The aim of this course will be to familiarize students with the important facts/events that have shaped economic development around the world, including India, China, Europe, America, and Africa. These include: the slave trade and the Colombian exchange; the opium wars, colonization, US and Chinese civil wars, the Bretton Woods conference, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Global Financial Crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic. This historical tour will be grounded in a framework for understanding development: how have geography, history and institutions influenced the trajectory of nations? What has been the role of states and markets? How have ideas, interests, institutions, inheritances and individuals interacted in the course of economic history? Over the last few decades, and especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, should we think about development as compartmentalized between distinct geographies? The work of Jared Diamond, Ian Morris, Kenneth Pomeranz, Thomas Piketty, Acemoglu and Robinson, Karl Polanyi among others will be covered in the course.
