World History Series

This is Session 1 of 2 in the full year World History class series

PREREQUISITE: Session 1 should be taken before enrolling in Session 2.

CLASS DESCRIPTION

This world history series takes students on a tour of the general history of the world civilizations from prehistory up through the modern day. The first class in this two part series focuses on antiquity and the pre-modern period. During this 12-week course, we will be studying ancient civilizations, medieval kingdoms, and everything in between! As this is a world history class, be prepared to learn history from Europe, Asia, Africa, and more.

DISCLAIMER: This is history, not math. There is not a right and wrong, black and white answer to everything! So much in history can be subjective and argued over endlessly. I’m presenting the facts the best I can from various sources I’ve researched. I don’t consider any history book to be 100% accurate. It’s impossible. And same with this course. I compiled my research and put together the most authentic story I could, considering I wasn’t personally privy to the goings on during this time period.

CLASS FORMAT

No live classes—view lessons on YOUR schedule. In general, expect 1.5-2.5 hours to work through the lesson plan each week, and an additional 2-5 hours working on assignments (it really depends what assignment your child chooses to do and how they manage their time). For classes with two levels, the material is the same for both—the depth of the assignments differs. Younger students should usually be placed in Level 1. Older students, or younger students who want more of a challenge, should be placed in Level 2.

Each lesson consists of a fully narrated PowerPoint presentation with images and videos to enhance the topics. Students will have access to our learning management system, Canvas, for viewing their lesson, printing worksheets, taking quizzes, viewing/submitting assignments, participating in discussions, and viewing grades/feedback.

Read more details about class format.

Week 1: Early Man

This week of the course covers the most time out of any week in the class. We will learn about how modern man developed and see what life was like before the onset of civilization and history as we know it.

Week 2: Early Civilizations

As prehistoric man developed agriculture, complex tools, and civilizations, cities and kingdoms arose. In this week’s lesson, we will study the earliest civilizations and discuss how they laid the foundation for history to build upon.

Week 3: The Kingdoms of Europe and North Africa

After attaining preliminary information on the beginnings of history, we begin focusing on different factions and factors for human development in the ancient world. This week’s lesson revolves around the early kingdoms and empires built up around the Mediterranean Sea.

Week 4: Culture and Religion in Europe and North Africa

Government is only a small part of history, even if it is often deemed one of the most important. In week 4, we will be looking at the culture of the peoples who inhabit the regions around the Mediterranean Sea. We will be learning what their lives, beliefs, and customs looked like.

Week 5: Society in Europe and North Africa

Society and culture are often closely related, but the final week of the ancient Mediterranean Unit focuses solely on societal pressures and the ways early civilizations interacted with each other and within themselves.

Week 6: Africa, the Americas, and the Pacific Island Cultures

In the sixth week of the course, we move from the Mediterranean to the Southern Hemisphere. We will be learning what these civilizations were doing from approximately 500 CE to 1500 CE, when they were all connected to each other by trade and culture.

Week 7: Connecting the World

Week 7 picks up where week 6 ends. In this lesson, we will learn about the forces and factors that linked the Americas to Europe, Asia, and Africa and how they developed enough to begin the globalization of the planet.

Week 8: China and the World

This week’s lesson is dedicated to studying East Asia and the Chinese Empire at the heart of it all. As the world starts to become “smaller” leading up to the fifteenth century, we will study how connections between East and West were made and what those connections meant for the wider world history.

Week 9: The Islamic World

One of the most important factors in the connection between East and West was a capable middle ground to form those connections through. That is where the Islamic world comes into play. Week 9 focuses on the development, spread, and rule of the Islamic caliphates.

Week 10: Christianity in Europe

As Islam spread through the Middle East and North Africa, European Christianity found a new rival to butt up against. The tenth week of the course focuses on the development of a Christian Europe and the struggles it faced with Islam and with itself.

Week 11: The Mongols

While connections between East and West can be built, they can also be torn down and replaced. The Mongol Empire became one of the major forces behind the decline of connections between Europe and Asia, and this week’s lesson focuses on them and the repercussions of building one of the largest empires the world has ever seen.

Week 12: The Fifteenth Century

The second half of this course leads directly into the 1400s CE, a time in which the world dramatically changed with the proliferation of many new inventions and ideas along with the “discovery” of the Americas by European sailors. This century includes many important events that defined modern history, so the class will end with an overview of the fifteenth century before we move into the next section of the series.

