Global History 9

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This class is the first part of a two-year course addressing World History.  At the end of this two-year course you will be expected to take and to pass the New York State Regents Global History and Geography Exam.  You must pass this Regents Exam in order to graduate from high school.

This year, our class, will begin by examining the beginning of the world and the creation of civilizations.  We will learn to understand the importance of geography, economics, and political science in the development of civilizations, and we will examine, as historians and as historical characters, how these civilizations grew into greatness, interacted with one another, and declined into decay.   Perhaps most importantly, considering recent international tragedies, we will explore the major religions of the world, in an effort to understand better their connections, their differences, and their impacts on individuals, nations, and the world.  Finally, we will follow the exploration and colonization of “new worlds,” and we will uncover the scientific and philosophical roots of revolution that pushed the world into modernity.  In the end, our studies will take us many places.  We will have traveled from the Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia to the Yellow River of China.  We will have witnessed the feudal society of Japan and the caste system of India.  We will have experienced the decline of the Roman Empire and the rise of the Mali Empire.  We will have observed the influence of polytheism and the consequences of Protestantism.  We will have viewed the Gothic Architecture of the Middle Ages and the pyramids of Egypt.  We will have participated in the democracies of ancient Greece and the absolute monarchies of seventeenth century Europe.  Simply stated, we will have experienced World History .