Spanish culture course - Spain and Europe: origins and evolution
Spain and Europe: origin and evolution (90 h)
The main aim of this course is to provide an overview of the history of European cultures, and the transformations that have taken place from prehistory to the current time, with a particular focus on the Hispanic area. Students will study the new reality of the Mediterranean world after the Islamic expansion from the north of Africa, the conquest of Spain, and the domination of part of the Mediterranean. In addition, we will analyse changes in the European framework, which were defined and characterised in the region that we now know as the European Union.
The programme has been divided into two blocks: the first deals with prehistory until the end of the Middle Ages in the fifteenth century. The second block will cover the sixteenth to twentieth centuries.
Minimum level of Spanish language required: Medium
METHODOLOGY
Each session will include a presentation of the topic based on a power point that the students will study and prepare, to then share it with the group and complete its definition or clarification with the help of the lecturer. Students will be expected to participate actively.
ASSESSMENT SYSTEM
Class participation and attendance: 20%
Exam on the first part: 40%
Exam on the second part: 40%
SYLLABUS
• Introduction. Origin of Europe: concept and space.
• The first settlers. Paleolithic, Neolithic and the Metal Ages
• The Spanish environment. Iberians and Celts. Tartessians.
• Greece. The birth of the polis. The Age of Pericles. Greece in the Iberian Peninsula:
• The birth of Rome. From monarchy to republic (509). The great Roman institutions. The expansion: The conquest of the Peninsula. Roman Spain. The Roman legacy.
• Emergence and expansion of Christianity.
• Barbarian Europe and the crisis of the Roman Empire (fourteenth and fifteen centuries). The great invasions. The Visigoths in Spain.
• Islam and its expansion into the Mediterranean area. Al-Andalus.
• Carolingian Europe. Spain: Christian kingdoms of the north
• Feudalism.
• Europe in the High Middle Ages. Spain in the High Middle Ages: Christian kingdoms against Islam.
• The great recessions. Wars, plagues, hunger. The Late Middle Ages in Europe and Spain. The Catholic Kings.
• Humanism and Renaissance. The great inventions and scientific advances.
• The new monarchies. The conquering Europe.
• Reformation and Counter-Reformation. The wars of religion. The new European order.
• Absolutism. War of succession in the Spanish crown. The Bourbons in Spain.
• The Age of Enlightenment. The French Revolution. Napoleon and the new European order. • The industrial revolution. Romanticism and Nationalism. The liberal revolutions.
• The Russian revolution and the birth of the USSR.
• First World War. Fascism. Second World War. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
• Spain: First and second Republic. The dictatorship of Primo de Rivera. Civil War.
• The new international order: The Cold War and the bipolar world.
• Decolonisation and its repercussions in Europe. Spain during the Franco regime.
• The democracy in Spain.
• The European Union.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CARR, R. (2007): Historia de España, Barcelona, Península.
FUSI, J. P. (2012): Historia mínima de España, Madrid, Turner-El Colegio de México.
GARCÍA DE CORTÁZAR, F. (2004): Memoria de España, Madrid, Aguilar.
RIVERO, I. (1999): Síntesis de Historia de España, Madrid, Globo, Madrid.
VALDEÓN, J.; PÉREZ, J.; JULIÀ, S. (2011): Historia de España, Madrid, Austral.
VILAR, P. (2010): Historia de España, Barcelona, Crítica.
Spanish
Culture
90 hours
12 ECTS credits
Face-to-face