Get introduced to general trends in global history
You will study two handbooks on Medieval and Early Modern History, an introduction to Dutch history, and specific sources and literature on transatlantic and colonial history. Finally, you will learn more about historical methods in Oral History & Biography.
Often, the perception of the Netherlands at home and abroad is ridden with stereotypes. It is a country of cheese, herring and coffeeshops. Canals, clogs, windmills and a very liberal attitude to life choices are also elements in this imagery. The struggle against water is yet another recurring theme in the way the Dutch are perceived and see themselves. In this course, you will study the last 500 years of Dutch history and discover the connections with current times.
The long-distance covered by humanity has resulted in the world we are in today. Throughout the past, people and movements have worked towards offering the world a different face. Without the close study of that past, much of the present world cannot be understood. This course presents a concise overview of the major episodes in European cultural history, from Classical Antiquity and the Middle Ages to early modern, modern and contemporary history, thereby highlighting the links with art and culture.
The course focuses on the history of European colonialism and the process of decolonization after World War II. How did decolonization take place? How is decolonization connected to European integration? How are European societies shaped by the histories of colonialism and decolonization and how are these histories remembered and represented?
Sub-Saharan African countries, institutions, people, and economies are intertwined with the world in many ways. Its recent history has mostly been characterized by, among other things, violent conflict, abject poverty and governmental mismanagement. Despite its long painful and tragic engagement with the world, sub-Saharan Africa is probably one of the most misunderstood and misrepresented regions in the modern world. This module utilizes sub-Saharan Africa as a starting point from which to explore the spatial, technological, political and socio-economic location of Africa in global networks since 1800, and demonstrate how this has had an impact on the African condition.
This course prepares you to do oral and biographical historical research, a skill that you will also practise. You will find that you can expand your knowledge by studying journals and books about the biographical method. You will also learn to create a biographical portrait.
Some historians insist a historian comes to know the past by literally rethinking the ideas of historic figures. Therefore, all history becomes the history of thought (Flynn 1974). Although, social sciences investigate phenomena through methods/methodologies and fieldwork that yield empirical evidence. In other words, social scientists look at phenomena by following perceptions, while historians look through them by rethinking what was perceived. This course, as a skill-learning course, introduces students to ethnography, its interdisciplinary use, and how ethnography can be included in historians' toolboxes.
Traditionally, socio-economic historians often worked with numbers. They conducted research on, for example, demographic developments and wages and prices in the past, or they analysed social characteristics of groups of people. In recent decades, we have seen the rise of new quantitative methods thanks to the rapidly growing availability of digitised historical sources. In this course, you will learn what is necessary to understand such research, and how to critically and responsibly assess, visualise, and interpret quantitative data yourself.
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