Theme: Political Systems
Unit 5: Political Powers and Achievements
Unit Description: New state structures emerge after the fall of the Classical empires, leading to a greater diffusion of ideas throughout Eurasia and the eventual rise of new empires that experienced Golden Ages.
Stage 1- Desired Results
Essential Questions
Enduring Understandings
Students understand that...
9.5 New power arrangements emerged across Eurasia. Political states and empires employed a variety of techniques for expanding and maintaining control.
9.3 Classical civilizations in Eurasia employed a variety of methods to expand and maintain control over vast territories.
What new powers emerged in Europe and Asia in the Middle Ages and how did this affect the relationships between societies?
What techniques did states and empires use to expand their borders and control their societies?
How did stability within these empires and states contribute to important cultural, technological, and scientific innovations?
Common Core Standards and Performance Indicators:
Unifying Themes:
Individual Development and Cultural Identity (ID)
Development, Movement, and Interaction of Cultures (MOV)
Power, Authority, and Governance (GOV)
Science, Technology, and Innovation (TECH)
Knowledge
Students know that...
Skills
Students will be able to...
Following the fall of the Roman Empire, divergent societies emerged in Europe.
Political states and empires employed a variety of techniques for expanding and maintaining control, and sometimes disrupted state-building in other regions.
Periods of stability and prosperity enabled cultural, technological, and scientific achievements and innovations that built on or blended with available knowledge, and often led to cultural diffusion.
Empires used belief systems, systems of law, forms of government, military forces, and social hierarchies to consolidate and expand power.
Key Vocabulary:
feudalism
fief
self-sufficient
Magna Carta
Parliament
autocrat
Caliphate
sultan
Students will examine the political, economic, and social institutions of feudal Western Europe and the Byzantine Empire, including the role of Justinian and Theodora during the Middle Ages.
Students will compare and contrast the institutions in feudal Western Europe and the Byzantine Empire ca. 500 to ca. 1200.
Students will examine the locations and relative sizes of postclassical states and empires at the heights of their power, including the Abbasid Caliphate, Byzantine Empire, Mongol Empire, and Song and Tang dynasties, noting relative position, power within their regions and the areas they influenced.
Students will compare and contrast the empire-building processes of the Mongols and the Islamic caliphates, noting important disruptions in other regions.
Students will compare and contrast the achievements and innovations of the Tang and Song dynasties with the Abbasid Caliphate.
Stage 2- Assessment Evidence
Performance Task
Other Evidence
Create your own form of government
Aristotle “The Politics” (Page 967 BB)
Feudalism in Western Europe "A Vassal Pledges his Loyalty"
Feudal illustrations and letters, with questions
12 Tables: Excerpts from the Roman laws; asks students to connect examples to the laws (pages 35-37)
Ancient Greek Contributions DBQ (page 10)
Fall of the Western Roman Empire DBQ (page 17)
Stage 3- Related Lessons
These lessons are aligned with the unit goals.
Technology and Resources
Interactive invasions of the Roman Empire map
A series of Medieval primary sources, including:
Were the Dark Ages Really Dark?
European Feudalism Game Lesson (page 20)
Inquiry Lesson: Did the Roman Empire Fall?
an application from a vassal to a Lord asking for protection
a general grant of immunity from a king to a bishop
a fief granted personally from King Louis VII of France to a bishop
a contract involving reciprocity between the lord and the vassal
PM Session:
Skill: Cause and Effect