CLEP 
Western Civilization I
College · CLEP Western Civilization I · Certificate available
545 lessons 5h runtime 18 units 1,044 links between lessons Test yourself · 18 quizzes, a mid exam, and a final
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Begin with Unit 1: The Origins of Civilization and Mesopotamia. It sets the foundation for everything that follows.
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Unit 1: The Origins of Civilization and Mesopotamia 20 lessons, 1 lecture part
Lecture: Watch · 32:33
- 0001 What the Exam Means by Western Civilization I
- 0002 Civilization Defined: Surplus, Specialization, Writing
- 0003 From Hominids to Homo Sapiens Across the Planet
- 0004 The Agricultural Revolution and the Fertile Crescent, About 9500 BCE
- 0005 Jericho and Çatal Höyük: Towns Before Cities
- 0006 Mesopotamia: Two Rivers, One Problem
- 0007 Sumer, Akkad, and Uruk's Redistributive Economy
- 0008 Priests, Patron Gods, and the First Kings
- 0009 Capricious Gods and the Ziggurat
- 0010 Mesopotamian Science: Stars, Wheels, and Sixty
- 0011 Cuneiform, Enheduanna, and Gilgamesh
- 0012 The Code of Hammurabi
- 0013 Walls, Conscripts, and Chariots: Why No Empires Yet
- 0014 Sargon of Akkad: The First Empire, About 2340 BCE
- 0015 Ur III and the Invention of Bureaucracy
- 0016 Babylon, Hammurabi's Dynasty, and the Hittite Blow
- 0017 Placing Mesopotamia on a Timeline, 3500 to 1595 BCE worked example
- 0018 Reading Hammurabi's Code as a Historian worked example
- 0019 Classifying Mesopotamian Rule: City-State, Extraction, Bureaucracy worked example
- 0020 How a Village Became a State: Three Theories, One Record review
Unit 2: Egypt and the Bronze and Iron Age Near East 28 lessons, 2 lecture parts
- 0101 The Nile and Why Egypt Was Stable
- 0102 Three Kingdoms and Two Intermediate Periods
- 0103 Narmer, Djoser, and the God-King of the Old Kingdom
- 0104 The Pyramids: Tombs, Surplus, Free Labor
- 0105 Collapse, Drought, and the First Nobility
- 0106 The Middle Kingdom: Shepherd Kings, Nubia, Papyrus
- 0107 The Hyksos and the Arrival of Bronze
- 0108 The New Kingdom's Empire
- 0109 Hatshepsut, Akhenaten, Tutankhamun, Ramses II
- 0110 Scribes, Women, and Serfs
- 0111 The Bronze Age System and the Hittites
- 0112 Minoans and Mycenaeans
- 0113 The Bronze Age Collapse, 1200 to 1100 BCE
- 0114 Why Iron Replaced Bronze, Slowly
- 0115 Assyria: The First Empire That Held
- 0116 Assyrian Rule: Terror, Tribute, a Library, and 612
- 0117 Neo-Babylon: Trade, Astronomy, the Zodiac
- 0118 The Phoenicians: Tyre, Carthage, and the Alphabet
- 0119 Lydia Invents Coinage, About 650 BCE
- 0120 The Hebrews: Sources, Covenant, Canaan
- 0121 Saul, David, Solomon, and the Divided Kingdom
- 0122 722, 586, 538: Assyria, Babylon, Cyrus
- 0123 From Henotheism to Monotheism
- 0124 Reading a Bronze Age Map: Who Bordered Whom worked example
- 0125 Sequencing the Near East, 3100 to 538 BCE worked example
- 0126 Egypt and Mesopotamia Compared on Five Features worked example
- 0127 Classifying an Innovation: Bronze, Iron, Alphabet, Coin, Cavalry worked example
- 0128 The Fertile Crescent's Political Evolution: City, Kingdom, Empire, Diaspora review
Unit 3: Archaic Greece, Persia, and the Greek Wars 34 lessons, 2 lecture parts
- 0201 Why Greece Comes Third, Not First
- 0202 The Dark Age and the Return of Writing, 1100 to 800 BCE
- 0203 Homer, Arete, and the Culture of Contest
- 0204 The Polis: Citizenship, Agora, Civic Virtue
- 0205 Greek Women: Archaic Latitude, Classical Restriction
- 0206 One Culture, Many Cities: The Olympics and Panhellenism
- 0207 Colonization: Never Far From the Sea
- 0208 The Phalanx and the Hoplite
- 0209 Tyranny in the Greek Sense, and Oligarchy After 500
- 0210 Sparta's Constitution and Training
- 0211 Helots, the Krypteia, and Spartan Caution
- 0212 Athens Before Solon: Wealth, Debt, Debt-Slavery
- 0213 Solon's Reforms and the Impersonal State
- 0214 Cleisthenes, 508 BCE: Democracy and Its Ten Percent
- 0215 Medes and Persians: Cyrus Takes Lydia and Babylon
- 0216 The Cyrus Cylinder: Two Claims to Kingship
- 0217 Cambyses, Darius, and an Empire Too Large to Rule
- 0218 Satraps, the Royal Road, and the King of Kings
- 0219 Persian Leniency Against Greek Participation
