Guided Pathways: World History

Clothing made in China, jobs in Saudi Arabia, immigrants from Honduras: all these phenomena are part of the globalization of the world today.  While these developments seem new, they have many precedents.  In London in the seventeenth century, Indigenous representatives from North America walked the streets of the huge metropolis.  British drug dealers harvesting opium in India peddled their wares in China in the nineteenth century.  Manila hosted Chinese merchants who sold luxury goods in exchange for silver mined in Potosi in present-day Bolivia for over two hundred years.  Ideas, religions, goods, and people crossed the planet on a regular basis.  By 1900, a global system of communication and transportation was fully operational.

The Department of History offers numerous courses addressing global exchange and encounters, from the ancient world to the present day.  Survey courses of World History both before and after 1500 are regularly available to students.  Courses such as Global Islam and  Christianity in the Modern World give students unique perspectives on major world religions.  Offerings also address exploration, empires, decolonization, and world health.  These are crucial to understanding the tensions and challenges of the contemporary world.    Well educated students with global knowledge are well prepared for the positions available in a globalized world where careers often take one overseas, from East Asia to Europe.