2010-11 academic year

Contemporary History of Europe (20081)

Degree/study:Degree in Humanities
Year: 3rd.
Term:1st
Number of ECTS credits: 5 credits
Hours of studi dedication: -
Teaching language or languages: Catalan (academic works may be turned in using any of the UPF official languages)
Teaching Staff: Enric Ucelay-da Cal

1. Presentation of the subject

Contemporary History of Europe reflects conflicts and continental convergences ranging from the French Revolution up to the process of European unification, which is still present today. However, this subject is only concerned with the study and interpretation of fundamental episodes, as well as assumptions and consequences, of European history throughout the 20^th century and the beginning of the 21^st century. In this subject it will be explained how the 19^th century led to the First World War and how this historical event transformed the continent and led to a sequence of conflicts of different types which still influence our society today.

2. Competences to be attained

General competences

Specific competences

1) Achieving high competence in dealing with information from different sources, which may be contradictory.

2) Improving capacities in interpretative analysis, being well informed and using sound arguments.

3) Presenting historical summaries using both textual and semantic cohesion.

4) Using multicausal explanations in order to fully understand the historical events and their consequences throughout the period.

1) Acknowledgment of the evolution of Europe throughout the 20^th century.

2) Analysis skills regarding the causes and consequences of the great trends and main contemporary events in Europe.

3. Contents

Block 1: The End of the Old Order

-The guidelines of the 19^th century that were kept until 1918.

- The premonitory explosion of imagination and analytical attitudes, 1889-1914.

- The trench trauma: a lasting obsession.

Block 2: The Consequences

- The disappearance of empires, the revolutions and the republics: a radical change in the map of Europe.

- The usable lessons of the conflict.

- The League of Nations (LON) and the continental stability with the economic and cultural imbalances during the twenties.

Block 3: The Traumatic End of Ambiguous Forms

- The failure of economic and political liberalism: the formulation of ideological alternatives which prevailed throughout the 20^th century.

- The failure of the international system: four superpowers that do not agree about which of the three rivals should lead and the consequent chain of ruptures.

The two World Wars.

Block 4: Ideological Bipolarity and Unification Impulse

-The UN and the innovations of the coalition (NATO - Warsaw Pact): in sum, two superpowers and two that used to be great powers.

After the welfare state: the end of the overseas empires and the invention of a European empire in front of the Soviet empire and the weight of North America (CEE - EFTA -COMECON).

The soviet crash, the Russian disorder and the Chinese evolution in the eyes of Europe.

Block 5: The Unitary Confusion in View of the Atlantic Unipolarity

- Europe without power and the frivolous answers: the "belle époque" of the nineties.

- The social destabilisations of the change of century: immigration and intern mixtures, annexations and fragmentations in the "marks" or the frontier countries of Europe.

-The open confusion of the 21st century: a Europe which is lost in complexity.