- 0220 Zoroastrianism: Ahura Mazda, Ahriman, Truth
- 0221 The Ionian Revolt and the Road to Marathon
- 0222 Marathon, 490, and Themistocles' Navy
- 0223 Xerxes, Thermopylae, and Salamis, 480
- 0224 479: Plataea, Mycale, and Why the Greeks Won
- 0225 The Delian League Becomes an Empire
- 0226 The Peloponnesian War, 431 to 404
- 0227 Sicily, the Mines, and Aegospotami
- 0228 The Aftermath: Leuctra, Mercenaries, and Persia Returns
- 0229 Reading a Map of the Persian Empire and the Greek World worked example
- 0230 Sequencing Greece and Persia, 776 to 371 BCE worked example
- 0231 Classifying a Greek Government: Aristocracy, Tyranny, Oligarchy, Democracy worked example
- 0232 Sparta and Athens Compared on Six Features worked example
- 0233 Reading a Primary Source: The Cyrus Cylinder's Claims worked example
- 0234 From Hoplite to Empire: How War Remade Greek Politics, 650 to 338 BCE review
Unit 4: The Classical Age of Greece 26 lessons, 2 lecture parts
- 0301 The Classical Age, 479 to 338 BCE: Thought Over Politics
- 0302 Pericles and the Democracy at Its Height
- 0303 Pay, the Citizenship Law, and Democracy Built on Empire
- 0304 Athenian Women as Legal Minors
- 0305 Greek Sexuality and the Sacred Band
- 0306 Slavery in Classical Greece: Sources and Scale
- 0307 What Slaves Did, From Bureaucrat to Mine
- 0308 Humanism: The Thread Through Everything Greek
- 0309 Drama Born of Dionysus: Chorus, Tragedy, Hubris
- 0310 Comedy, Aristophanes, and Lysistrata
- 0311 Thales, Anaximander, and Inquiry Without Gods
- 0312 Four Elements, Four Humors, and the Atom
- 0313 Herodotus Invents History From Sources
- 0314 Thucydides Argues a Thesis
- 0315 Nature or Custom? The Sophists
- 0316 Socrates and the Method of Questions
- 0317 Plato: Forms, the Republic, the Academy
- 0318 Aristotle: The Senses, the Political Animal, the Lyceum
- 0319 The Golden Ratio and the Parthenon
- 0320 Greek Sculpture and Why We Know It Through Rome
- 0321 Pytheas Sails Past Gibraltar
- 0322 Reading a Greek Tragedy's Structure: Flaw, Hubris, Fate worked example
- 0323 Classifying a Thinker: Sophist, Socratic, Platonist, Aristotelian worked example
- 0324 Herodotus and Thucydides Compared as Historians worked example
- 0325 Reading Pericles' Athens Against Its Own Ideals worked example
- 0326 Humanism and Its Ironies: The Classical Achievement in One Arc review
Unit 5: The Hellenistic Age 26 lessons, 2 lecture parts
- 0401 What Hellenistic Means, in One Summary
- 0402 Macedon: Warriors, Villages, and a Fractious Crown
- 0403 Philip II Rebuilds the Army: Long Spears and Sworn Cavalry
- 0404 338 BCE: Chaeronea and the End of Polis Independence
- 0405 The Persian Pretext, Philip's Murder, and Thebes
- 0406 334 to 332: Why 45,000 Beat an Empire
- 0407 Egypt, Gaugamela, Persepolis, and Darius III, 330
- 0408 Ruling as the Great King: Marriages, Satrapies, Babylon
- 0409 India, the Refusal, the Makran, and Babylon, 323
- 0410 Cities and the Greek Diaspora: Alexander's Real Legacy
- 0411 Three Kingdoms by 280: Antigonid, Ptolemaic, Seleucid
- 0412 Ptolemaic Egypt: Greek Pharaohs, Egyptian Clerks, Record Harvests
- 0413 The Seleucids: Too Big, Too Few Greeks, and the Silk Trade
- 0414 Languages and Citizenship in a Hellenistic City
- 0415 Grid Cities, Public Services, and a Widened World
- 0416 Hellenistic Women: Property, Queens, and the Caveats
- 0417 Hellenistic Religion: Isis, Serapis, and the Ruler Cult
- 0418 Epicureans: Withdraw and Enjoy
- 0419 Cynics and Stoics: Mock It or Accept It
- 0420 Euclid, Archimedes, Eratosthenes, Hipparchus
- 0421 The Library of Alexandria and the Museon
- 0422 Reading a Map of Alexander's Route and the Successor Kingdoms worked example
- 0423 Classifying a Hellenistic School: Epicurean, Cynic, Stoic worked example
- 0424 Polis and Hellenistic Kingdom Compared: Citizen, King, City, Language worked example
- 0425 Sequencing Macedon to Rome, 359 to 30 BCE worked example
- 0426 Alexander's Empire Without Alexander: Culture Went East, Politics Stayed Home review
Unit 6: The Roman Republic 28 lessons, 2 lecture parts
- 0501 Rome's Site and Rome's Legend
- 0502 Etruscans, Kings, and the Senate That Outlived Them
- 0503 Consuls, Imperium, Senate, Dictator, Assembly
