30710 - HISTORY OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY: EMPIRES, TRADE AND WORLD POWER
Department of Social and Political Sciences
Course taught in English
BAI (6 credits - I sem. - OP | SECS-P/12) - BEMACS (6 credits - I sem. - OP | SECS-P/12) - BESS-CLES (6 credits - I sem. - OP | SECS-P/12) - BGL (6 credits - I sem. - OP | SECS-P/12) - BIEF (6 credits - I sem. - OP | SECS-P/12) - BIEM (6 credits - I sem. - OP | SECS-P/12) - BIG (6 credits - I sem. - OP | SECS-P/12) - CLEACC (6 credits - I sem. - OP | SECS-P/12) - CLEAM (6 credits - I sem. - OP | SECS-P/12) - CLEF (6 credits - I sem. - OP | SECS-P/12) - WBB (6 credits - I sem. - OP | SECS-P/12)
Course Director:
TAMAS VONYO
TAMAS VONYO
Suggested background knowledge
There are no prerequisites for taking this course, but students who have never taken economic history at university level may wish to read Robert C. Allen, Global Economic History: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press. This short textbook is available electronically through the Bocconi Library catalog, is part of the course readings, but it also serves as a useful introduction into the subject.
Mission & Content Summary
MISSION
Globalization defines nearly every aspect of our lives. Education, work, entrepreneurship, innovation, trade and finance all have global dimensions, which today we take for granted. Students at Bocconi live and study within a global environment and learn of important aspects of globalization. Recent years have been a dramatic demonstration of the power and inevitability of globalization. The mission of this elective course is to make students better understand how our interconnected global economy emerged historically and how global trade and global empires changed the world. We will learn that globalization has not been a one-way street and that modern history witnessed periods of both increasing and diminishing globalization. The course aims to provide students with the tools for understanding economic change in a historical and global perspective. The teaching material will help students develop critical thinking and academic writing skills.
CONTENT SUMMARY
We examine through ten topics how the global economy emerged in the past and how global trade and global empires changed the world. The first part of the course traces the connection between European colonial empires and the making of the global economy until the Industrial Revolution. We study how the rise of the West impacted other world regions. The second part of the course discusses globalisation and deglobalization and the shifts of global economic power in the modern age. We teach modern economic history in a global context and focus mainly on non-European regions. The course program includes the following topics:
Part 1
- The origins of globalisation
- The Atlantic economy
- The Asian empires
- The rise of the West
- War and revolution
Part 2
- European hegemony
- American leadership
- Latin America: catching up and falling behind
- The rise of the East
- The poverty of the South
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO)
KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
At the end of the course student will be able to...
- Identify the main drivers and the economic consequences of globalization
- Understand the connection between theories and treality of globalizaiton
- Discuss economic development in a historical and global perspective
APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
At the end of the course student will be able to...
- Identify key facts and trends in global economic history
- Understand the role of culture and geopolitics in economic development
- Summarize complex interpretations
- Demonstrate critical thinking
- Develop skills in academic writing
Teaching methods
- Lectures
- Individual works / Assignments
DETAILS
The lectures are designed to engage students on the course topics and to help them summarize and understand the content of the course readings. In their individual assignments, student write a critical book review. The assignment requires each student to read a major scholarly work on one of the course topics and to demonstrate how well they can make a critical assessment of complex narratives and the types of evidence economic historians examine. The course director provides guidelines on the assignment, but students prepare their individual assignments independently outside class time.
Assessment methods
| Continuous assessment | Partial exams | General exam | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
x | ||
|
x |
ATTENDING AND NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS
The course does not distinguish between attending and non-attending students. The course assessment is by written examination. In addition, students can submit an optional coursework assignment for extra grades. The general exam at the end of term tests students' knowledge of course readings and class discussions. It includes essay questions on all course topics, but it allows students to specialise by selection from a list of alternative questions.
The coursework assignment is optional to obtain extra grades. Depending on the quality of their coursework, students can earn 0, 1 or 2 grades, which will be added to their grade obtained in the general exam.
Teaching materials
ATTENDING AND NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS
All course readings will be listed by topic in the course syllabus. The two main textbooks used in the course are:
Robert C Allen (2011), Global Economic History: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press.
Pim De Zwart and Jan-Luiten Van Zanden (2018), The Origins of Globalization: World Trade in the Making of the Global Economy, 1500–1800. Cambridge University Press.
Both textbooks and all other completemntary readings used in the course are freely accessible to students either through the Bocconi Library Catalog or on the Blackboard course page. Students will not have to buy any textbooks.
Last change 13/05/2025 15:53