Download The 7 KEY THEMES of World History

The 7 KEY THEMES
of World History
Theme = a topic that addresses a
particular sphere of human activity
over time
#1 - Patterns of Population
• This theme comes first because the number of
men and women in the world, the distribution
of populations around the globe, and the
migration patterns of people from one region
to another have always had a large effect on
all other types of change.
• The study of population size, density, and
distribution is called demography.
#1 - Patterns of Population
• Conditions of population growth and density
have a huge impact on how people live, work,
and get along together. In the long run of human
history, the presence today of more than 7 billion
people on the planet represents a recent and
drastic change.
• This fact, together with the constant flux in
worldwide population movement and
distribution, affects our daily lives in countless
ways.
#1 - Patterns of Population
#2 - Economic Networks and Exchange
• Most of us are dependent on the market for
virtually all our material desires and needs.
• We also rely more and more on it for vital,
useful, or entertaining information.
• Most of the goods and information we
consume originate from producers we will
never see or know. Many of them live
thousands of miles away.
#2 - Economic Networks and Exchange
• The things we consume reach us by way of
complex systems of communication and
transport that we are scarcely aware of. As either
working teenagers or fully employed adults, most
of us contribute something to this global
economy.
• Also, fluctuations in production, finance, and
trade in distant parts of the world may seriously
affect our income, employment chances, and
career plans.
#2 - Economic Networks and Exchange
• How did we become so dependent on the global
economy, and how might that dependence affect
the direction of our lives?
• Answers to these questions require a worldhistorical perspective, not only the "globalizing"
developments of the past few decades but the
long-term trends that transformed trade from a
secondary human economic activity to one that
none of us can do without.
#3 - Uses and Abuses of Power
• Changing power relations have been one of the central
themes of world history. Teachers AND students may ask
many critical questions about power:
– Was power always present in human society? If so, why? If
not, how was power created?
– Why are differences in power so enormous in the modern
world?
– How do the powerful hold on to their power?
– Could inequalities of power be eliminated? Should they be?
– Do the weak always have to tolerate the power of the strong?
Could the weak survive without the strong, or the other way
around?
– Are people bound to abuse power? (The English historian Lord
Acton wrote: "All power corrupts and absolute power corrupts
absolutely.")
#3 - Uses and Abuses of Power
• Today, all humans (with tiny exceptions) live
within the frontiers of sovereign states.
• States have central governments, which exercise
great power over their citizens whether they are
democracies or dictatorships, big countries or
small.
• In world history governments have exerted power
in many different ways, sometimes benefiting
their subjects or citizens, sometimes restricting or
endangering them.
#3 - Uses and Abuses of Power
• Because we live in the computer age, we
understand that possessing and controlling
information is a way of exerting power.
• States, corporations, interest groups, universities,
and other holders of power both control and
disseminate floods of valuable information.
• Governments and other power groups have
always had an interest in managing the flow of
news and knowledge.
#4 - Haves and Have-Nots
• Today, the allocation of the world's wealth is more
uneven than ever before. Some individuals and groups
have become extremely wealthy, while others have
become poorer. Today, these disparities are global.
• Power and wealth tend to be two sides of the same
coin. Social inequality in both power and wealth reflect
the general principle that as human populations in
many parts of the world have become larger and
denser, the gap has grown between those at the top
and those at the bottom of the social hierarchy.
#4 - Haves and Have-Nots
• No matter what country we live in, social and
economic inequalities among individuals and
groups are part of our daily experience.
• From ancient times, extreme inequalities have
triggered social protest, revolts, and revolutions.
• In the past, revolution and inequality have often
gone together. We may ask whether growing gaps
between have and have-nots are a threat to
currently stable societies.
#5 - Expressing Identity
• Knowing who we are greatly influences how
we behave and how others behave toward us.
• A sense of shared identity expressed in many
forms and situations has been a powerful
shaper of human action throughout history.
• It can motivate people as powerfully as the
desire for wealth or power, and it can lead to
both horror and heroism.
#5 - Expressing Identity
• History as a discipline is very much about
identity. Learning about the past means
learning about the identities of many sorts of
communities and how those identities may
have appeared, changed, and vanished.
• Understanding the historical identities of
those communities to which we feel we
belong is a powerful way of defining our sense
of identity in the world.
#6 - Science, Technology, and the
Environment
• Humans are living creatures and, like all of
them, they need to draw energy and
resources from their environment.
• How humans have done this from paleolithic
times to the present is one of history's
dramatic stories.
• Science and technology have transformed,
and continue to transform, the daily lives of all
peoples.
#6 - Science, Technology, and the
Environment
• Making some sense of the world around us
and understanding how and why we live the
way we do-as individuals, families, employees,
and citizens-require at least a modest grasp of
the immense changes that have occurred in
the world in the past two centuries, which is
barely a page in the long chronicle of human
history.
#6 - Science, Technology, and the
Environment
• Human systems of knowledge are utterly
unlike those of other organisms because
humans seem to have a never-ending capacity
to add to and transform them. This explains
why humans have had such a huge impact on
the environment and on one another.
• In exploring Key Theme #6, we are really
exploring what it is that makes human beings
so special.
#7 - Spiritual Life and Moral Codes
• For most of human history, spiritual ideas
have been at the core of how humans
understand and explain the workings of the
natural, physical, and social world.
• No wonder that people have stood up, and
sometimes died, for their religious principles,
or that societies have built their sense of unity
and identity around their spiritual traditions.
#7 - Spiritual Life and Moral Codes
• Human beings learned long ago that peace,
order, and cooperation within social groups,
whether they be families, foraging bands,
business partnerships, or nation-states,
depend in the long run on guiding principles,
standards, and rules of moral behavior.
• Systems of morality and ethics vary around
the world, but all of them are founded on
ideals of social harmony and trust.
#7 - Spiritual Life and Moral Codes
• Today, many people argue that modern science presents a
powerful challenge to religion because it offers
explanations of nature, the cosmos, and human origins that
require no reference to God or any other manifestation of
spiritual power.
– Also, the material evidence that science presents to support its
description of the natural and physical universe has continued
to pile up, especially during the past century.
• Few doubt that science, technology, and medicine have
benefited humankind in countless ways.
• For some people, however, science and religion start from
such contradictory premises that they cannot be
reconciled.