- 0504 Patricians and Plebeians: The Conflict of the Orders
- 0505 The Twelve Tables, 451 BCE, and Roman Law's Branches
- 0506 The Latin League, the Celts, Pyrrhus, and All Italy by 263
- 0507 Annual War and Deliberate Terror
- 0508 The First Punic War and the Birth of the Province
- 0509 Hannibal in Italy: Cannae, Fabius, and No Surrender
- 0510 Scipio Africanus and the End of Carthage, 202 and 146
- 0511 Rome Takes Greece: Philip V to Corinth, 146
- 0512 Mithridates, Pompey, and the Mediterranean by 63 BCE
- 0513 Romanitas and What Rome Took From Greece
- 0514 Clientage: How the Late Republic Really Worked
- 0515 Equestrians, Provincials, and the Vanishing Free Farmer
- 0516 Slavery as Rome's Engine, and Spartacus, 73 to 71
- 0517 Roman Women Under the Pater Familias
- 0518 The Gracchi: Land Reform Ends in Murder, 133 and 121
- 0519 Marius's Army and Sulla's Dictatorship
- 0520 Pompey, Crassus, Caesar: The First Triumvirate, 60 BCE
- 0521 Gaul, the Rubicon, and Pharsalus
- 0522 Dictator for Life, the Ides of March, and Octavian
- 0523 The Second Triumvirate, Cleopatra, and Actium, 31 BCE
- 0524 Sequencing the Republic, 509 to 31 BCE worked example
- 0525 Reading a Map of Republican Expansion and the Punic Wars worked example
- 0526 Classifying a Republican Office or Body worked example
- 0527 Reading the Twelve Tables as Law Made Public worked example
- 0528 Why the Republic Fell: Soldiers, Land, Loyalty, and the First Political Murders review
Unit 7: The Roman Empire 28 lessons, 2 lecture parts
- 0601 Principate, Caesar, Emperor: Rome's Words for Rule
- 0602 Augustus: A Republic in Form, a Monarchy in Fact
- 0603 The Pax Romana and Who Paid for It
- 0604 Augustus's Reforms and the Teutoburg Limit, 9 CE
- 0605 Reading Tacitus and Suetonius: The Julio-Claudian Source Problem
- 0606 Tiberius Ends Expansion; Caligula and Claudius
- 0607 Nero: Fire, Maiestas, and the First Persecution
- 0608 Vespasian's Lesson: Armies Make Emperors
- 0609 Titus, Domitian, and Dominus et Deus
- 0610 The Five Good Emperors and Succession by Adoption
- 0611 Trajan's Greatest Extent, 117; Hadrian's Wall and Rescripts
- 0612 Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, and the Severans to 235
- 0613 The Limes: What a Frontier Was For
- 0614 Parthia: Carrhae and the Enemy Rome Could Not Beat
- 0615 Silk, Pepper, Monsoons, and the Drain of Gold
- 0616 Germania: Why Rome Stopped at the Rivers
- 0617 The Professional Legion: Twenty Years, a Bonus, and Land
- 0618 Auxiliaries, Praetorians, and Citizenship by Service
- 0619 How a Province Became Roman
- 0620 Concrete, Arches, Aqueducts, Roads
- 0621 One Percent: Wealth, Office, and Zero Mobility
- 0622 Bread and Circuses, Life Expectancy, and the Coloni
- 0623 Roman Law: Overlap, Caracalla's Grant, and the Emperor as Law
- 0624 Sequencing the Emperors, 27 BCE to 235 CE worked example
- 0625 Reading a Map of the Empire in 117 and Its Frontiers worked example
- 0626 Classifying an Emperor: Julio-Claudian, Flavian, Adoptive, Severan worked example
- 0627 Republic and Principate Compared on Five Features worked example
- 0628 Rome at Its Height: The Machine of Empire and the Cracks in It review
Unit 8: The Late Empire, Christianity, and the Germanic Invasions 30 lessons, 2 lecture parts
- 0701 The Crisis of the Third Century: Twenty-Six Emperors
- 0702 Sasanian Persia: Iranshahr and a State Religion
- 0703 Diocletian's Tetrarchy, Dioceses, Army, and Prices
- 0704 The Great Persecution, 303, and Its Failure
- 0705 Constantine: 312, 313, the Solidus, and the First Christian Emperor
- 0706 Constantinople, 324: A New Beginning
- 0707 Mystery Religions: Mithras, Sol Invictus, Isis
- 0708 Roman Palestine: Four Sects and Two Revolts
- 0709 Jesus of Nazareth in the Gospels' Account
- 0710 Paul and the Four Early Disputes
- 0711 Universalism: Why Rome Found Christianity Alien
- 0712 Bishops, Dioceses, Charity, and the Bishop of Rome
- 0713 Holidays Absorbed, Polytheism Rejected, Theodosius, 380
- 0714 Trinity, Heresy, and Arius
- 0715 Nicaea, 325, and the Creed
- 0716 Latin West, Greek East: Jerome's Vulgate
- 0717 Antony, the Stylites, and the Monastery
- 0718 Benedict's Rule, the Monastery as Library, and Relics
- 0719 Tertullian's Question and Augustine's City of God
