Entry requirements

Admission to a Master's programme within the faculty of arts or a Bachelor's degree, equivalent to a Swedish degree of at least 180 credits (i.e. three years of full-time studies), in history studies.

Learning outcomes

A student who successfully completed the course will be able to:

• provide an overview and summarise the current state of research on state formation, manifestation of power, and forms of resistance in the early modern period
• describe, compare, and apply different theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches used in these research areas
• define research tasks within the research area and present an analysis in a concise and understandable way
• know and apply the basic methodology of analysis of texts and images as primary sources

Content

During the early modern period, the nature of the state developed in several significant ways. This course provides a broad perspective on these state-building processes in Northern Europe, 1500-1815. The processes were not uniform in the region, but there are a number of common distinguishing features: similar arrangements of power were formed, which had to be manifested and legitimized, and which met different types of resistance from both within and outside the corridors of power. These divergent paths of state formation and the inherent power struggles will be explored, as will the institutions that were developed and the impact these had on the population in Northern Europe.

Instruction

The course will consist of seminars.

Assessment

Assessment will be based upon written and oral assignments. Students that have missed a small number of mandatory assignments may complete them by the end of the term at the latest.