Browse Hierarchy HST4322: Europe in a Global Context since 1800

In the period covered by this module, Europe rose to global dominance and then entered a gradual process of relative decline, which is still underway. Any history of Europe in the period must also therefore take account of Europe's interactions ¿ military, economic and intellectual ¿ with the wider world. During the period of expansion, Europeans envisaged themselves as embodying a superior civilisation, which exemplified ideals of modernity and progress. But these ideals also had darker side which resulted in Europeans perpetrating acts of the most extraordinary violence, upon each other and on others. In the nineteenth century, nationalist ideas were associated with progress, emancipation and liberalism but in the twentieth century they became vectors of exclusion, authoritarianism and even genocide. If there has been no general war in Europe since 1945, as ideas of a united Europe have taken root, Cold War, local wars and inter-ethnic conflicts have mutated and endured. These are some of the themes and contradictions that this module will seek to explore. Students consider key trends and discontinuities in the international and global history of Europe since 1800. They discuss and evaluate the interpretations which have been put forward to explain this historical period, and construct their own interpretations which draw upon them.