- 0720 Why Rome Fell: Four Readings, No Verdict
- 0721 Federati, Germanic Soldiers, and the Fiscal Spiral
- 0722 The Huns, Adrianople, 378, and Alaric's Sack, 410
- 0723 The Frozen Rhine, 406, the Vandals, Attila, and 455
- 0724 476: Odoacer, Theodoric, and the Kingdoms
- 0725 Clovis and the Franks
- 0726 Sequencing the Late Empire, 235 to 493 worked example
- 0727 Reading a Map of the Invasions worked example
- 0728 Classifying a Belief: Nicene, Arian, Gnostic, Pagan, Mystery Cult worked example
- 0729 Reading Augustine: Two Cities in One Passage worked example
- 0730 From Crisis to Kingdoms: How the West Fell and the Church Stood review
Unit 9: Byzantium and Islam 40 lessons, 2 lecture parts
- 0801 Romans Who Never Called Themselves Byzantine
- 0802 Why the East Survived: City, Gold, Identity, Luck
- 0803 Justinian, 527 to 565: Emperor Over Church and State, and the Code
- 0804 Theodora and the Nika Riot, 532
- 0805 Belisarius, the Reconquest, and the Plague of 542
- 0806 Hagia Sophia
- 0807 Heraclius Saves the Core, 610 to 641
- 0808 The Theme System
- 0809 Exarchates, Greek Fire, and Leo III's Sieges
- 0810 Avars, Bulgars, Cyril, and Why Barbarian Kings Converted
- 0811 Vladimir, Kiev, and the Rus
- 0812 Constantinople: Silk, Guilds, Coin, Court
- 0813 Piety Against Learning: Where Greek Thought Was Kept
- 0814 Iconoclasm, 726 to 843
- 0815 The Great Schism, 1054
- 0816 The Macedonian Golden Age, 867 to 1056
- 0817 Seljuks, Manzikert, 1204, 1453: The Long Decline
- 0818 Why Islam Is in This Course: The Anchor's Five Points
- 0819 Pre-Islamic Arabia and Mecca
- 0820 Muhammad: Mecca, the Revelation, the Hijra, 622
- 0821 Medina, Mecca, 630, and Death, 632
- 0822 Islam: Submission, the Koran, the Last Prophet
- 0823 The Five Pillars, the Ummah, and What Jihad Means
- 0824 The First Caliphs and the Conquests, 632 to 650
- 0825 Why the Arab Armies Won
- 0826 Sunni and Shia: Ali, Mu'awiya, Karbala
- 0827 The Umayyads: Damascus, Spain, Tours, Talas
- 0828 Umayyad Government: Arabic, the Mosque, the Army
- 0829 Dhimmis: The Head Tax and Tolerance Within Limits
- 0830 Berbers, Zoroastrians, Jews: Three Fates Under Islam
- 0831 The Abbasid Revolution, 750, Baghdad, and Harun al-Rashid
- 0832 The House of Wisdom: What Abbasid Science Gave
- 0833 Fragmentation: Cordoba, the Fatimids, 945, 1055, 1258
- 0834 Cordoba and Sicily: The Bridges
- 0835 Sequencing Byzantium and Islam, 527 to 1258 worked example
- 0836 Reading a Map of the Arab Conquests worked example
- 0837 Classifying a Christian Church: Catholic, Orthodox, Monophysite, Arian worked example
- 0838 Byzantium and the Caliphate Compared: Ruler, Law, Learning, Trade worked example
- 0839 Reading a Primary Source: A Dhimmi Charter's Provisions worked example
- 0840 Two Heirs of Rome: How Byzantium and Islam Each Carried the Ancient World review
Unit 10: Early Medieval Europe 28 lessons, 2 lecture parts
- 0901 The Latin Church and the Latin Language After Rome
- 0902 Gregory the Great and the Papacy's Early Claims
- 0903 The Donation of Constantine and the Reuse of Pagan Temples
- 0904 The Seven Sacraments, Purgatory, and the Saints
- 0905 Clan Law: Honor, Retribution, Feud
- 0906 Fealty, Vassal, Fief: The Feudal Bargain
- 0907 Kings Weaker Than Their Vassals: The Warlord Order
- 0908 Anglo-Saxon England, from 400 to Alfred
- 0909 1066: William, Hastings, and Domesday
- 0910 Clovis and the Merovingians
- 0911 Charles Martel, Tours, and Pepin's Coup, 751
- 0912 Charlemagne's Wars and the Lombard Precedent
- 0913 Christmas Day, 800: Emperor by the Pope's Hand
- 0914 Counts, Marches, Missi: Governing Without a Bureaucracy
- 0915 The Carolingian Renaissance and a New Handwriting
- 0916 Partition, Verdun, East Francia, and Otto I, 962
- 0917 Saracens, Magyars, and Lechfeld, 955
- 0918 Why the Vikings Came: Baltic Wealth and the Sailed Longship
- 0919 793 and the Great Fleets
- 0920 Normandy, Iceland, Newfoundland
- 0921 The Rus, the Slave Trade, and the Varangians
- 0922 How the Viking Age Ended
- 0923 The Feudal System as a Product of Violence
- 0924 Sequencing Early Medieval Europe, 476 to 1066 worked example
- 0925 Reading a Map of Charlemagne's Empire and the Viking Routes worked example
