HI2B8-15 Caravans and Traders: Global Connections, 1200-1500
Introductory description
This module follows the circulation of people, knowledge, religion, and goods in the late medieval world, and compares regions from the Mediterranean and Islamic world to India and China.
Module aims
This module introduces students to the history of global interactions between different parts of the world through a focus on early connections in the period 1200-1500. The module will be set within the theoretical framework of global history. Topics include diasporas, material culture, the Mongol and Timurid empires, the silk roads, global cities, and medieval travellers.
Outline syllabus
This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.
- Global Connections and the thirteenth-century world
- Central Asia and the Silk Roads
- Maritime explorations: Zheng He and the Arab seafarers
- Travel and Travellers: Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta and Zhou Daguan
- Religious connections and the spread of Islam
- Reading week
- Cities and migrating communities
- Science and technology: China and the Islamic World
- Empires: Mongols, Timurids and Mali
- Global connections and the sixteenth-century world
Learning outcomes
By the end of the module, students should be able to:
- Demonstrate a detailed knowledge of non-European histories, and their connections with and impact on medieval and early modern European history.
- Communicate ideas and findings, adapting to a range of situations, audiences and degrees of complexity.
- Generate ideas through the analysis of a broad range of primary source material, including visual, material and textual sources.
- Analyse and evaluate the contributions made by existing scholarship, including key concepts in global history.
- Act with limited supervision and direction within defined guidelines, accepting responsibility for achieving deadlines.
Indicative reading list
- C.A. Bayly, The Birth of the Modern World, (2004). [D 299.B2]
- Lynn Hunt, Writing History in the Global Era (New York, 2014), especially ch. 2 [D13.H856]
- Jürgen Osterhammel and Niels P. Peterson, Globalization: A Short History (2005) [JZ1318.O8713] Charles H. Parker, Global Interactions in the Early Modern Age, 1400-1800 (2010) [HN13.P37]. Also available as an E-Book.
- Jack Goldstone, Why Europe? The Rise of the West in World History, 1500-1850 (2009). [HN373.G65].
- Sanjay Subrahmanyam , ‘Connected Histories: Notes towards a Reconfiguration of Early Modern Eurasia’, Modern Asian Studies, 31 (1997), pp. 735-762.
- Christian, David, ‘Silk Roads or Steppe Roads? The Silk Ro ads in World History ’, Journal of World History, 11, 1 (2000).
- Ghobrial, John-Paul, 'The Secret Life of Elias of Babylon and the Uses of Global Microhistory', Past & Present, 222:1, (2013), pp. 51-93.
- Cohen, Robin. Global Diasporas: An Introduction (London, 1997), chapter 1. [JV6021.C64]
- Xinru Liu, “ A Silk Ro ad Legacy : The Spread of Buddhism and Islam ,” Journal of World History 22/1 (2011), pp. 55-81.
- Jerry Bentley, 'Seas and Ocean Basins as Frameworks for Historical Analysis', Geographical Review, 89:2, (1999), pp. 215-225.
- Peter Turchin, ‘A theory for formation of large Empires’, Journal of Global History, 4 /2 (2 009 ), pp. 1 91 -217.
- Huff, Toby E., The Rise of Early Modern Science. Islam, China, and the West (2003) [Q 125.H8]
- Hsia, Florence, Sojourners in a Strange Land: Jesuits and Their Scientific Missions in Late Imperial China
- (University of Chincago Press, 2009) [BV 2290.H75]
- Mokyr, Joel, The Lever of Riches. Technological Creativity and Economic Progress, 1990, chs. 7 and 9, pp.
- 151-192, 209-238. [HC79. T4 M648]. Also available as an Oxford Scholarship E-Book, and as an ACLS E- Book.
- C. Brauner, ‘Connecting Things: Trading Companies and Diplomatic Gift-Giving on the Gold and Slave
- Coasts in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries’, Journal of Early Modern History 20, no. 4 (2016), pp. 408-28.
