World history focuses on the interactions of human societies with one another and with their environment on a global scale. It seeks to understand how the world we live in today came to be by looking at the political, economic and cultural forces that brought the various societies of the world together. It also examines the similarities and the differences in the way these diverse societies have coped with the challenges and problems they have faced through time. This particular course looks at what is called the Early Modern period: it is during this time that many of the features of the modern world in which we live, such as the global capitalist economy, begin to appear. As such, there is a strong emphasis on making connections between the past and the present.