- 0926 Classifying a Medieval Actor: Lord, Vassal, Serf, Bishop, King worked example
- 0927 Reading the Bayeux Tapestry's Pledge worked example
- 0928 From Rome's Ruins to Charlemagne: How Church and Feudalism Rebuilt Europe review
Unit 11: The High Middle Ages 42 lessons, 2 lecture parts
- 1001 The High Middle Ages, 1000 to 1300, and What Came Before
- 1002 Seljuks, Alexius, and Urban II at Clermont, 1095
- 1003 Templars and Hospitallers: Monk-Knights and Bankers
- 1004 The First Crusade and the Latin Principalities, 1099
- 1005 The Reconquista: From Lisbon to Las Navas to 1492
- 1006 Saladin, Hattin, and the Third Crusade's Three Kings
- 1007 The Fourth Crusade Sacks Constantinople, 1204
- 1008 Three Consequences: Italian Money, Crusading Ideology, Intolerance
- 1009 The Northern Crusades and the Teutonic State
- 1010 The Investiture Controversy: Gregory VII, Henry IV, Canossa
- 1011 Cluny and the Cistercians: Reforming the Monastery
- 1012 Sultans, New Persian, and the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum
- 1013 Mongols, the Il-Khanate, and the Ottomans' First Century
- 1014 Collar, Carruca, Horseshoe, Three Fields, Mill
- 1015 From 14 to 74 Million: Land, Cash Rent, Coin
- 1016 Towns Reborn: A Year and a Day, Charters, Sixfold Cities
- 1017 Italian Luxury Trade, Champagne Fairs, the Hanse
- 1018 Guilds, Usury, and the Making of an Anti-Jewish Stereotype
- 1019 Feudalism Comes of Age: Fief, Service, Cash
- 1020 The Manor: Yeoman, Serf, Cottager, and the Commons
- 1021 Itinerant Kings and the Start of Centralization
- 1022 France's Philips, 1060 to 1314, and Philip IV Against Boniface VIII
- 1023 England: Henry II's Courts, Juries, and Becket
- 1024 Magna Carta, 1215, and Parliament
- 1025 Innocent III and the Fourth Lateran Council, 1215
- 1026 Francis, Dominic, and the Mendicant Orders
- 1027 Medieval Women: Theory Against Practice
- 1028 Monastic Wealth and Clerical Corruption
- 1029 Literacy's Nadir and Revival: Monastery and Cathedral School
- 1030 Aristotle Returns Through Arabic and Hebrew
- 1031 Scholasticism: Lecture, Disputation, Law
- 1032 Abelard, Bologna, Paris: The First Universities
- 1033 Thomas Aquinas and the Summa
- 1034 Gothic: Pointed Arch, Buttress, Glass
- 1035 Hildegard of Bingen
- 1036 Sequencing the High Middle Ages, 1054 to 1314 worked example
- 1037 Reading a Map of the Crusader States and the Reconquista worked example
- 1038 Reading a Charter: Jaume I's Terms for Valencia's Muslims worked example
- 1039 Classifying an Institution: Manor, Town, Guild, Monastery, University worked example
- 1040 Reading the Magna Carta's Principle worked example
- 1041 France and England Compared as Feudal Monarchies worked example
- 1042 Why Europe Grew After 1000: Peace, Plow, Coin, Town, School review
Unit 12: The Crises of the Late Middle Ages 26 lessons, 2 lecture parts
- 1101 Temujin to Chinggis: 1206 and the Conquests to 1279
- 1102 Yasa, Tumen, Spies: The Mongol Machine
- 1103 Russia 1240, Hungary 1241, and Ogodei's Death
- 1104 Ain Jalut, the Khanates, and the Tatar Yoke
- 1105 Famine First: Europe Before 1348
- 1106 Miasma, Fleas, and What the Black Death Probably Was
- 1107 1348 to 1351: One-Third to One-Half
- 1108 Quarantine, Flagellants, and the Massacre of Jews
- 1109 The Labor Shortage: Wages Up, Lords Resist, Peasants Rise
- 1110 A Century of Wider Rights for Women, and the Dance of Death
- 1111 Why England and France Fought: Normandy, Aquitaine, 1328
- 1112 Crecy, Poitiers, Agincourt: The Longbow Against the Knight
- 1113 Joan of Arc and 1453
- 1114 What the War Left: Taxes, Halved France, an English England
- 1115 Boniface VIII, Unam Sanctam, and Anagni
- 1116 Avignon, 1309 to 1377: The Babylonian Captivity
- 1117 The Great Western Schism, 1378 to 1417
- 1118 Constance, Martin V, and the Conciliar Claim
- 1119 Why Conciliarism Failed and What That Set Up
- 1120 Wycliffe and Hus
- 1121 Stronger States and Northern Italy Rising
- 1122 Sequencing the Crises, 1206 to 1453 worked example
- 1123 Reading a Map of the Plague's Spread and the Mongol Khanates worked example
- 1124 Reading a Primary Source: A Plague Chronicle's Claims worked example
- 1125 Classifying a Late-Medieval Response: Quarantine, Prayer, Scapegoat, Revolt worked example
