Lesson Purpose

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The rise of agriculture ushered in an era of increasing innovation in communication and transportation that led different parts of the world to connect in entirely new ways. The voyages of Christopher Columbus extended this exchange from Afro-Eurasia to the Americas, which saw a massive movement of ideas, people, diseases, plants, and animals between the two hemispheres. The results of these exchanges were dramatic. Potatoes and corn, first cultivated in the Americas, quickly became crucial in the diets of people across Eurasia. Horses and cattle, unknown in the New World in 1492, quickly took on crucial roles in many societies in the Americas. The linking of the different world zones in this period and the exchanges that this linking made possible, transformed the lifeways of the people and civilisations involved - and laid the foundation for modern exchange routes and the global balance of power.

The outcomes of this lesson are: 1.) To analyse what propelled the expansion and interconnection of agrarian civilisations; 2.) To explain how new networks of exchange accelerated collective learning and innovation.

Activity 1 - World Travellers

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Activity Objectives
​You will use your critical thinking skills to try to figure out what Marco Polo was describing in each of the excerpts from his book. This will allow you to imagine what it must have been like for Europeans who were reading about Polo’s “discoveries” in Asia for the first time.

Activity Tasks

1. Read the four passages on this worksheet from the writings of Marco Polo, and then discuss with your partner or group. Working as a team, decide what Polo is describing in the passage and how you came to that conclusion. ​

Activity 2 - How Did the World Become Interconnected?

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Trade has the power to transform human societies by helping to link distant societies and by encouraging innovation. For much of the agrarian era, the benefits of this interconnection were often undermined by the inability of these societies to come up with ways to sustain growth.

Activity Objectives
Why is trade so important to the spread of civilizations? You will learn more about how innovations in communication and transportation transformed our world and led to an increase in collective learning.

Activity Tasks

1. Watch the video and try to answer these questions:​
   1. 1:40 What innovations in communication helped speed up the process of interconnection?
      
   2. 2:57 What innovations in transportation helped speed up the process of interconnection?
      
   3. 3:33 What long-distance trade networks were created by the linking of local and regional exchange networks long before 1400?
      
   4. 5:29 What were some of the ideas, technologies, and diseases that were spread on these networks?
      
   5. 8:36 What were the four world zones in 1400?
      
   6. 10:08 What are Malthusian cycles, and why were they a characteristic of so much of the Agrarian era?
      
   7. Discuss - Why did collective learning become so powerful in recent centuries?
      

Activity 3 - China: The First Great Divergence

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Activity Objectives
This reading helps you gain an understanding of an often forgotten explosion of collective learning that happened well-prior to the Industrial Revolution. This explosion took place not in Europe, but in China in the tenth and eleventh centuries CE.

Activity Tasks

1. Read the article "China: The First Great Divergence" and try to answer these questions:​​
   1. What were some of the early advantages that China had, in terms of collective learning, which allowed it to get a head start on Europe?
   2. How did innovations in rice farming lead to population growth in China?
   3. How does population growth lead to innovation in a country?
   4. What were some of the major innovations in China during this time period? How did they lead to greater connectivity?
   5. What are the two main things that drive collective learning? How do they fit together?
   6. Discuss - Collective learning has two main drivers: population numbers and connectivity. Census numbers show that the fastest growing areas in the world are all located on the continent of Africa. Is it possible that Africa will be the site for the third “Great Divergence”?

Activity 4 - "An Age of Adventure" Introduction​

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Activity Objectives
This short article will introduce you to the period of history that inspired famous fifteenth-century explorers such as Columbus. You will learn the factors that led people to voyage farther than they had before and why this is important to the interconnection of the world zones.

Activity Tasks

1. ​Read the article "An Age of Adventure" and try to answer these questions:
   1. How did the Mongols, the stability of Islam in Africa, and new technologies encourage long-distance travel?
   2. Why were the travel accounts of Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta, and Zheng He important?
   3. Discuss - Can you think of at least five examples of how collective learning led to an increase in exploration during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries?

Activity 5 - An Age of Adventure

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Activity Objectives
This collection of biographies provides you with detailed information about the voyages of these explorers including information about their motivation and how they inspired future generations of explorers. These men opened the door to a more interconnected world as the contacts they made helped to create connections between distant peoples and stimulate the growth of exchange networks and long-distance trade.