- Zoltán Biederman, Anne Gerritsen and Giorgio Riello, eds., Global Gifts: the Material Culture of Diplomacy in early modern Eurasia (CUP 2017).
View reading list on Talis Aspire
Subject specific skills
See learning outcomes.
Transferable skills
See learning outcomes.
Study time
Type | Required |
---|---|
Lectures | 9 sessions of 1 hour (6%) |
Seminars | 9 sessions of 1 hour (6%) |
Tutorials | 2 sessions of 1 hour (1%) |
Private study | 130 hours (87%) |
Total | 150 hours |
Private study description
History modules require students to undertake extensive independent research and reading to prepare for seminars and assessments. As a rough guide, students will be expected to read and prepare to comment on three substantial texts (articles or book chapters) for each seminar taking approximately 3 hours. Each assessment requires independent research, reading around 6-10 texts and writing and presenting the outcomes of this preparation in an essay, review, presentation or other related task.
Costs
No further costs have been identified for this module.
You do not need to pass all assessment components to pass the module.
Assessment group A3
Weighting | Study time | |
---|---|---|
Seminar contribution | 10% | |
1500 word book review | 40% | |
3000 word essay | 50% |
Feedback on assessment
Written feedback provided via Tabula; optional oral feedback in office hours.
Courses
This module is Core optional for:
- Year 2 of UENA-VQ32 Undergraduate English and History
- Year 2 of UHIA-V1V5 Undergraduate History and Philosophy
This module is Optional for:
- Year 2 of UENA-VQ32 Undergraduate English and History
- Year 2 of UENA-VQ34 Undergraduate English and History (with a term in Venice)
-
UHIA-V100 Undergraduate History
- Year 2 of V100 History
- Year 2 of V100 History
- Year 2 of UHIA-V102 Undergraduate History (Renaissance and Modern History Stream)
- Year 2 of UHIA-V1V5 Undergraduate History and Philosophy
-
UHIA-VM11 Undergraduate History and Politics
- Year 2 of VM11 History and Politics
- Year 2 of VM11 History and Politics
- Year 2 of VM11 History and Politics
- Year 2 of UHIA-VM13 Undergraduate History and Politics (with a term in Venice)
- Year 2 of UHIA-VL13 Undergraduate History and Sociology
- Year 2 of UHIA-VL15 Undergraduate History and Sociology (with a term in Venice)
This module is Core option list C for:
- Year 2 of UHIA-V102 Undergraduate History (Renaissance and Modern History Stream)
This module is Option list A for:
-
UHIA-V100 Undergraduate History
- Year 2 of V100 History
- Year 2 of V100 History
- Year 2 of UHIA-V1V5 Undergraduate History and Philosophy
- Year 2 of UHIA-V1V7 Undergraduate History and Philosophy (with a term in Venice)
-
UHIA-VM11 Undergraduate History and Politics
- Year 2 of VM11 History and Politics
- Year 2 of VM11 History and Politics
- Year 2 of VM11 History and Politics
- Year 2 of UHIA-VM13 Undergraduate History and Politics (with a term in Venice)
- Year 2 of UHIA-VL13 Undergraduate History and Sociology
- Year 2 of UHIA-VL15 Undergraduate History and Sociology (with a term in Venice)
This module is Option list B for:
-
UHIA-V100 Undergraduate History
- Year 2 of V100 History
- Year 2 of V100 History
- Year 2 of UHIA-V102 Undergraduate History (Renaissance and Modern History Stream)
-
UHIA-VM11 Undergraduate History and Politics
- Year 2 of VM11 History and Politics
- Year 2 of VM11 History and Politics
- Year 2 of VM11 History and Politics
This module is Option list C for:
-
UHIA-V100 Undergraduate History
- Year 2 of V100 History
- Year 2 of V100 History
- Year 2 of UHIA-V102 Undergraduate History (Renaissance and Modern History Stream)
- Year 2 of UHIA-VL13 Undergraduate History and Sociology