- 1126 Three Crises, One Century: Plague, War, and a Divided Church review
Unit 13: The Renaissance in Italy and Beyond 36 lessons, 2 lecture parts
- 1201 What Renaissance Claims, and When: 1300 to 1500
- 1202 Why Italy: Peace, Cities, and a Distracted Europe
- 1203 Double-Entry, Commenda, Bills of Exchange: Business Rationalized
- 1204 Usury Defied and Its Cost to the Jews
- 1205 Wool In, Luxury Out: Italy as the Silk Road's Terminus
- 1206 The Popoli Grossi: Honor, Vendetta, and a Taste for Peace
- 1207 The Peace of Lodi, 1454, and Milan's Despots
- 1208 Venice: Doge, Ducat, Spices, Banks, and the First Ambassadors
- 1209 Florence: Republic, Medici, Signoria, Schools
- 1210 The Renaissance Popes: Julius II, Alexander VI, the Papal States
- 1211 Gutenberg, Mainz, and the Bible of 1455
- 1212 How Print Spread and What It Changed
- 1213 Censorship, the Index, and the Standardizing of Language
- 1214 Patronage as Politics: Cosimo's Council of Florence, 1439
- 1215 Humanism: What Was Reborn
- 1216 Civic Humanism and Humanistic Education
- 1217 The Renaissance Man's Virtues, Not Quite Christian
- 1218 Dante's Comedy and the Making of Italian
- 1219 Petrarch: Cicero's Letters and the Dark Ages
- 1220 Christine de Pizan and the City of Ladies
- 1221 Erasmus Corrects the New Testament
- 1222 Machiavelli's Prince and Castiglione's Courtier
- 1223 Brunelleschi: The Dome and Linear Perspective
- 1224 Botticelli, Savonarola, and the Bonfire Question
- 1225 Leonardo: Vanishing Point and Dissection
- 1226 Michelangelo: David, the Sistine Ceiling, and the Idea of Genius
- 1227 The Northern Renaissance: More, Dürer, Christian Humanism
- 1228 How Humanist Education Crossed the Alps
- 1229 Giotto Before and Raphael After
- 1230 Vernacular and Latin: Two Languages of the Renaissance
- 1231 Sequencing the Renaissance, 1300 to 1527 worked example
- 1232 Reading a Renaissance Painting: Perspective, Patron, Classical Subject worked example
- 1233 Classifying a Thinker: Scholastic, Humanist, Political Theorist, Reformer-Scholar worked example
- 1234 Milan, Venice, Florence Compared: Despot, Oligarchy, Republic worked example
- 1235 Reading The Prince: Three Claims and Their Break With Christian Advice worked example
- 1236 Money Into Marble: How Trade, Patronage, and the Classics Made the Renaissance review
Unit 14: The New Monarchies and Renaissance Politics 22 lessons, 1 lecture part
Lecture: Watch · 33:53
- 1301 1494: The Italian Wars End Italian Independence
- 1302 How the Renaissance Went North: Bureaucrats and Painters
- 1303 From First Among Nobles to Monarch, 1350 to 1500
- 1304 Gunpowder: Pike, Musket, Cannon, and the End of the Castle
- 1305 The Financial Revolution: New Men and New Taxes
- 1306 Spain United: Isabella, Ferdinand, Granada, 1492
- 1307 The Expulsions of 1492 and 1502
- 1308 England: The War of the Roses and Henry VII's Council Courts
- 1309 Tudor Order: Gentry, Gallows, and a Centralized Kingdom
- 1310 France: Charles VII's Army, the Taille, and Louis XI the Spider
- 1311 The Holy Roman Empire: Golden Bull, Seven Electors, Habsburgs
- 1312 Charles V: The Inheritance Too Big to Govern
- 1313 The Ottomans to 1453: Osman to Mehmed II
- 1314 Selim, Suleiman, Mohacs, Vienna, and the Janissaries
- 1315 Millets and Dhimmis: Ottoman Tolerance and Its Limits
- 1316 Safavid Iran: Ismail, 1514, and a Shia State
- 1317 Shah Abbas and the Silk Monopoly
- 1318 Merchants Honored: Middle Eastern Economies and American Silver
- 1319 Classifying a New Monarchy's Tool: Army, Tax, Official, Court, Church worked example
- 1320 Reading a Map of Charles V's Lands and the Ottoman Empire worked example
- 1321 Spain, England, France Compared as New Monarchies worked example
- 1322 Why States Got Stronger: Guns, Money, Officials, and the Church's Wealth review
Unit 15: The Reformations 25 lessons, 2 lecture parts
- 1401 Why 1500's Church Was Ripe, and the Modern Devotion
- 1402 Purgatory, Indulgences, and the Treasury of Merit
- 1403 Luther Finds Faith Alone, About 1510
- 1404 1517: Tetzel, Leo X, and the Ninety-Five Theses
- 1405 From Leipzig to Worms: The Priesthood of All Believers
- 1406 Why Luther Survived: Frederick, the Princes, and a Distracted Emperor
- 1407 The Peasants' War, 1524 to 1525, and Luther's Conservatism
