OVERVIEW

The course aims to provide critical tools and skills for a thorough knowledge of contemporary world history of the 19th and 20th centuries, bringing the student closer to the use of documentary sources and the complexity of historiographic interpretations.

During the course, thematic seminars will be organized on contemporary Europe.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Teaching is intended to provide students with a basic knowledge of the world history in the contemporary age both politically-institutionally and economically-socially.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course aims to provide the student with:

* Basics of events, cultures and transformations in Italy, Europe and the world in contemporary age

* Specific insights into the most important historiographic developments that characterized the 19th and 20th centuries

* Direct knowledge of historical sources

* An approach to the interpretative and critical dimension of historiographic research

* Methodological knowledge sufficient to prepare and present individual papers on specific themes of contemporary history

TEACHING METHODS

The lessons are frontal.

Students will be involved in the presentation of brief reports on Italy's role in the European integration process.

During the course will be organized and recommended thematic seminars on deepening contemporary Europe.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

PROGRAM

From modern history to contemporary history

Notes on the American Revolution. From confederation to federation

Notes on the French Revolution. State and nation

Industrial Revolution and Communications

Europe in 1815 - The Vienna Congress - Territorial modifications

The European Balance System

Country and nationality

 1820-21, 1830-31, 1848 Revolutions in Europe

Independence of Spanish colonies in Latin America

Doctrine of Monroe

France from Charles X to Louis Philippe d'Orléans

 Independence of Belgium - The independence of Greece 

The Eastern Question

The French conquest of Algeria

Egypt of Mehemet Alì and the occupation of Syria

Palmerston's policy

The issue of the Straits - The London Convention of 1841

Notes on social and economic transformations in the mid-eighties

Free exchange and protectionism - Cobden, List

Abolition of Corn legislation

Opium War in China and Nanjing Treaty

The German unification process 
Zollverein

Bismarck, Cavour, Napoleon III

Prussia's wars against Denmark, Austria

Franco-Prussian War - Creation of the German Empire

The process of Italian unification

Moderate and revolutionary

Mazzini, Garibaldi, Cattaneo

The First War of Independence

Second War of Independence - Creation of the Kingdom of Italy

Europe in the 1950s - The Crimean War - The Paris Conference of 1856

Napoleon III's Mediterranean Policy

Third War of Independence

Italian colonial policy

US territorial expansion in the first half of the nineteenth century

Texas question

US-Mexico War

Secession War in the United States

Japan's opening in the Fifties - The Meij Revolution

The modernization and the process of expansion of Japan

Chinese-Japanese and Russian-Japanese wars

Europe between 1870 and 1890 - From liberty to protectionism

 Nationalism

Bismarck's policy

The Balkan war in the mid 1970s

The Congress of St. Stephen and the Congress of Berlin

The "Triplice" Alliance

Europe at the turn of the 20th century: social, economic and political situation

Colonialism and imperialism. The division of the world and the contrasts of imperialism in Asia and Africa

Opposite alliances and militarization

Russia 1905 - End of absolutism

Revolution of Young Turks

Balkan wars 1912-1913 - Moroccan crises

Towards the First World War. Storiographic Interpretations

World War I

The Society of Nations

Russian Revolution

The period between the two wars

Stalinian period

Fascist Italy

Locarno Conference

The 29th Crisis

Stresa Conference

Nazi Germany

The Ethiopian War

The advent to Franco's power in Spain

Anschluss's attempts

Munich Conference

Pact Molotov-Ribbentrop

US neutrality law: from Johnson's Act to Lend Lease


World War II

Conferences of the Three Great: Tehran, Yalta, Potsdam

Question of Germany

Question of Poland


Italy after World War II: party system, institutional referendum, 1948 elections, centrist governments, Trieste issue

Stalin's "two camps" policy

The creation of the Cominform. The outbreak of Yugoslavia in 1948

Doctrine of containment, roll-back and massive retaliation, "flexible response"

Truman's Doctrine, Marshall Plan, Berlin Block, NATO

The Atomic: From the Baruch Plan to the Arms Race. The first agreements on the limitation of nuclear weapons. Salt I and Salt II


The launch of the European integration process

Brussels, OECE, Council of Europe

The birth of the European Communities


The center-left in Italy

1968 in Italy and in the world

The period of terrorism

The end of the first Republic


Decolonization notes

The Indian case

The Algerian case

Indochina and the Vietnam War


Cuba: from Batista to Fidel Castro

Cuba's Missile Crisis

De Gaulle Europe. The contrast with Kennedy

Berlin Crisis. The construction of the Wall


European integration: from the Treaties of Rome to our day

The Hague Conference, The 1970s crisis, the European Parliament elections, the draft Treaty of 1984, the Maastricht Treaty

Enlargement and attempts at institutional reform


Stalin's death and start-up

The 20th Congress of the PCUS and the Kruscev era

Insurrections in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia

The fall of the Berlin Wall


China from the proclamation of the Republic to this day. Period between the two wars: Mao, Ciang-Kai-Schek, civil war, long march, Japanese invasion.
The birth of the People's Republic, the two Cine
The progressive detachment from the USSR
The cultural revolution
Deng Xiao Ping


Afghanistan: from the postwar period to the Soviet invasion


Sudan between 800 and 900


The Rwanda crisis


Sykes-Picot, Hussein-MacMahon, the Balfour statement.

 The period between the two wars in Palestine

 The birth of the State of Israel

Nasser and the crisis of the Suez Canal

Arab-Israeli wars

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

For the institutional part, the students must prepare one of the following manuals:

- G. Sabbatucci – V. Vidotto, Il mondo contemporaneo dal 1848 a oggi, Bari, Laterza, 2006 (questo testo dovrà essere integrato con un volume a scelta dello studente per il periodo compreso tra il 1815 e il 1848)

- G. Aliberti, F. Malgeri, Da popolo a cittadini. Gli Europei (1815-2005), Milano, LED, 2006.

For the monographic part - Italy's role in the European integration process - will be included ad hoc texts on aulaweb

The non-attending student will have to report on one of the volumes recommended on aulaweb by the teacher.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

DANIELA PREDA (President)

ALDO MARIO GORINI

MARIA ELEONORA GUASCONI

GUIDO LEVI

MARINA MILAN

LARA PICCARDO

ANGELICA RADICCHI

MARIA ELISABETTA TONIZZI

LESSONS

LESSONS START

September 10, 2017

Class schedule

CONTEMPORARY HISTORY

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The exam is in part written (the nineteenth) and partly oral (the twentieth century) and involves questions both on the institutional part and on the texts of in-depth.

Attending students can attend a written exam in itinere in the nineteenth century.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The examination committee is appointed by the Department Board and chaired by the professor of the Course.

The purpose of the exam is to ensure that the subjects covered by the course are well-informed and their duration varies, modulating with respect to individual cases, so that it can be verified.

Exam schedule