History 157 - Africa and the Making of the Modern World

Africa & Making Modern World

Fall
2025
01
4.00
Jeffrey S. Ahlman

TU TH 2:45 PM - 4:00 PM

Smith College
HST-157-01-202601
jahlman@smith.edu
Often seen as peripheral to the modern world, Africa and African peoples are often ignored in both popular and scholarly world histories traversing the last several centuries. This course aims to turn these narratives on their head by not only injecting African histories into world historical narratives, but by using these histories to detail Africa’s centrality to understanding the world. In doing so, the course examines the development of and African experiences with the varying forms of capitalism and trade that developed out of both the Atlantic and Indian Ocean trade networks, the genealogical roots of European imperialism and the ways in which African peoples navigated, resisted and transformed these broader global phenomena in the construction of the world around them. This course is open to all students and assumes no prior knowledge. Enrollment limited to 40.
Permission is required for interchange registration during the add/drop period only.