- 1408 Speyer, Augsburg, 1555, and a Germany Halved
- 1409 Zwingli and the Anabaptists
- 1410 Calvin's Geneva: Predestination and the Elect
- 1411 The Consistory, and Calvinism's Spread: Huguenots, Presbyterians, Puritans
- 1412 Henry VIII's Reformation: Catherine, Anne, and the Act of Supremacy
- 1413 Monasteries Seized; Edward, Mary, Elizabeth; High Church, Low Church
- 1414 The Confessional Map of Europe by 1600
- 1415 From Counter to Catholic Reformation: Why the Church Held
- 1416 Paul III, the Holy Office, Paul IV, the Index, and the Latin Bible
- 1417 The Council of Trent, 1545 to 1563: What It Reaffirmed
- 1418 Seminaries: Trent's One Monumental Change
- 1419 Loyola and the Jesuits: Soldiers, Schools, Missions
- 1420 Teresa of Avila, the Baroque, and Reconnecting With the Laity
- 1421 Sequencing the Reformations, 1517 to 1563 worked example
- 1422 Classifying a Confession: Lutheran, Calvinist, Anglican, Anabaptist, Catholic worked example
- 1423 Reading the Ninety-Five Theses: Three Claims and Their Tone worked example
- 1424 Luther and Calvin Compared: Salvation, Sacraments, Church and State worked example
- 1425 Two Reformations, No Tolerance: How Western Christianity Divided for Good review
Unit 16: Europe Overseas and the Commercial Revolution, 1415 to 1648 30 lessons, 2 lecture parts
- 1501 Caravel, Compass, Astrolabe: What Made Ocean Sailing Possible
- 1502 Why Sail West or South: Spices, Gold, Crusade
- 1503 Henry the Navigator and the African Coast
- 1504 Dias 1488, da Gama 1497: Portugal Reaches India
- 1505 The Portuguese Sea Empire: Forts, Cannon, Monopoly
- 1506 Columbus, 1492: The Miscalculation That Found a Hemisphere
- 1507 Tordesillas, 1494: Dividing the Globe
- 1508 Magellan and Elcano, 1519 to 1522
- 1509 The Columbian Exchange: Crops, Animals, and Disease
- 1510 The Great Dying: Why Epidemic Decided the Conquest
- 1511 Cortes and the Fall of Tenochtitlan, 1519 to 1521
- 1512 Pizarro, Atahualpa, and the End of the Inca
- 1513 Potosi, the Mita, and the Silver Flood
- 1514 Governing New Spain: Viceroys, Encomienda, Hacienda
- 1515 Las Casas, the New Laws, and Valladolid
- 1516 Peninsulares, Criollos, Mestizos: Colonial Society
- 1517 The Price Revolution: Silver and Sixteenth-Century Inflation
- 1518 Mercantilism: Wealth as a Fixed Pie
- 1519 Nobles of the Sword, Nobles of the Robe, and Despised Merchants
- 1520 The Dutch as Middlemen and Bankers
- 1521 The VOC, 1602: Shares, Monopoly, Force
- 1522 Tulip Mania, 1636 to 1637: The First Speculative Bubble
- 1523 Sugar and the Beginnings of the Atlantic Slave Trade
- 1524 Jamestown, Quebec, Plymouth: North America Before 1650
- 1525 Sequencing the Voyages, 1488 to 1522 worked example
- 1526 Reading a Map of Tordesillas and the Two Sea Routes worked example
- 1527 Classifying an Exchange: Crop, Animal, Disease, Metal, Person worked example
- 1528 Reading Columbus's Letter and Las Casas Against Each Other worked example
- 1529 Mercantilist or Commercial? Sorting Statements worked example
- 1530 How the Atlantic Reordered Europe's Wealth by 1648 review
Unit 17: Wars of Religion and the Scientific Revolution, 1560 to 1648 36 lessons, 2 lecture parts
- 1601 Augsburg, 1555, and Why "Whose Realm, His Religion" Was Not Tolerance
- 1602 The Little Ice Age and the General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century
- 1603 France in 1560: Weak Valois, Guise, Bourbon, Huguenot
- 1604 Vassy to St. Bartholomew's Day, 1562 to 1572
- 1605 The War of the Three Henrys and "Paris Is Worth a Mass"
- 1606 The Edict of Nantes, 1598: Unity Over Uniformity
- 1607 Philip II: Moriscos, Conversos, and the Defender of the Faith
- 1608 The Dutch Revolt: Iconoclasm, Alba, the Council of Blood
- 1609 William the Silent, the Spanish Fury, and the Republic, 1581
- 1610 Elizabeth, Drake, and the Armada of 1588
- 1611 Why Spain Went Bankrupt
- 1612 1618: Bohemia and the Defenestration of Prague
- 1613 The Catholic Decade, 1620 to 1629, and the Edict of Restitution
- 1614 Gustavus Adolphus, Richelieu's Money, and the Swedish Phase
- 1615 1635: France Enters and the War Turns Dynastic
- 1616 The Peace of Westphalia, 1648
- 1617 Counting the Cost: Population, Confession, Winners and Losers
