History 104, Lecture 00:
Orient-ations, Questions, and Key Concepts
(PDF) (DOC)

1.  Our Story, Part 1: The Shift of Wealth and Power from Asia to the West

a. Reversal of Fortunes
i. 2/3 of world’s wealth now resides in the G7 countries
ii. 200 years ago, 2/3 of world’s wealth resided in China and India
iii. What happened to make this happen?

b. Some Questions to Guide Us (from OMW, p. 2)

i. How did European industrialized nation-states come to define our world?
ii. How and why has there been a growing gap between rich and poor?
iii. How and why have G7 countries been able to set the rules of the game?

2. Issues and Key Concepts

a. What is Eurocentrism?
i. Ethnocentrism + Universalism = Bad Historical Understanding
ii. Eurocentrism as article of faith in America
iii. Thinking Outside the Eurocentric Matrix

b. Contingency, Accident, and Conjuncture

c. A Polycentric World System, circa 1400