The aim of the course is to provide students with the historical and historiographical coordinates to understand the Modern Age through the main processes that characterised it in the West. It will be important to learn to identify how economic, social and cultural variables have impacted, determining both the phenomena characteristic of the Modern Age and the differences and similarities in the physiognomies of the various political realities.Another objective of the course is to understand the historical relations between Europe and non-European spaces, focusing on cultural, religious and diplomatic relations and those of exploitation. The aim is to foster the formation of a body of knowledge and information functional to a reflexive approach towards the main factors of continuity and discontinuity that have defined the modern age . The knowledge and skills thus acquired should provide the basis for a better interpretation of current social, political and economic dynamics unfolding between Europe and non-European spaces.
No prerequisites required
Frontal lesson
Final oral examination. With the possibility, in the last month of the courses and only for attending students, to discuss a thesis in the classroom. For attending students who have submitted a thesis, the grade for the final oral examination will be mainly determined by the grade obtained for the thesis.
L. Mascilli Migliorini, L'età moderna. Una storia globale, Laterza, 2020, chapters 1-14,16,17; chapter 18: pararagraphs 5 e 7; chapter 21.
F. Morelli, Il mondo atlantico. Una storia senza confini (secoli XV-XIX), Roma, Carocci, 2013, pp. 177-224
Storia moderna, Roma, Donzelli, 1998, chapter XVI
For students who are not familiar with the chronology, main events and processes of modern history, studying with the support of a good textbook used in secondary schools is recommended (S. Desideri, G. Codovini, Storia e storiografia, vols. 1-2 is recommended). Please note that the supporting textbook will not be covered in the exam, but it is expected that you will consult it if you have difficulty understanding and memorising the three exam texts mentioned above.
The course traces the modern age by analysing the processes and phenomena that have shaped societies, economies and cultures in the West, from the ‘discovery’ of the Americas at the end of the 15th century to the birth of nation states in the 19th century. It will focus on travel and geographical exploration in the 15th and 16th centuries, European colonialism in the Americas and Africa, the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation. Religious conflict and identity will be considered among the fundamental variables in the definition of the modern West. In addition to the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation, the wars of religion, the relationship between the scientific revolution and positive religions, the relationship between the Enlightenment and positive religions, witchcraft and the processes of social marginalisation and migration produced by the aforementioned religious conflicts will therefore be addressed. From the political-ideological and political-institutional point of view, the events and processes that marked the formation of the Modern State in Europe, from religious conflicts to the Enlightenment, will be analysed, also offering a comparative evaluation of the various declinations that the Modern State has assumed in the old continent. With regard to the transition from the Old Regime to Modernity, it will reflect on the revolutions in Europe, the Americas and the Mediterranean: from the American Revolution (1776) to the emergence of nation states in Europe, passing through the independence processes in Latin America. Although the course focuses on the events that marked the modern age mainly in Europe and North America, it aims to stimulate in students an awareness that the West developed through various types of relationships with other spaces. To this end, the cultural and religious relations between Europe and other continents will be explored, along with the exploitative relations between Europe, America and Africa through the analysis of the phenomena of slavery, colonialism and commercial imperialism.
Italian