Activity Tasks

1. Divide into 3 groups. Each group will chose one of these adventurers: Marco Polo; Ibn Battuta; Zheng He.​​
2. Read the article for your group and then complete the relevant column for your adventurer on this worksheet.
3. When finished, create a short 5 minute (max) presentation about your explorer. Include the following information and visuals:
   1. Name, Years of travel, Age while travelling, Portrait
   2. Purpose of travels, Route taken and map of route, including other visuals of journey
   3. How do we know about his adventures?
   4. Did his travels influence other explorers?
   5. Remarkable discoveries and legacy
4. As each group delivers their presentation, fill in your worksheet with details of that adventurer. You also need to try and grade each presentation according to this mark scheme.
5. Think of 2-3 comments that would help that group improve their presentation next time, according to the mark scheme.

Activity 6 - Explorers Mini Project

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Activity Objectives
This activity brings the entire lesson together as you are required to research an explorer who was responsible for connecting two world zones. You must also answer a series of questions in order to learn about the explorer’s motivation, purpose, accomplishments, and contribution to collective learning. A key piece of this activity is for you to research how we know about the explorer’s journey, which allows you to examine the evidence these explorers left behind.

Activity Tasks

1. Get into small groups of 2-3. Each group will choose an explorer from this webpage to research. Your chosen explorer must have somehow connected two world zones. Use this worksheet to research the following information:​
   1. What world zones did the explorer connect?
   2. What was the motivation for their exploration? Was it for political, economic, religious, scientific, or technological reasons?
   3. Who commissioned them to explore? Or were they self-funded?
   4. What did they discover? Land, people, goods, ideas, or a combination of these?
   5. During what years were they active as explorers?
   6. What specific regions of the world did they explore?
   7. How did they contribute to collective learning? Focus on things such as ideas, goods, technology, religion, and politics.
   8. What specific evidence exists to prove their journeys actually took place?
2. When you have finished your research, put together either a presentation, poster, video or any other outcome form that your teacher may suggest.

Activity 7 - Human Migration Patterns II

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Activity Objectives
As you did in the Unit 6 Human Migration Patterns activity, you will read for both information (clues) and for understanding in order to complete the mapping section of this exercise. Creating the map will give you a visual representation of how humans have migrated over time, up until today. The readings will provide information about why people have migrated. Migration patterns can help you understand issues involving the economy, social justice, climate, government, and many other factors. Seeing how people move can help us understand why people move, which paints a more complete historical picture.

Activity Tasks

1. Using this worksheet, read the passage 'Old World to New World Migration (1400-1800)'.​
2. As you read, take notes about the migration patterns that are written about throughout the passage.
3. Use this information you have gathered to draw at least 8 migrations patterns on the map.
4. Remember to label both the start and end points of each migration and in which direction people migrated.
5. Use both dotted and solid lines to distinguish between forced and unforced migrations, and a wavy line for those that are unclear or have elements of forced and unforced migration.
6. Discuss - Look at your completed maps. What are some things we see or hear today in the news that likely exist because of these migrations?

Activity 8 - Issues of Colonisation Mini Project

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Activity Objectives
In this activity, you will identify and explain where different nations colonized. By doing this, you can see the impact that colonization still has on us today around the world. The movement of people and their influence upon how culture develops in different countries explains a lot about where we are today.

Activity Tasks

1. In groups, you will research the concept of colonisation from the point of view of one country. Choose between: ​Portugal; United Kingdom; France; Portugal; Spain; Netherlands; United States; Russian Empire; Ottoman Empire; Roman Empire; Germany; Belgium; Austro-Hungarian Empire; Denmark; Sweden-Norway; Italy; Persia.​​
2. ​For the country you choose, using this worksheet, you need to research the following information:
   1. Where did that country/empire colonize? (Note: Many of these countries colonized in multiple places. Pick one place).
   2. How did they accomplish this colonization? Was it forced? Was there resistance?
   3. When did colonization end?
   4. What influence of colonization can be seen or found in that country (or area) today? (Note: This can include food, languages, the culture, customs, architecture, industry, and so on!)
   5. A list of all the resources that they used to gather this information.
3. Now plan and deliver a way to present this information to the class. You could act it out, write a poem to recite, make a podcast, sing a song, create a PowerPoint or Prezi, make a poster or infographic - the choice is yours!
4. Now use the presentation rubic on the worksheet to evaluate each others' presentations, thinking of 2-3 comments on how to improve next time.

Challenge Yourself! - Optional Activities

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1. Retrace the steps of great explorers from ancient Egypt, to nineteenth-century polar regions, and beyond.
2. The Indian Ocean defines a region of great linguistic, ethnic, trade, cultural and religious variety.
3. ​​Discover more about the extensive 24-year journey of Ibn Battuta.
4. Marco Polo was one of the first Europeans to glimpse an Asian rhinoceros; he thought the horned beast was the mythical unicorn.
5. The treasure ships used in Zheng He's voyages were astonishing: nine masts on 400-foot-long (122-meter-long) decks. They were the largest wooden ships ever built.​​

TAKE THE QUIZ!