Arab astronomers study the heavens in this print from a commentary on Cicero’s Somnium Scipionis.
Essential Questions for Students for the Fall Semester
• How and why do beliefs unite and separate people?
• How do religions change as they move into new cultures, and become official state religions?
• What is the historical and current connection between religion and conflict?
• Are the conflicts that we study rooted in different belief systems, or about other issues like power, wealth, or land?
Conceptual Overview of the Fall Semester
1. How does the Neolithic Revolution change human society and lead to the development of early civilizations? How does Jared Diamond’s biogeographical thesis explain the origin and spread of early civilizations? What is the role of religion in early civilizations?
2. What are the characteristics of universal religions (see AP unit “Universal Religions” definition)? How do universal religions (Christianity, Buddhism and Islam) form, spread and become adopted by states?
3. Was religion or political power and hunger for wealth the main cause of the Crusades?
4. Compare and contrast the use of religion in the Ottoman Empire and Hapsburg Spain in the 16th century.
5. How did religion drive the partition of India in 1947?
6. How do the religious motivations of societies overlap with or intersect with other motivations (economic, political, ethnic) in the contemporary Middle East?
Unit 1: Introduction: Religion and Society in the News
Major topics: Current events from news sources.
Unit: 2: What Is Civilization? (Lesson map)
Sub-questions: What are the characteristics of a civilization? What are the pros and cons of civilization? What role do social structures and religions play in a civilization?
Major topics: Spread of homo sapiens over 200,00 years; characteristics of hunter gatherer societies; migration out of Africa; animistic religious beliefs; foundations of early societies: the Neolithic revolution, class structures, population density, specialization, Jared Diamond thesis.
Digital Readings
• "Agriculture's Mixed Blessings" by Jared Diamond (excerpt from The Third Chimpanzee {1992})
• "Accidental Conquerors" by Jared Diamond (excerpt from The Third Chimpanzee {1992})
• “The Worst Mistake in Human History” by Jared Diamond
• “Tensions in the Neolithic” by Brendan Nagle
• “What Is Civilization Anyway?” by Cynthia Stokes Brown (World History Connected, 2009)
• World History for Us All, Era 2
• World History for Us All, Era 3
Unit 3: The Spread and Impact of Universal Religions: Buddhism and Christianity (Lesson map) (Spread of Christianity essay) (DBQ activity on Rome and Christianity) (DBQ Essay Rubric) (Debate: which empire was more significant, Han China or Rome?)
Sub-questions: How and why do they spread? What impact do they have on societies? How do they relate to political institutions? How do they adapt to different cultures (syncretism)?
Major topics: The characteristics of universal religions (Buddhism, Christianity and Islam): claim to be for all people, missionary work, work with political institutions, written texts.
Digital Readings
• "Religion and the State: Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam" by Candice Goucher, Charles LeGuin and Linda Walton (1998)
• Universal Religions by Donald Johnson
• Documents on State Religions by Donald Johnson
• The Travel Records of Chinese Pilgrims Faxians, Xuanzang, and Yijing
• Emperor Wuzong’s Edict on the Supression of Buddhism
• The Spread of Christianity (Yale Press)
•The Path to Victory by Shaye Cohen
• An Imperial Jesus by Michael White
Unit 4: The Spread and Impact of Universal Religions: Islam (Lesson map)
Sub-questions: How and why does Islam become the religion of major empires so quickly? How does Islam contribute to significant intellectual achievements in the Medieval era? How does Islam spread into the Indian Ocean region?
Major topics: The development of Dar al Islam; cultural achievements of Medieval Islam; spread of Islam in the Indian Ocean-through a DBQ on Ibn Battuta’s readings; impact of the Mongols on Islam.
Readings
• Spread of Islam (The Islam Project)
• The Spread of Islam (WHUSA)
• The Islamic Legacy of Timbuktu
• World History for Us All, Era 5
Unit 5: Conflict between Faiths? The Crusades (Lesson map)
Sub questions: What motivated the Crusades and the Crusaders? What was the political impact if the Crusades?
Major topics: Medieval society in Western Europe, the Byzantine Empire and the Middle East; origin and motivations of the first four crusades; impact on Latin Christendom, and Jewish communities in Europe, the Byzantine Empire, the Islamic Middle East.
Readings:
• Background reading on European crusaders, Byzantines, and the Muslim world
Unit 6: How did the Ottoman Empire and Habsburg Spain use religion to maintain their empires? (Lesson map) (Ottoman/Habsburg Spain Project )((Writing a Thesis Statement Worksheet)
Sub-questions: Is an empire more stable with a diversity of faiths (the Ottomans) or with one faith (the Habsburgs)?
Major topics: The Gunpowder Empires; The Ottoman Empire: Suleiman the Magnificent, devirshme, millets, dhimmis; Habsburg Spain in the 16th century: the “reconquista,” Charles V, the Alhambra Decree, the Inquisition, the Protestant Reformation, Calvinism and the Rebellion in the Netherlands, the Spanish Armada and England, the Spanish conquest of South America (the Treaty of Tordesillas, Bartolome de las Casas, the Valladolid Controversy).
Digital readings:
• Empires in World History by Jane Burbank and Frederick Cooper, selected pages from chapter 5.
• Bartolome de las Casas (1542)
Unit 7 Conflict between Faiths?: The Middle East Today
(Middle East Peace Conference Project)
Issues and Negotiating Questions
1. WMDs: nuclear and chemical weapons
3. Refugees
4. Palestine: one State, two states, no state?
Unit 8: What caused the partition of India? (Lesson map)
Major topics: Watch selections from the film "Gandhi;” role play of the decision to partition India using materials from Choices.