RENAISSANCE TO THE LATE 1800s

Chapters:

• A Rebirth in Europe: The alterations marking the end of the medieval period in Europe and the start of the Renaissance as changes in farming and growth in trade led to new social systems, national structures, and approaches to religion. Also discusses some of the great thinkers and artists of the Renaissance period
• Asia’s Empires: The strong cultures that arose in Japan, China, and India, including the Qing and Ming dynasties, the Mogul Empire, and the Shogun Dynasty
• European Exploration and the New World: The meeting of East and West brought about by European interest in Asian spices and other goods, and how the search for new trade routes led Columbus to the Americas followed by the European drive to explore, seize, and colonize these new lands
• Europe Colonizes the Globe: The results of European exploration, including the rise of trading economies and the responses of China and Japan to European attempts to trade with them, including England’s role in India after the fall of the Mogul Empire, and the effects of European expansion in Africa
• New Ideas Lead to Revolution: The Enlightenment, a period of new ideas that helped to inspire revolutions around the world, including in the American colonies, in France, and in Latin America, and the governments that followed
• The Industrial Revolution: The series of developments that led to industrialization, first in England and then in other countries, along with the social changes that came about as a result
• Nationalism and Social Reform: Covers the growing sense of national identity in Europe and the drive for expansion in the United States, and the various reform movements that arose in the wake of the Industrial Revolution, including helping workers achieve fair treatment, the struggle to end slavery in the United States, and giving women the right to vote
• Imperialism: The way European powers built empires around the world, including in Africa and southern Asia, the different ways these powers took control of other countries, and how the conquered nations responded to colonization