Bachelor of Arts (BA) - The University of Hong Kong

198HIST2011.Nineteenth-century Europe, Part I: 1780-1850 (6 credits)(This course is also offered to second and third year non-BA students for inter-Faculty broadeningpurposes.)The modern Spanish philosopher Jorge Santayana once declared: 'Those who do not know the past areforever condemned to repeat its errors'. Many of the characteristics of contemporary Europe have theirorigins in the nineteenth century: urbanization and industrial change; rapid and misunderstood socialdevelopment; the centrality of Germany; nationalism, which threatens to pull apart nations and themulti-national empire of Russia; new alliance patterns that are not so new; revolutionary politicalchange; the development of a true civil society; and the threat from ultra-right-wing populist groups.In this course we will cover European developments from the origins of the French Revolution throughthe Revolutions of 1848. Major topics discussed will include the Industrial Revolution, the 'isms' suchas liberalism, conservatism, and nationalism, the Revolutions of 1848, and foreign affairs.Assessment: 100% coursework.HIST2012.Nineteenth-century Europe, Part II: 1850-1914 (6 credits)(This course is also offered to second and third year non-BA students for inter-Faculty broadeningpurposes.)Many of the characteristics of contemporary Europe have had their origins in the nineteenth century.Today Europe has to deal with several of the problems World War I either failed to resolve or in itselfcaused.In this course we will cover European developments from the unifications that transformed CentralEurope up to World War I. Major topics will include the second Industrial Revolution, socialism, socialand cultural changes, reaction to those changes (anti-semitism and proto-fascism), imperialism,nationalism and liberation movements in Eastern Europe, fin-de-siécle Europe, the decline of themulti-national empires, and the origins of World War I.Assessment: 100% coursework.HIST2013.Twentieth-century Europe, Part I: The European Civil War, 1914-1945 (6 credits)(This course is also offered to second and third year non-BA students for inter-Faculty broadeningpurposes.)This period can be seen as a Thirty Years' War fought over the problem of Germany, beginning with theFirst World War, 1914-18, and climaxing with the total defeat of Germany at the end of the SecondWorld War, 1939-45. Tensions between the Great Powers were exacerbated by new ideologies such asFascism, Nazism and Communism, which appeared in Europe as part of a general crisis in WesternCivilisation after the First World War. An attempt will be made to evaluate the debate between differentschools of historians on what Fascism, Nazism and Communism signified. Finally one of the main aimsof the course is to describe, and explain, the mass murders involving the deaths of millions carried outby a new breed of leaders such as Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.Assessment: 100% coursework.