Global Perspectives examines the social, political, and economic forces of the past 500 years that have helped create the world as we know it today. From the first time that explorers set foot in the “New World”, right up until the present, the lives of people all over the world have become increasingly intertwined (sometimes willingly, sometimes not). Since 1492 the world has seen the global rise, and subsequent fall, of the great European empires who colonized the globe and used lands and peoples for their own gain. Throughout this course students will study the world as it was, examine the world as it is, and make predictions about the world that is still to come.