Module HIST2601: New Worlds and Old Worlds: Europe 1400-1600

Department: History

HIST2601: New Worlds and Old Worlds: Europe 1400-1600

Prerequisites

• A pass mark in at least ONE level one module in History.

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• Exploration of the historical significance of the phenomena described as ‘the middle ages’, ‘the Renaissance’ and ‘the Reformation’.
• Exploration of the rupture perceived by historians between the medieval and early modern periods and an evaluation of the reality of the transformation.
• Exploration of different aspects of historical change including religious, social, political and cultural change in the context of this transformation.

Content

• At the end of the middle ages ‘first contact’ was made with what came to be known as the ‘New World’. The exploration of new territories resulted in an ecological revolution and initiated the first age of global economic relations. Historians’ work on this period, though, suggests many different kinds of ‘new world’ were emerging in Europe itself as well. Jacob Burckhardt, writing in the mid-nineteenth century, argued that the cultural changes in Italian towns known as the ‘renaissance’ propelled Europe out of the ‘Middle Ages’ and into ‘modernity’. In England, new forms of administration and government introduced by Yorkist and Tudor kings have been described by some historians as the ‘new monarchy’. The new financial pressures felt by these and other rulers across Europe, combined with the ideas of religious reformers, produced the Reformation, often represented as a cataclysmic break with the ‘old world’ and beginning of the ‘new’. This module will seek to explore these different kinds of ‘new world’, encompassing new forms of political life and religious, economic and cultural change. It will examine what historians have said about them and why, and permit students to engage in debates over what, if anything, really changed.

Learning Outcomes

• A critical appreciation of how historians have understood the interaction of political life, economic relations, cultural renewal and religious change during this period.

• A knowledge and understanding of what constituted 'the Renaissance', 'the Reformation' and ‘the Discoveries’ in late medieval and early modern Europe
• An awareness of the key transformations which represent the end of the Middle Ages and the start of the Early Modern Period in Europe

• Key skills for this module can be viewed at: http://www.dur.ac.uk/history.internal/local/ModuleProformaMap/

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Teaching will be by lectures and seminars.
• The lectures will indicate to the students the major historical and historiographical issues and seminars will give them the chance to focus on issues arising from the lectures.
• Formative work will include seminar presentations which will be submitted and returned with comments.
• Summative assessment will be by two essays of 2,000 and 4000 words.
• This will enable the students to examine particular areas in detail within the module's range of study in greater detail, reflecting the particular nature of the secondary material and teaching resources available for art and cultural history.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

One or more short assignments submitted in writing or delivered orally in a group seminar context.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University