Spring 2027

Europe and the World, 1400-1815

Introduces Europe's entry onto the global stage from 1400 to 1815, covering empire, the early global economy, plantation slavery, religion, and political change.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 8

Past student reviews · Suzanne Desan

The course required reading seven books and involved long, specific tests. Students noted that grades were difficult to earn, with TAs capping scores and requiring significant effort for high marks.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Differentiate between primary and secondary sources

  • Explain how historical knowledge is created through the examination of primary sources and the analysis of those materials in secondary sources

  • Analyze primary sources by placing them in their historical contexts

  • Pose a historical question

  • Make a historical argument

  • Analyze visual sources

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
HISTORY 119

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

BEN SHANNON is recorded teaching in Fall 2020. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

LEE WANDEL is recorded teaching in Fall 2007, Fall 2008, Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

SUZANNE DESAN is recorded teaching in Spring 2007, Spring 2008, Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2022. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Suzanne Desan

Suzanne Desan’s lectures were described as insightful and engaging, with materials drawn from her own research. Students found the course to be a solid introduction to history.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.58 GPA, 80.0% A/AB (n=60 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.81 GPA, 92.2% A/AB (n=51 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.26 GPA, 59.6% A/AB (n=47 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Suzanne Desan

The course required reading seven books and involved long, specific tests. Students noted that grades were difficult to earn, with TAs capping scores and requiring significant effort for high marks.

Past student reviews · Lee Wandel

Students found the reading load heavy and the conceptual approach challenging, particularly for STEM majors. Attending lectures was considered essential because slides alone did not convey the main points.

Topics

  • European maritime expansion and empire
  • Early global economy and plantation slavery
  • Religious developments including Christianity and the Jewish diaspora
  • Revolutions across the Atlantic world

Skills

  • Differentiating and analyzing primary and secondary sources in historical context
  • Posing historical questions and making historical arguments
  • Analyzing visual sources

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 4 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.16 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2025 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1286 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
[]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "0b7492cf39c015523167d3f42fb91b48d934fb2c034c09b2d98ab9e706d0c5ae",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}