: The Truth About Islam
    READ: Islamic Expansion (28 pages)

    UNIT D (week 11): Islamic Expansion

    WHY? (Teacher's comments)

    STUDY: Major Branches of Religions
    READ: The Unquenchable Light ch.4
    CMP: Contrast Eastern Greek Orthodox with Western Roman Catholicism. Which one appears closer to the church depicted in Acts and as defined by Pauline epistles?
    CMP: Schisms in Islam and Christianity: Analyze the Islamic theological divisions (Sunni versus Shiite) with the divisions within Christianity. Were Christians faced with similar causes for disunity as those faced by the Muslims?
    CMP: Compare/contrast the Sunni and Shiite branches of Islam in their theology and culture, and review its effect on History

    UNIT E (week 12): Religious Division

    WHY? (Teacher's comments)

    STUDY: The Origins of a Multiracial Society
    READ: Hispanic-American Indians
    COT: Describe how the Aztec or Inca deities evolved over time to meet the political needs of the priests and kings.
    CMP: Why were the Spaniards the subjugators of the Incas instead of the Incas eventually having dominion over the Spaniards?
    CMP: Compare the religious differences between the Maya and the Olmec, and how those differences influenced the other aspects of their culture.

    UNIT F (week 13): Amerindian Civilizations and Non-Islamic Africa

    WHY? (Teacher's comments)

    STUDY: History of Epidemics and Plagues

    COT: Trace the path of the Black Plague along the trade routes from east to west. Analyze the social, religious and economic impact.

    UNIT G (week 14): Environmental Impact on Demographics

    • Using demographic indicators to "read history"
    • Impact of nomadic migrations on Afro- Eurasia
    • Migration of agricultural peoples
    • Consequences of the Black Death
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    * Foundations * 650-1450 * 1450-1750 * 1750-1914 * 1914-Present*
    Assignments III. 1450-1750 (7 weeks) content

    WHY? (Teacher's comments)

    STUDY: The European Voyages of Exploration - Portugal...
    READ: The Unquenchable Light ch.5

    CMP: Justifications for Kingship, 18th century Japan and France

    BIO: Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542 -1616)

    UNIT A (week 15): East meets West

    WHY? (Teacher's comments)

    STUDY: The European Voyages of Exploration - Spain...
    READ:
    Michel de Montaigne: On Cannibals (1580)
    READ: Revival, Reform, and Expansion ch8

    CMP:
    Contrast the conquests of Cortes and Pizarro.

    UNIT B (week 16): Europe meets the Americas

    WHY? (Teacher's comments)

    STUDY: Semester Exam - No Quiz over readings

    COT: How did the pros and cons of Imperialism effect Africans from the 16th to 18th century?

    UNIT C (week 17): Semester Review

    WHY? (Teacher's comments)

    STUDY: Transitional Europe: 1350-1650
    CMP: Discuss how Italy and Germany developed between 1400 - 1700.
    COT: Describe the doctrine of apostolic succession and the establishment of human Tradition being equal to Scripture.

    UNIT D (week 18): Rise and Fall of the Monarchy in Europe

    WHY? (Teacher's comments)

    STUDY: Africa, slavery, and the European Trade.

    CMP
    :
    Compare the power and influence of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

    UNIT E (week 19): Rise and Fall of the Monarchy in Africa

    WHY? (Teacher's comments)

    STUDY: See the classroom for the w20 required reading.
    READ:
    the Reformation
    READ: the Enlightenment

    CMP: Describe the differences between the art spawned by the Protestant Reformation verses the Catholic Counter-Reformation.
    COT: Explain how navigational technology (astrolabes, sextants, GPS, etc.) has developed within the context of expanding encounters.
    CMP: Compare the political ideas of the philosophers: Voltaire and Rousseau. How did individual thought change national behavior?
    COT: Report on Atheists and the consequences of their doctrine, citing both Biblical and secular examples.
    COT: Discuss the changes in food, religion, or technology as two cultures (Japan and the USA) clash and trade.
    CMP: Compare the cultural, political and economic significance of the Protestant Reformation in Europe and the Neo-Confucian Reformation in Ming China.

    UNIT F (week 20): Developments in Knowledge, Culture, Religion, and Trade

    WHY? (Teacher's comments)

    STUDY: China, Japan, and Russia and the w21interactive quiz
    READ: Japan

    CMP:
    Discuss Russia's interactions with the west in general in Comparison to one of the following: Ottoman Empire, China, Tokugawa Japan, Mughal India
    CMP: Analyze how Asian art reflects Shinto and Buddhist religious values.

