Lesson Purpose
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.
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
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Challenge Yourself! - Optional Activities
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.
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.
