Humanities Homework Help

George Mason University History of World Civilizations Essay Questions

 

Essay Questions – History of World Civilizations (112)

DUE: October 10th, SUNDAY at 10 pm.

Late submissions accepted until NOON on October 11th. This is a hard deadline because Professor Harris-Scott only has Monday and Tuesday to complete the grading for this course!

Final Exam – 70 points

This is a test of how much material you’ve learned within our class, in order to assess that you are asked to:

only utilize assigned course materials, and

therefore, additional research is not required and will be grounds for a zero

To best demonstrate how well you’ve understood the materials, examples and information should be summarized (no quotes!)

  • To best show your writing skills and level of professional readiness, the essays should try to ensure college level writing standards.

Instructions:

  • You should only use your notes and assigned readings (including the textbook) to answer the questions. (Videos we watched as part of class are also allowable)
  • All THREE responses should be turned in at once on Canvas (either as multiple files or as a single file).
  • The essays should be saved and submitted as a .doc/.docx or .pdf file.
  • Within the essay, references to page numbers (for the textbook) or lecture topic/date or video title, that follow each example is an important measure of intellectual transparency.        

This first section focuses on historical questions that have many potential examples that could be used to answer the question(s). In each essay you should try to provide a good reflection of the breadth of knowledge covered in this course. This is your opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge about World history – so be sure to not answer BOTH essays with the same examples! Each of these essays should be around a page – or around 350-400 words.  (Remember, while the United States is part of the world it is not always a good representative of the wider trends, answers and/or exams that focus too much on the US will not get full credit).                                                                          

FIRST ESSAY

  • Choose ONE to answer – 25 points
  • What is one way that the world regions theory stays true into the 1800s and 1900s? How does it get eroded? (be sure to name examples for each!)
  • How did countries in South America maintain connections to Europe in the 1800s and 1900s?
  • How was the Cold War in the late 20th century similar to earlier empire building in the 19th century? What elements do they have in common? How do they differ?

How do empires in the 1400s and 1500s (like the Ming, Ottomans, Aztec or Inca) compare to empires built in the 1800s and 1900s (like the British, French, American or Japanese)? 

SECOND ESSAY

Choose ONE to answer- 25 points

What do you think are two elements of continuity between societies in the 1500s and societies in the 1900s? (Be sure to discuss distinct historical examples from different regions of the globe)

How did the movement of people (diasporas) shape global history between the 1500s and today? How did they (or didn’t) maintain connections to their culture or home?

Choose three global regions and identify which half century has seen the greatest level of positive change. (Regions include: North America, South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and the Middle East, South Asia/Indian sub-continent, East Asia etc).

THIRD ESSAY

For the LAST written response use ONE of the prompts listed below to respond to – for this essay your written response should reflect YOUR experience and thoughts as well as knowledge gained in the course. You should incorporate 2 or so historical examples drawn from the textbook, lecture and other assigned materials (readings, videos or articles). This shorter essay should only be around 250-300 words in length. 15 points

  1. Choose 1 to answer
  2. Do you think of your family’s history as being part of the trend towards globalization? Why?
  3. What is something you encountered or learned about in our world civilization course that provided a new perspective to understanding a modern nation today? Which one? Why?
  4. If you could travel anywhere, what are places that you’d like to visit because of the content we covered in our course?