    UNIT G (week 21): Russia, China, Japan, India
    • Mughal - cultural patronage, cultural conservatism (i.e. printing press)
    • Chinese Dynasties (Ming and Qing)
    • Russia- Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Hohenzollerns (Prussia)
    • Neoconfucianism (and reaction against) in China and Japan , Shinto
    • Chinese literature, Japanese theater
    • Developments and Exchanges in the arts
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    * Foundations * 650-1450 * 1450-1750 * 1750-1914 * 1914-Present*
    Assignments IV. 1750-1914 (7 weeks) content

    WHY? (Teacher's comments)

    STUDY:Revolutions and "isms" , Religion, Nationalism, and Civil Society, Unquenchable Light (ch.6)

    COT: Trace the origins of the concepts of individual liberties, private property, and representative government.

    BIOS:
    Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900)

    UNIT A (week 22): Revolutionary Ideas

    WHY? (Teacher's comments)

    STUDY: Population Growth as Blessing or Blight? (and others, see the WHY?)
    STUDY: The Unquenchable Light ch.7

    COT: Explain the influence of the potato from the Andean Indians to the migration of the Irish to the USA.
    COT: How did gender roles change prior to and following the Industrial Revolutions in Japan and Brittany?

    UNIT B (week 23): Influence of Demography and Environment

    WHY? (Teacher's comments)

    STUDY: The Industrial Revolution and Timeline of the Industrial Revolution
    LOOK:
    BIOS: Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and Henry Ford.
    COT:
    Describe how the importance of interdependent technological innovations lead to the Industrial Revolution.
    CMP: Compare the impact of the Transcontinental Railroad in the USA with the Trans-Siberian Railroad.

    UNIT C (week 24): Revolutions in Industry, Trade, Agriculture, and Technology
    • International commercial Competition
    • The Industrial Revolution by Arnold Toynbee (1884)
    • Assembly Line production, Division of Labor, Interchangeable parts, Textiles
    • Global linkages in production and transportation
    • Panama and Suez Canals
    • Enclosure Movement Emergence of industrial work forces

    WHY? (Teacher's comments)

    STUDY: Slavery Throughout History
    READ: The Haitian Revolution and the Forging of America
    LOOK:
    William Booth (founder of the Salvation Army)
    CMP: Compare African colonization by the British, French and Belgium.
    COT: Spanish Colonization in the Americas
    CMP:
    Trace the development of the African slave trade from Arab incursions to European trade routes. Focus on the treatment and justification for the African Dispora and the participation of African slave traders.
    COT: How has the role of women in China change from the beginnings of foot binding through the rise of communism?

    UNIT D (week 25): Social change - emancipation.

    WHY? (Teacher's comments)

    STUDY: five essays and one biography
    Decline of Religious War
    The Decline of the Ottoman Empire
    Nationalism: Enlightenment's Successor
    German and Italian unification BIO: Otto Von Bismarck (1815 - 1898)
    Expansionism in Japan and the USA

    UNIT E (week 26): Nationalism Expands

    WHY? (Teacher's comments)

    STUDY: four essays
    Consequences of the Monroe Doctrine
    The Centralization of the USA Government
    European Treatment of the Natives in North America and New Zealand
    Acquisition of the Philippines and Hawaii by the USA
    STUDY: four biographies
    Toussaint L’Ouverture
    Simon Bolivar
    Queen Lydia Lililuokalani
    Fidel Castro
    CMP: Describe the different long term effects that Spanish, British, and French colonialism created.
    COT: Describe the moral, political, and social ideology of the USA before and after their Civil War.

    UNIT F (week 27): The Americas

    WHY? (Teacher's comments)

    STUDY: China's Christian History
    READ: Taiping Rebellion (as the good guys)
    LOOK: Modernization Theory

    Asian Reactions to British Domination
    British Imperialism in China and India

    COT: Analyze the changes China experienced during this time period in light of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness".

