Course Overview

Continuing a survey of World History from prehistoric to modern times, K12 online lessons and assessments complement the second volume of The Human Odyssey, a textbook series developed and published by K12. This course focuses on the story of the past from the fourteenth century to 1917 and the beginning of World War I. The course is organized chronologically and, within broad eras, regionally. Lessons explore developments in religion, philosophy, the arts, and science and technology.

The course introduces geography concepts and skills as they appear in the context of the historical narrative. Major topics of study include:

• The cultural rebirth of Europe in the Renaissance
• The Reformation and Counter-Reformation
• The rise of Islamic empires
• Changing civilizations in China, Japan, and Russia
• The Age of Exploration, and the civilizations that had been flourishing in the Americas for hundreds of years prior to encounters with Europeans
• The changes that came with the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment
• Democratic revolutions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
• The Industrial Revolution and its consequences
• Nineteenth century nationalism and imperialism
• The remarkable transformations in communications and society at the turn of the twentieth century