USGG 1013 - World Civilization I: World Civilization to 1500 (0 Credit Hours)

Lecture Hours: 0 Lab Hours: 0
This course presents an overview of World Civilization from late antiquity through the Middle Ages by focusing on a period in history that was both unique and transformative in the development of the Iberian Peninsula and Northwest Africa. This course will adhere to a format that blends of chronological and thematic history, based on the Spanish concept of convivencia, or coexistence, for Christians, Muslims, and Jews, while often at odds, traded, married, and
existed side by side in fields and towns for centuries. We will be examining the topics of migration/invasion, cross-cultural exchange, and finally, reconquest. In the first part of the semester, students will learn about the Hispano-Romans who inhabited ancient Iberia, leaving their mark on the language and culture of the peninsula. The migration of the Vandals eventually disrupted Roman control of the region, as they continued their push into North Africa. The
Visigoth invasion of Iberia can be perceived as a reconquest, for they considered themselves inheritors of the Roman Empire. During this period, the Visigoths preserved much of what could be considered classical culture. The Visigoths eventually succumbed to the Muslim invasion of Spain in 711, ushering in a new period of cross- cultural pollination (cultural blending). The Reconquista, as a concept, has been a topic of great historiographical debate; however, it will be
taught as a long-term and continuous process that eventually culminated in the conquest of the Kingdom of Granada in 1492, the very same year that Columbus set sail on his voyage of discovery.

Cross Listing(s): HIST 1111
Is Course Repeatable: No