Global History | Dr. Claire Vergerio
Lecture Outline
Week 1 – Lecture 1
Why Study Global History in an International Relations Degree?
I. Introduction
a. “The End of Sykes-Picot”
Sykes-Picot was a secret agreement between France and UK to divide the Ottoman Empire
and the Middle East amongst themselves
Westphalian peace not working for Middle East:
- states are more connected (interdependent)
- more democratization
- using a western model of borders on the Islamic State
b. Purpose of course
II. Frequently Asked Questions
a. FAQ#1: Why study the past rather than try to analyse the present or predict the
future?
Predicting the future is not what we do in social science; however knowledge of the past help
us understand and comprehend the future
Minerva association; oldest student association in the Netherlands
- Minerva was the Greek goddess of war and wisdom
- Owl on insignias represents wisdom
b. FAQ#2: I want to theorize about the present, I want to be a theorist rather than
a historian, do I really need to study history? Will I ever use it for theory-
building?
History helps with testing political science claims and about causation
c. FAQ#3: What is good enough history for students who are not future
historians but future international relations specialists?
d. Approaches to history in IR: a spectrum
Closet of facts (neorealism)
- past is just lots of facts to test theories about the present
- history as monochrome flatland - always the same
- history is continuous
, Global History | Dr. Claire Vergerio
Shopping list (poststructuralism)
- history is on the particular, arbitrary and accidental
- the past is a list of minor events that have huge impacts
- emphasis on the discontinuities
- no discernable patterns in history - always different
Middle way approach (constructivism, the English School)
- use history in some detail
- try to establish patterns
III. What are the essential conceptual tools for studying history?
a. History
- general study of the past
- a nonfiction account of the past
- aspires to construct and tell stories about the discovered evidence of the past
- understand and explain past events by interpreting their meaning
A historian develops a specific argument, which they believe is accurate on the basis of the
existing evidence
● why and how did events happen?
● what caused the event?
● which individuals play important roles?
● what is the meaning of the events studied, in terms of past and of the present?
● why do they matter?
b. Metahistory
- emphasizes patterns and regularities, the great drivers of development, larger meaning
of history
- was used in Nazi ideology
- popular in 19th century, bad reputation in the 20th century, is making a comeback
now
Key term: longue durée (French historian Fernand Braudel)
● take the long view of history to identify long term trends/patterns and distinguish the
contingent from the permanent
c. Anti-history
- fiction and nonfiction is the same
- relativism
- belive in fake news
IV. What is Global History?
a. Big history vs. global history
Big history (also called universal or world history):
, Global History | Dr. Claire Vergerio
- concerned with the history of the world since the big bang
- integrates natural sciences
Global history (also called world history:
- story of connections within global human community
b. Global history and IR
i. Five implications of multiplicity
1. coexistence ( societies co exist)
2. societies develop differences
3. interaction between societies
4. combination ( development with other societies
5. dialectical change
V. Some logistical considerations
a. Logistics I: General
b. Logistics II: Examination
Lecture Outline 2
Our Focus in this Course: The Rise and Fall of European Empires
I. Introduction (all of these colonized by the Dutch)
Dutch colonizers (imperial expansion) destroys cultures, traditions, buildings, and
languages but it also built the same things
a. New York flag
b. South African apartheid
- racial system put by Dutch colonizers
- slave trade
c. Jakarta
- build fancy buildings to show power of colonizers
Examples of effects of colonization (imperial expansion):
- mass migration
- one language spoken in many places
II. The importance of European empires in modern international relations
, Global History | Dr. Claire Vergerio
a. The geographical scope of European empires
- British empire ruled over ¼ of world population
b. The chronological scope of European empires
- european imperialism begins: 1942
- decolonization: mostly 1950s-1970s (various exceptions, e.g. Latin
America in early 1800s) (post - WWII)
c. Broadening the focus of IR
- expansion and econolonatins happened in bursts
- looking at relationships between empires instead of between states
- relationships between societies within empires
III. What is an empire?
a. Empire: definition
- a large, composite, multiethnic or multinational political unit, usually
created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and
subordinate, sometimes far distant, peripheries
b. Empire: six core characteristics
1. direct (centralized) and indirect (decentralized) rule
a. direct: rules directly over the state
b. indirect: rules through a central government in another country
2. established and maintained by violence
3. dominant core economically exploiting the periphery
4. cultural difference between people at core and periphery; belief in
superiority of culture by people at core
5. european empires (specifically) associated with racial hierarchies and
racist belief
a. “White mans burden”
6. mass movement of people (forced and voluntary)
IV. Empire, imperialism, colonialism… some clarifications
a. Empire
b. Imperialism: actions and attitudes which create or uphold such big
political units, or less obvious kinds of control/dominations (e.g. military is
obvious)
c. Colonialism: systems of rule by one group over another, where the first
claims the right to exercise exclusive sovereignty over the second and to shape
its destiny
Lecture Outline
Week 1 – Lecture 1
Why Study Global History in an International Relations Degree?