This is Session 2 of 2 in the full year World History class series

PREREQUISITE: Session 1 should be taken before enrolling in Session 2.

CLASS DESCRIPTION

For the second class in this World History series, we pick up where the first course left off. We step out of the ancient and medieval worlds and learn about the modern era and the forces and ideas that shaped it. Over the course of this 11-week class, we will make contact between the New World and the Old World to see how human history irrevocably changed due to two worlds colliding. From East Asia and Africa to Europe and the Americas, students will learn about the ways in which our modern world connected and changed into what we have today.

DISCLAIMER: This is history, not math. There is not a right and wrong, black and white answer to everything! So much in history can be subjective and argued over endlessly. I’m presenting the facts the best I can from various sources I’ve researched. I don’t consider any history book to be 100% accurate. It’s impossible. And same with this course. I compiled my research and put together the most authentic story I could, considering I wasn’t personally privy to the goings on during this time period.

CLASS FORMAT

No live classes—view lessons on YOUR schedule. In general, expect 1.5-2.5 hours to work through the lesson plan each week, and an additional 2-5 hours working on assignments (it really depends what assignment your child chooses to do and how they manage their time). For classes with two levels, the material is the same for both—the depth of the assignments differs. Younger students should usually be placed in Level 1. Older students, or younger students who want more of a challenge, should be placed in Level 2.

Each lesson consists of a fully narrated PowerPoint presentation with images and videos to enhance the topics. Students will have access to our learning management system, Canvas, for viewing their lesson, printing worksheets, taking quizzes, viewing/submitting assignments, participating in discussions, and viewing grades/feedback.

Read more details about class format.

Week 1: Empire Building in the Early Modern Era

In the first week of the class, we pick up at the end of the medieval era as the world progresses. During this time, many different nations all over the world began state building at unprecedented levels. The fifteenth century empires in the Americas, Europe, and Asia take center stage in this lesson.

Week 2: Economics in the Early Modern Era

After learning about the empires of the Early Modern Era, we will explore the ways in which the first truly globalized economies expanded and thrived. The enormous states from the previous week come with their own enormous, specialized economies – ones that changed the trajectory of world history.

Week 3: Cultural Shifts in the Early Modern Era

State building and economics are not the only topics that saw radical transformations between 1450 and 1750 CE. Religion gave way to scientific thinking, which caused a dramatic shift in the way people understood and viewed the world. The focus of this week’s lesson is the revolution of thought and culture that emerged from the Middle Ages.

Week 4: Revolutions in the Atlantic

As the Early Modern Era came to a close, Europe and the Americas experienced a wave of revolution that changed empires and the ways in which governments operated. From the French Revolution to the American Revolution, we will compare these Western upheavals and explore their similarities and differences.

Week 5: The Industrial Revolution

As we learned in the first course of this series, human history can be most broadly seen through three important changes. The last of these major changes in the ways humans lived was the Industrial Revolution. During this lesson, we will find out more about this important time in history and learn how different regions responded to the shift in technology and lifestyle.

Week 6: Colonialism

One of the most powerful influences on world history during the Modern Era is colonialism. As European powers spread to the ends of the earth, they left their mark, for good and bad, on the people who were there before them.

Week 7: Empires of the Nineteenth Century

As the world changed in the Modern Era, so too did the major political powers who impacted it. In this week’s lesson, we will learn about some old powers and some new up-and-comers. When they got into each other’s way of expansion, it often ended disastrously for one.

Week 8: World War and Depression

Week 8 marks our first step into the twentieth century. The first lesson of this unit is dedicated to the world-spanning conflicts that disrupted empires, connected peoples on larger scales than ever before, and ultimately led to economic depression.

Week 9: Political Revolutions of the Twentieth Century

After learning about the world wars and their far-reaching effects, we will discover new political ideas that emerged from them. Communism, its spread, and the conflicts that resulted from this new political ideology take precedent during this week’s lesson.

Week 10: The End of Empire

As the world wars came to a close, the major land empires of the world were also in their twilight hours. Former colonies gained independence and attempted to rebuild with their newfound power in their own homes.

Week 11: Globalization

Though the huge empires were in a decline, the world in the second half of the twentieth century experienced an increased wave of globalization due to old connections and new technologies. Learning about this new, widespread interconnectedness is where we finish up our World History series.