Institute for High School Teachers

 

Friday, March 13, 2015, 09:00am - 02:30pm

Maritime History as World History: The Interplay of Technology and Society--Part 2

John Vardalas, Senior Historian, IEEE History Center at Stevens Institute of Technology
Though the world’s seas and oceans have long been inhospitable places for humans, they nevertheless have played a central role in human development over the millennia.  This seminar will explore some of the key technological developments that allowed travel across the planet’s seas and hence enabled cross-cultural interactions over large geographic scales. The economic, political, and military advantages conferred by these maritime and naval technologies profoundly influenced the global patterns of human history. This seminar will also stress the contributions of geography in setting these advantages, as well as portray the world’s oceans as a natural resource of “connections.” In so doing, the seminar will illustrate the mutually interdependent nature of technological change and the definition of natural resources.  Part 1 of this workshop explored the above issues on a global scale that spanned the ancient world through the eighteenth century. This workshop, Part 2, will deal with the nineteenth century to the present. Part 1 is not a prerequisite for this workshop. Time will be reserved for participants to brainstorm on possible lesson plan topics and prepare plans that they can integrate into their courses in World History and American History.