    UNIT G (week 28): The East

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    * Foundations * 650-1450 * 1450-1750 * 1750-1914 * 1914-Present*
    Assignments V.1914-PRESENT(7 weeks) content

    WHY? (Teacher's comments)

    STUDY: The Unholy Alliance of Marxism and Islamism
    STUDY: A moral history of the 20th century
    READ:Christianity's Cultural Contributions
    CMP: Contrast Utopian Socialism with Democratic Socialism
    COT: Describe USA economic cause and effect from the "Roaring Twenties" to the "Great Depression" and the "New Deal".
    COT: Explain how Karl Marx was influenced by Charles Darwin in the formation of scientific socialism. How did Social Darwinism play out Cuba?

    UNIT A (week 29): Ideologies, Theologies, Philosophies, Psychologies

    WHY? (Teacher's comments)

    STUDY: The Cold War by RN
    READ
    :
    Just War Theory and Iraq

    CMP: Compare the 1905 & 1917 Russian Revolutions (Nicholas and Alexandra)
    COT: Determine the important battles of WWII and evaluate their long term significance.
    DBQ: Describe the post WWII economic and political recovery of Western Europe.
    COT: Describe the causes and outcomes of the partition of India to create Pakistan.Or the partition of Israel to create Palestine.

    UNIT B (week 30): The impact of Nazism, Communism, and Zionism


    WHY? (Teacher's comments)

    STUDY: The Story of Africa Independence, (BBC, 14 parts)
    READ: Bios of Chaing Kai Chek, Mao Tse Tung, Deng Chou Pei
    READ: Dates in Infamy CMParing Twin Towers and Pearl Harbor

    COT: Describe changes in Russian government beginning with Czar Nicholas II to the Bolsheviks under Lenin and then Stalin.

    CMP: How did the causes and effects of decolonization in Latin America and Africa differ or resemble each other?
    CMP: Compare the effect of revolution on the roles of women in Russia and China.

    UNIT C (week 31): Decolonization, Social Reform
    • Independence Struggles (Ghana, i.e., Nkrumah, and Algeria) Africa's neo-colonial experience
    • Imperial Scramble for Africa
    • Decolonization: (French in Vietnam, England in Africa and India)
    • Ideological vs. Ethnic struggles
    • The Ottoman Genocide of Christian Minorities
    • Africa - The Challenge
    • Genocide (Cambodia, Rwanda, Kosovo, Bosnia)
    • Zambia - One Nation Under God
    • Social Reform and Revolution - Issues of Gender, Race, Class and Age
    • Missions
    • Shifting Southward: Global Christianity Since 1945
    • Conflicts in Africa

    WHY? (Teacher's comments)

    STUDY:What's Next? (xeno ch.14)
    READ:
    Cognitive Dissonance on war By Victor Davis Hanson

    LOOK: CMP Prohibitions in Islam and Buddhism

    UNIT D (week 32): Global Culture

    WHY? (Teacher's comments)

    STUDY: Cultural Imperialism: The Greens and Economic Development

    COT: Describe how the international community has come to force its will upon noncompliant nations through economic sanctions.

    UNIT E (week 33): International Economics

    WHY? (Teacher's comments)

    STUDY: Semester Exam - No Quiz over readings
    LOOK: Historical Background of Israeli Independence of 1948
    COT: Describe the events of the cold war. Was detente an effective deterrent?
    COT: Describe the impact of the breakup of the Soviet Union to form emerging Eastern European countries.
    COT: Describe the world events leading to the creation of the Israeli nation in 1948. Analyze the effect of British colonialism and the Holocaust.

    UNIT F (week 34): International Alliances and Distracters
    • League of Nations
    • United Nations, Wilson's 14 Points
    • Others (OAU, OAS, NATO)
    • Limiting national sovereignty by International Laws on weapons, wars, human rights, and the environment.
    • Multinational Coalition for the War on Terror
    • Fall of Taliban in light of history
    • Jesus, Religions, and Just War
    • Technology/ global industrialization
    • Pacific Rim
    • Multinational Corporations/ International Organizations- WTO, ASEAN, EU, OPEC, NAFTA)
    • Environmental implications.

    WHY? (Teacher's comments)

    STUDY: No Quiz over readings
    READ: Is History Dead?
    READ: A current news article and comment on the event within the Comprehensive context of this world history course.
    COT:
    Are political, religious and economic trends creating convergent stability or divergent problems towards one "global village"?
    CMP: Explain the growing rift between the idealism, policies, religion, and power of the E.U. and that of the U.S.A.. What are the causes and effects of their differences?

    UNIT G (week 35): Projecting Trends
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    * Foundations * 650-1450 * 1450-1750 * 1750-1914 * 1914-Present*

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