This unit provides an overview of several important varieties of change. Students will get a “big picture” of the rise and fall of empires and states. They will learn how world population changed during this era. They will view examples of cultural exchanges involving trade, migrations, religious expansion, transfer of knowledge, and diffusion of inventions and crops. These exchanges all contributed in one way or another to the speedup of technological, cultural, political, and economic change in the world.
This unit leads teachers and students to appreciate the cross-cultural exchanges that preceded and laid the groundwork for scientific, technological, and other placements often incorrectly assumed to have originated only in Europe. Cultural achievements typically associated only with one particular civilization or another are presented in the larger context of dynamic interrelations among diverse peoples. Upon completing this unit, students will be able to: 1 .
Analyze connections between demographic change, migrations, trade, and empire- building, on one hand, and the intensification of cultural exchanges among human societies, on the other, between 300 and 1500 CE. 2. Give examples of exchanges that took place in the political, economic, technological, scientific, and cultural spheres, 00-1500 CE. 3. Assess the effects of some of the important cultural exchanges that took place during this era. Butcher paper Black markers for large writing Crayons or transparent water-based paint Time devoted to this unit may vary depending on the number of lessons taught and class time spent on each.Time needed might range anywhere from 60 to 400 minutes.
Sharon Cone teaches world history at Springbok High School in Silver Spring, Maryland. She is a member of the Advanced Placement World History Test Development Committee and a founding member of the editorial board for World History Connected: The Journal of Learning and Teaching. She Joined the World History for Us All development team in 2002.
Susan Douglass is Principal Researcher and Analyst for the Council on Islamic Education, Fountain Valley, CA, and author of numerous teaching units and books on Islam and world history.In 2002, she edited World Eras, Volvo. 2, Rise and Spread of Islam (Gale). She Joined the World History for Us All development team in 2001.
Introductory Activity: Using the Powering Overview Presentation Activity 1: How to use the Powering Overview Presentation format Students take notes from the Powering Overview Presentation regarding the four major factors hat increased cultural exchange and helped form patterns of interregional unity from 300 to 1500 CE. Students can use the table in Student Handout 0. To record questions they have about the information from the presentation slides. Students discuss in small groups or as a whole class the questions they raised. If students ask questions that will be addressed in later lessons, the teacher should compliment them by letting them know that they are thinking like historians and that the questions they asked will be answered in the next few lessons. The teacher may also project the presentation to the whole class on the computer or all screen, stopping at each slide to help students record the information in the chart.Students are encouraged to write their questions in the third column and to share their questions as the slide is viewed.
The teacher shows students the outline for the subsequent lessons and asks them to match their questions with the lesson outline. If the students’ questions are not addressed in the lessons, the teacher can create lessons to answer those questions, or encourage students to do independent research. Activity 2: How to use a printed version of the Powering Overview Presentation: The coacher distributes copies of the Powering Overview Presentation slides to students in small groups.Students use the slides to record the evidence of the four major factors that increased cultural exchange and created patterns of interregional unity from 300 to 1500. They should record their answers in Student Handout 0. 2. As students write down the information from the slides they should also record questions they have about the evidence. Students also write down questions they might like to ask people represented by images in the slides.
Tell students to discuss the questions they raised in small groups or ask students to near their questions as a whole class.It the slide presentation is being used as a preview to the unit, the teacher may tell students that the subsequent lessons will address their questions. If the slide presentation is used as a review of the era, then the teacher may use some student questions as an assessment. Introductory Activity Student Handout 0. 1 -?Powering Overview Presentation Five factors that increased cultural exchange, 300-1500 Evidence of how these factors affected cultural exchange Questions you have about the evidence of cultural exchange Population Growth and Migration States and Empires Trade NetworksSpread of Ideas and Beliefs Diffusion of Crops and Technologies Introductory Activity Student Handout 0. 2-?Powering Overview Presentation Five factors that increased cultural exchange Evidence of how these factors affected cultural exchange Questions you ask about the evidence of cultural exchange Questions you would ask the people in slides Lesson 1 Population and Migration Graph Interpretation Powering Overview Presentation Slides 8 and 10 show historians’ estimates of world population figures for Big Era Five.Ask students how demographers get data on local, national, and world population during our own era.
How do historians gather evidence of population in the recent and distant past? What documentary evidence might be available for ancient times, and how accurate might that data be? Which groups in a society were most likely to be counted or not counted? (Some of the historical evidence on these questions may be found in imperial tax surveys, chronicles of cities, and geographers’ and travelers’ accounts. ) What other methods might demographers use to estimate past populations? These would include statistical extrapolation from known evidence and information on fertility. ) In small groups or as a class, discuss the population trends for each century, ever a 500-year period, a 1000-year period, and the whole period of Big Era Five.
Ask students to draw upon prior knowledge to make hypotheses about the probable causes of population growth or decline. How might invasions, trade, and the rise and fall of empires have affected population? (For example, there was a major decline in the population of Freesias from 200-600 CE, but then population grew again.What factors might explain that trend? ) Migration Using the migration map given on slide 16 in the Powering Overview Presentation, identify the groups indicated and associate them with geographic regions of origin and destination. Many major migrations occurred during Big Era Five, which are merely suggested by the map.
During your class’s study of this era, assign students to list important migratory movements and the approximate beginning and ending dates. Discuss or write about conditions that gave rise to migrations. These might include shifts in pastoralist, drought, trade, pilgrimage, invasion, population growth, and the “bumper car detect” to one migrating group on another. ) By what means d various groups travel? What evidence of transport technology is available? (See the seafaring vessels shown on the map and investigate types of animals, harnesses, and icicles used in transport. ) How have peoples expressed their migrations culturally? What evidence can be found that newcomers dominated others already living in a region or that the newcomers assimilated to the existing society? Categories here might include language, religion, cookery, dress, music, visual arts, architecture, and military technology.
