This course explores the history of Western Civilization from 1500 to the present. The focus is on examining and analyzing the historical trajectories European societies followed out of the Middle Ages to the modern world. Topics include the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, the Age of Exploration and Conquest, the Atlantic exchange, absolutism, constitutionalism, the Enlightenment, the Age of Revolution, industrialization, modern nationalism, imperialism, World War I, World War II, and post-war Europe. Intellectual, art, gender, and class history will be integrated throughout the course.