- 1618 From Mercenaries to Standing Armies: The War's Lesson
- 1619 Natural Philosophy: Describing a Universe Already Known
- 1620 Inductive and Deductive: The New Method's Two Halves
- 1621 Bacon's Method and the Alchemist's Motive
- 1622 Ptolemy's Spheres: Why Geocentrism Fit Christian Theology
- 1623 Copernicus, 1543: The Sun at the Center
- 1624 Brahe's Data, Kepler's Ellipses
- 1625 Galileo's Telescope: The Starry Messenger, 1610
- 1626 The Dialogue, the Trial of 1633, and the Index
- 1627 Galileo's Physics: Inertia Against Aristotle
- 1628 Vesalius and Harvey: The Body Observed
- 1629 Descartes: Doubt, Deduction, and the Mechanical Universe
- 1630 Deism, Cultural Authority, and Where the Revolution Led
- 1631 Sequencing the Thirty Years' War's Four Phases worked example
- 1632 Reading a Map of Europe After Westphalia worked example
- 1633 Classifying a Conflict: Religious, Dynastic, or Both worked example
- 1634 Sorting Astronomers: What Each Kept and Each Broke worked example
- 1635 Reading Galileo's Abjuration and Bacon's Novum Organum worked example
- 1636 1560 to 1648: How Religious War and New Science Ended the Old Order review
Unit 18: Capstone: Six Periods, One Exam 40 lessons, 2 lecture parts
- 1701 The Exam's Shape: 120 Questions, Six Weights, Five Abilities
- 1702 Period One: The Ancient Near East, 8 to 10 Percent
- 1703 Period Two: Greece and the Hellenistic World, 15 to 17 Percent
- 1704 Period Three: Rome, 15 to 17 Percent
- 1705 Period Four: Medieval History, 23 to 27 Percent
- 1706 Period Five: Renaissance and Reformation, 13 to 17 Percent
- 1707 Period Six: Early Modern Europe, 1560 to 1648, 10 to 15 Percent
- 1708 Sample Question One: Phoenician Cities worked example
- 1709 Sample Question Two: Persia Against the Poleis worked example
- 1710 Sample Question Three: The Senate's Continuity worked example
- 1711 Sample Question Four: Isis and Serapis worked example
- 1712 Sample Question Five: The Principate worked example
- 1713 Sample Question Six: Before the Charter, Las Navas worked example
- 1714 Sample Question Seven: Conquest With Regulation worked example
- 1715 Sample Question Eight: The Dhimma Behind the Charter worked example
- 1716 Sample Question Nine: What Trent Did Not Do worked example
- 1717 Sample Question Ten: Where the Thirty Years' War Was Fought worked example
- 1718 Join: From Alphabet to Print
- 1719 Join: Citizenship From Polis to Commune
- 1720 Join: Empire From Persia to the Habsburgs
- 1721 Join: Monotheism to the Reformations
- 1722 Join: Law From Hammurabi to Westphalia
- 1723 Join: From the Mediterranean to the Atlantic
- 1724 Join: The Church's Rise, Height, and Division
- 1725 Join: War's Technology From Hoplite to Musket
- 1726 Join: Plague Twice
- 1727 Join: The City Three Times
- 1728 Join: The Classical Inheritance Three Times
- 1729 Join: Slavery in Every Period
- 1730 Join: Women's Standing Across Six Periods
- 1731 Join: East and West, Divided and Reconnected
- 1732 Join: Byzantium and Islam as the West's Two Neighbors
- 1733 Ability One: Recall of Facts and Terms
- 1734 Ability Two: Cause and Effect
- 1735 Ability Three: Chronology
- 1736 Ability Four: Maps and Documents
- 1737 Ability Five: Reading a Passage for Its Assumptions
- 1738 How This Course Was Sourced: Anchor, Witnesses, Primary Layer
- 1739 The Disclosure Record: What This Course Could Not Source review
- 1740 The Whole Course in One Chain review
Who this subject is for
- Students preparing for the CLEP Western Civilization I exam
- History and humanities students
- Education majors
- Adult learners finishing a degree
- Homeschool students
- Anyone who wants the ancient and medieval world in order
Why Western Civilization I matters
The ancient Near East through the mid-1600s supplies the ideas and institutions later Western history builds on. It prepares you for:
- Western Civilization II
- European history
- Philosophy
- Art history
- Literature
Time to complete
- of lessons (545, measured)
- 5 h
- of lectures (34)
- 14.5 h
- learning hours on the certificate, with quizzes and the final
- 26.5 h
Times are measured from the recordings and the exam time limits. Go at your own pace; nothing expires.
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