I. Introduction
a. “The End of Sykes-Picot”
Sykes-Picot was a secret agreement between France and UK to divide the Ottoman Empire
and the Middle East amongst themselves
Westphalian peace not working for Middle East:
- states are more connected (interdependent)
- more democratization
- using a western model of borders on the Islamic State
b. Purpose of course
II. Frequently Asked Questions
a. FAQ#1: Why study the past rather than try to analyse the present or predict the
future?
Predicting the future is not what we do in social science; however knowledge of the past help
us understand and comprehend the future
Minerva association; oldest student association in the Netherlands
- Minerva was the Greek goddess of war and wisdom
- Owl on insignias represents wisdom
b. FAQ#2: I want to theorize about the present, I want to be a theorist rather than
a historian, do I really need to study history? Will I ever use it for theory-
building?
History helps with testing political science claims and about causation
c. FAQ#3: What is good enough history for students who are not future
historians but future international relations specialists?
d. Approaches to history in IR: a spectrum
Closet of facts (neorealism)
- past is just lots of facts to test theories about the present
- history as monochrome flatland - always the same
- history is continuous
, Global History | Dr. Claire Vergerio
Shopping list (poststructuralism)
- history is on the particular, arbitrary and accidental
- the past is a list of minor events that have huge impacts
- emphasis on the discontinuities
- no discernable patterns in history - always different
Middle way approach (constructivism, the English School)
- use history in some detail
- try to establish patterns
III. What are the essential conceptual tools for studying history?
a. History
- general study of the past
- a nonfiction account of the past
- aspires to construct and tell stories about the discovered evidence of the past
- understand and explain past events by interpreting their meaning
A historian develops a specific argument, which they believe is accurate on the basis of the
existing evidence
● why and how did events happen?
● what caused the event?
● which individuals play important roles?
● what is the meaning of the events studied, in terms of past and of the present?
● why do they matter?
b. Metahistory
- emphasizes patterns and regularities, the great drivers of development, larger meaning
of history
- was used in Nazi ideology
- popular in 19th century, bad reputation in the 20th century, is making a comeback
now
Key term: longue durée (French historian Fernand Braudel)
● take the long view of history to identify long term trends/patterns and distinguish the
contingent from the permanent
c. Anti-history
- fiction and nonfiction is the same
- relativism
- belive in fake news
IV. What is Global History?
a. Big history vs. global history
Big history (also called universal or world history):
, Global History | Dr. Claire Vergerio
- concerned with the history of the world since the big bang
- integrates natural sciences
Global history (also called world history:
- story of connections within global human community
b. Global history and IR
i. Five implications of multiplicity
1. coexistence ( societies co exist)
2. societies develop differences
3. interaction between societies
4. combination ( development with other societies
5. dialectical change
V. Some logistical considerations
a. Logistics I: General
b. Logistics II: Examination
Lecture Outline 2
Our Focus in this Course: The Rise and Fall of European Empires
I. Introduction (all of these colonized by the Dutch)
Dutch colonizers (imperial expansion) destroys cultures, traditions, buildings, and
languages but it also built the same things
a. New York flag
b. South African apartheid
- racial system put by Dutch colonizers
- slave trade
c. Jakarta
- build fancy buildings to show power of colonizers
Examples of effects of colonization (imperial expansion):
- mass migration
- one language spoken in many places
II. The importance of European empires in modern international relations
, Global History | Dr. Claire Vergerio
a. The geographical scope of European empires
- British empire ruled over ¼ of world population
b. The chronological scope of European empires
- european imperialism begins: 1942
- decolonization: mostly 1950s-1970s (various exceptions, e.g. Latin
America in early 1800s) (post - WWII)
c. Broadening the focus of IR
- expansion and econolonatins happened in bursts
- looking at relationships between empires instead of between states
- relationships between societies within empires
III. What is an empire?
a. Empire: definition
- a large, composite, multiethnic or multinational political unit, usually
created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and
subordinate, sometimes far distant, peripheries
b. Empire: six core characteristics
1. direct (centralized) and indirect (decentralized) rule
a. direct: rules directly over the state
b. indirect: rules through a central government in another country
2. established and maintained by violence
3. dominant core economically exploiting the periphery
4. cultural difference between people at core and periphery; belief in
superiority of culture by people at core
5. european empires (specifically) associated with racial hierarchies and
racist belief
a. “White mans burden”
6. mass movement of people (forced and voluntary)
IV. Empire, imperialism, colonialism… some clarifications
a. Empire
b. Imperialism: actions and attitudes which create or uphold such big
political units, or less obvious kinds of control/dominations (e.g. military is
obvious)
c. Colonialism: systems of rule by one group over another, where the first
claims the right to exercise exclusive sovereignty over the second and to shape
its destiny
