Duration: 3 hours per week - 13 weeks [ECTS: 6]

Course outline

This course aims to describe the long-term evolution of the capitalist system from 1500 to 1989. Emphasis is put upon the development of the system in Europe in the early days of “commercial capitalism” as well as the conditions of the emergence of the so-called “industrial revolution”.

1. The European exodus and the social conditions in 16th century Europe
2. The organization of international commerce and the first colonial empires
3. The great inflation and the crisis of the 17th century
4. The transition from feudalism to capitalism
5. Changing the mode of production in 18th cent. England
6. The dissemination of the “industrial revolution” in Europe
7. Social changes in 19th cent. Europe
8. The “second industrial revolution” and the new modes of industrial organization
9. The world economy in 1914
10. Economic fluctuations and the crisis of 1929
11. Social and political changes in the interwar Europe.