Subject Area: History
This course can also be studied in the following specialisation: History & Philosophy of Science

This History gateway course traces the key themes of world history from the Palaeolithic to dawn of the modern era. This course makes humanity, rather than an individual state or nation, the subject of history. This course explores the economic, social, cultural, political and ecological factors that have shaped human societies. Topics include hunter-gatherer, agricultural, and pastoral communities, the origins of states and empires, the rise of world religions such as Islam, the European conquest of the Americas, the emergence of capitalism, the origins of the nation state, political and scientific revolutions, and the beginnings of Western global domination. The course provides a narrative, placing emphasises on key themes that build a coherent picture of the human community as it has emerged through time. As a gateway to the history major, it also provides the basis for further studies in the history curriculum. Students will learn what history is, and what historians do. They will train in the interpretation of primary and secondary sources and the composition of historical arguments, as well as explore historiographical controversies and methods, and theories.