) Lesson 2 Part One Teacher Notes Students will have prior knowledge of some, though not all of the states and empires that were prominent between 300 and 1500 CE. This lesson will help students learn or review the names, locations, and duration of the major states and empires of the RA. Students will discover where states and empires have existed in a single region. This raises questions about historical succession.The lesson should prompt students to ask questions about why one empire replaced another or why most empires in the era tended to be located in particular areas of the world (for example, China but not Australia, the Mediterranean region but not Canada). Lesson Procedure Using the political maps on the Powering Overview Presentation slides 20-23, assess students’ prior knowledge of what political maps signify and what symbols (for example, shading) are used to indicate the territory that specific states or empires ruled.Drawing on their prior knowledge, students should construct maps on blank pieces of paper that show the major states and empires that existed in 1500 for the Americas and in 600, 800, 1237, and 1400 CE for Freesias. It may take students ten to fifteen minutes to create a north-south-east-west orientation, sketch an outline of the continents, and record the location of the major states and empires from memory.
Tell students that they will not be graded on the correctness of the continent shapes or the location of the states and empires.While students are making their maps, the teacher should give positive feedback of students’ accomplishments. For example, “As a group, you know quite a bit about which states and empires existed from 300 to 1500 CE.
” Then, tell them that the lesson will help them learn or relearn what states and empires were prominent during the era. Organize students in pairs or small groups to transfer information from a series of maps into a simple chart with columns for the names of states and empires, the regions they dominated, and the duration of their political control (see Student Handout 2. 1).
Tell students that they can use the an the maps to study for a quiz. Ask students to discuss how political control of a region for a period of time might have affected economic life, cultural traditions and values, religion, and style of government. Extension activity Ask more advanced students why they may remember certain states or empires rather than others. Why have some empires, the Roman empire for example, received more attention than others in textbooks, movies, television, and literature? Students who have attended schools outside the U. S.
May contribute their own experience of gaining knowledge about empires of the past.For example, students might report that empires they learned about in their school in the country they came from was different from the ones that most students know about. Lesson 2 Student Handout 2. 1 -?States and Empires State or empire name Dates of rule Geographic region Part Two Have students use the maps indicated in Part One to trace historical succession for states and empires in Big Era Five. Have the class use the Student Handouts and activities below to discuss the following two questions: Which empires and states existed in the same regions?What geographical factors might have made some regions more favorable than there for the development of states? Using the climate and vegetation maps (Student Handouts 2.
2 and 2. 3), have students correlate them with the political maps in order to find out what physical regions and topographical features were encompassed by various states and empires. Ask students also to consider how a map might be designed to show that the borders of empires expanded and contracted over time and that they were fuzzy and fluid, not sharp and fixed.How might students use computers to design maps that show how empires changed over time? As an extension activity, scan relevant chapters in the textbook used in class to identify which states and empires get more coverage than others. Discuss what factors might determine how much coverage an empire gets in a textbook.
What criteria might textbook authors use to determine which states and empires receive the most attention? Teacher and students might also discuss this issue using the National Standards for World History or state/local content standards.Assessment: Twister “Find the Empire” Political Geography Game This activity is designed to put some dynamism into the exercise of memorizing location and time period (historical succession) of states and empires. It is especially appropriate for Big Era Five, when political change was quite rapid. Students work in small groups to create large maps of the hemispheres, with states and empires in the regions outlined and labeled for each of the time periods shown in the Powering Overview Presentation slides 22-23. Each group reproduces the maps sized large enough so that all members of the group can stand on their map.Have them use colored markers or crayons to shade in the major states and empires in the locations where they belong. Students tape the big maps of the states and empires to the floor of the classroom.
Students then stand in a circle around the maps, either around each individual map or around the group of maps. Then, the teacher calls out a name of a state or empire, and students identify the correct time period map. They also locate the state or empire by placing one hand or one foot on the correct shaded area, taking a maximum of ten seconds to act.
The teacher calls out another name of a state or empire, and another student puts a hand or a foot on the correct spot. The winner is the first player who identifies four states or empires by placing all four limbs on the map at once. Lesson 2 Student Handout 2. 2-?States and Empires Map: Oughtn’t Muffling Co. Student Handout 2. 3-?States and Empires Lesson 3 Trade and Transfers of Products and Technology The following activities are intended to get students thinking about the transfer of knowledge, technology, and products as a hallmark of Big Era Five.Procedures First, assess students’ prior knowledge of map symbols used to indicate routes and places connected with trade during specific historical periods.
Using a trade route map in a textbook or other source, ask students to: List ten cities through which trade routes passed. List all the major seas and oceans that trade routes crossed. List geographic regions (e. G.
, West Africa, Southwest Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Inner Eurasia) that were connected by trade routes Witt other regions. List geographic areas that may nave been only infrequently connected by trade routes to other regions, or never connected at all.In groups of five or six, have students use trade route maps to discuss the following questions, filling in the chart of technologies, goods, and ideas (Student Handout 3. 1). A trade route map may found on slide 27 of the Powering Overview Presentation for this era.
Other maps may be found in Marshall G. S. Hodgkin, The Venture of Islam, Volvo. 2 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974), 75, or in Francis Robinson, De.
, Cambridge Illustrated History of the Islamic World (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1996), 126.
