Today we started working with a new unit -- European History (whoo-hoo!!). We will work in particular with the the Protestant Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment -- so that we can then work with Swedish history of the past five hundred years. Our focus there will be trying to understand how different types of developments influence one another, so that we can understand processes of change and causes and consequences more clearly. For example, we'll discuss how religion was important to economic and political developments. And we'll see how military successes can be connected with Sweden's economic development and international relationships.
We worked with timelines, and the first step is understanding how timelines work and the whole B.C.E / C.E. (or B.C./ A.D.) divide.
And the second step is to try and understand what a century is, so that it makes sense that the year 2017 is in the 21st century, not the 20th century. Here are a couple of slides to help make sense of this:
We then looked at a timeline that I had drawn on the board. These are time periods and historical events that you need to be able to lay out on a timeline. These are basic building blocks that we will be using to understand European history.
Roman Empire
Middle Ages
Crusades
Renaissance
Martin Luther and Protestant Reformation
Scientific Revolution
Enlightenment
American and French Revolutions
Industrial Revolution
Last but not least, I recommended that you start listening to the Trojan War Podcast (done by Jeff Wright). The first ten episodes are all about Greek stories leading up to the war. I think you'll really enjoy it. Give it a whirl.
