What Do You Learn in World History?

World History is one of the first curricula for the history course, and provides a foundation in world history for all history students. It consists of two parts. Part one covers the whole world from the time of the earliest recorded civilizations to the present day. Part two deals with the course in microhistory, the examination of one historical event, its development and its influence.

Topics covered include the spread of the ancient world, the rise and fall of civilizations, the development of the world economy, the rise and fall of empires, the impact of one historical event on the course of history, the impacts of one historical event on the course of world events, the impact of one historical event on individuals and cultures, and the development of international law.

Important Things to Learn in World History

Here are few things to learn in World History:

1. Classical civilizations

As in the studies of other cultures, one finds a commonality in the cultural systems of the ancient world. This commonality is the existence of a set of cultural standards that allow for sharing and coexisting. Culture may be defined as a collective phenomenon, a product of the group.

The culture of the ancient Mediterranean world reflected the values and attitudes of a matrilineal society in which the dominant power was vested in the women. From their religious traditions to their arts and customs, the Greeks and Romans established their cultural patterns and thus imposed their will on the rest of the world.

2. The Jewish War

The first Jewish–Roman war was the focus of the study of the study of Jewish history in general and Jewish–Roman relations in particular. The conflict established a precedent that continued for centuries, the fighting of a war between Jew and Gentile for the control of ancient Judea. The background of the war was the formal loss of the northern provinces of Palestine to Rome after the conquest of Judea in the year 70 CE. At the same time, the Pharisaic and Hasidic movements, launched by the Hasidic leader Gamaliel II, began to rise.

These two movements differed on issues related to the Israeli society’s stance towards Rome, such as Roman taxation and Jewish practice of circumcision and the kosher laws. The dispute between the two groups also concerned the nature of Torah and Jewish faith, for the Pharisees maintained that the Torah’s laws should be strictly observed; whereas the Hasidim maintained that the laws should be observed as long as they do not go against the spirit of the Torah.

3. Imperial Rome

The study of Roman history aims to know the political, economic, and military history of the imperial Roman state from the founding of the Republic in 30 BCE to the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century CE. A basic principle of Roman imperial expansion is the tripartite division of the empire into three parts: the East, under the emperor; the West, under the king; and the center, under the people or patricians.

There were no intermediate levels of government in the empire. From the accession of Augustus until the start of the seventh century, the Emperor controlled all political life in Rome. The latter part of the empire saw a process of growth in the power of the aristocratic elite and of the Church, during which the empire lost its sovereignty. This change inaugurated a long period of peace and prosperity in the western parts of the empire, but the eastern portion was eventually subject to barbarian invasions and war.