HI2118 Europe 1870-1920: Grandeur and Decline
Module Organiser: Professor John Horne
Duration: Michaelmas term
Contact hours: 2 lectures per week and 6 seminars over the course of the term
Weighting: 10 ECTS
Assessment: 20% essay, 80% examination
Description: This course has been designed in conjunction with HI 2119 ‘Continental Europe: Cataclysm and Renewal, 1914 to the present’ (Hilary term), so that taken in succession, the two courses provide an overall view of modern European history since the late 19th century and the foundations of contemporary Europe. However, each course is a coherent unit on its own. It examines the evolution of a Europe that dominated the planet in the mid-19th century, and which stood at the zenith of colonial domination of the non-European world, to a continent in the 1920s that was shaken by the First World War and the redistribution of global power (to the USA, USSR and Japan). It also faced the first stirrings of anti-colonial opposition. Together, the two courses enable you to gain a good understanding of the forces that have shaped contemporary Europe since the mid-19th century. Taken alone, each course will introduce you to a vital period in Europe’s recent past and offer you insights into different kinds of history – political, economic, social, and cultural.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
- Outline chronologically and explain key developments in the history of continental Europe during the later nineteenth- and early twentieth-centuries
- Assess the impact of these developments on continental Europe
- Search for, and critically appraise, relevant literature
- Undertake an extended analysis of select contemporary sources in translation
- Communicate analysis and argument in written and verbal format