The Rainbow Bridge, part of the 12th century Qingming scroll, attributed to artist Zhang Zeduan.
Essential Questions
• What makes trade fair?
• What is the connection between wealth and power?
• How and why have people, goods and resources moved in different historical time periods?
• Why are some countries rich and others poor?
• What have been the historical effects of trade and cultural diffusion?
Conceptual Background
1. What is the role of trade in the shift from the pre-modern world (1000-1750 CE) to the modern world (1750-)?
2. How does trade help to create a world system? Focus on the transition from sub-regions for trade in the pre-modern world to one global trade system after 1498. What are the effects of the cross-cultural contact created by trade?
3. The significance, causes and effects of the three defining moments of the second millennium: the Black Death, 1498, and the Industrial Revolution.
4. Test the Jared Diamond thesis: How did the plants, animals and germs of AfroEurAsian allow for the conquest of the Americas? How does the Columbian Exchange impact the world?
5. Discuss the shift from the global influence of “Southernization” (the Indian Ocean region) to “Westernization” (the Atlantic region).
Spring Units
Unit 1: The Roots of Global Inequality (Lesson map) (Global Inequality Project)
Sub-questions: Why are some regions of the earth wealthy and others poor? Why has wealth shifted over time?
Major topics: Understand social indicators that show wealth and poverty: GDP, GNI, quality of life. Relate different theories to the roots of global inequality: development, colonialism, globalization, sustainability, modernization theory, dependency theory. Review Jared Diamond’s biogeographical thesis: role of plants and animals in allowing for larger civilizations and specialization; role of disease.
Digital readings
• The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs, chapter one
• “Accidental Conquerors” by Jared Diamond
Unit 2: The Silk Road and Cultural Diffusion (Lesson map) (Text-rich map project)
Sub-questions: How and why did Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity and Islam spread along the Silk Road? What was the impact of new technologies spreading along the Silk Road? How did the Mongol’s Pax Mongolica stimulate cultural diffusion?
Major topics: Trade and cultural diffusion along the Silk Road, spreading products, religions and new technologies between China and the Mediterranean; impact of the Black Death (symbol of world trade system created by Mongols).
Digital Readings:
• Buddhism and Cultural Exchange
• Silk Road: Spreading Ideas and Innovations
• Changing belief systems and the Silk Road
• Belief Systems Along the Silk Roads
• Buddhist Travelers on the Silk Road
• Silk Road: Historical Background
• Products Traded on the Silk Road
Unit 3: China: Continuity and Change (Lesson map) (Change over time essay) (Rubric)
Sub-questions: How do Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism shape the three dynasties? Why is China’s population so large? How does the role of women change? Why does the Ming Dynasty destroy Zheng He’s treasure ships?
Major topics: Comparison of the Tang Song and Ming dynasties with a focus on: the role of agriculture, trade and technology, the influence of Confucianism and Buddhism, and the power of government; the influence and fall of Zheng He’s fleet.
Digital readings
• “China, Technology, and Change” by Linda Shaffer
• Introduction to The History of East Asia C. Holcomb
• Selection from Maps of Time by David Christian, pages 374-9.
• “Woods, Winds and Shipping: Why Didn’t China Rule the Waves?” by Pomeranz and Topik
• Memorial on the Bone of Buddha by Han Yu
• Emperor Wuzong’s Edict on the Suppression of Buddhism
• Tang debate on the twice-a-year tax
• China in World History 300-1500
• China and the World History of Science 1450-1770
• Map of Chang’an’s urban planning
• What did make the Chinese “Chinese”?
Unit 4: Trade in the Indian Ocean, 500CE-1600CE (Lesson map) (Map assignment) (Portugal DBQ Essay) (Rubric)
Sub-questions: Between 500CE and 1500CE, the Indian Ocean trade was the center of the world economy. How did the products, technologies and cultural changes shape the region, and the world? How does the Indian Ocean trade change as Europeans enter into the region? What do Ibn Battuta’s writings tell us about the role of Islam in facilitating the Indian Ocean trade?
Major topics: Trade system between China, India, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and East Africa. Role of monsoon winds; analysis of four major trade systems of the 13th century: Pax Mongolica on the Silk Road, Trans-Sahara, Chinese treasure ships, Venice-Cairo; impact of the arrival of the Portuguese with Vasco de Gama.
Digital readings
• "Southernization" by Lynda Shaffer
• Primary documents: Ibn Battuta
• World trade in 1250 reading and worksheet and map
• Indian Ocean trade map 1650-1750
• "The First Global Empire" by Roger Crowley
Unit 5: The Triangle Trade and the Emergence of the Atlantic Trade (Lesson map) (Essay: Compare and Contrast Essay: Trade Systems in 1250 and 1650) (Rubric)
Sub-questions: How does European exploration change trade patterns and the world economy? How does the African slave trade fuel the plantation economy of the New World? How does transoceanic trade between 1450-1700 impact the economic, political and cultural interaction between the peoples of Europe, Africa, the Americas and Asia?
Major topics Assess the quote from Adam Smith: “The discovery of America, and that of the passage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope, are the two greatest events recorded in the history of mankind.” (The Wealth of Nations, 1776). Examine the development of a plantation economy in the Americas. Study the impact of the Columbian Exchange on the Americas, Africa, and Europe; compare and contrast the role and impact of European traders in Asia: compare/contrast Portugal, Spain, Dutch and English; compare and contrast the trade system of 1250 and the trade system of 1650.
Digital readings
•The European Domination of the Indian Ocean Trade
• “Recent Scholarship on Eric Williams’ Capitalism and Slavery”
• "The Columbian Exchange" by Alfred Crosby
• "The Columbian Exchange by J.R. McNeill
• Primary document: “Appeal to the King of Portugal” by Nzinga Mbemba
• "The Emergence of Consumerism" by Peter Stearns
• Slavery in the Indian Ocean map
Unit 6: The Great Divergence: Why did England achieve an Industrial Revolution before India and China? (Lesson map) (Great Divergence Reading Packet) (Great Divergence Essay assignment) (Rubric)
Sub-questions: To what extent was the Industrial Revolution in England dependent on events in Africa, the Americas and Asia? Why is the Industrial Revolution called one of the two most important events in human history?
Major topics: Background on industrial revolution: changes in Europe in 16th and 17th centuries: the Protestant Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, the printing press, the agricultural revolution; discus scholarship on the Great Divergence.
Digital readings
• Primary document: Adam Smith on the division of labor
• Selection from Robert Marks, The Origins of the Modern World (2007), pages 107-112.
• Selection from Peter Stearns, The Industrial Revolution in World History (2013), pages .
• Selection from Giorgio Riello, Cotton (2013), pages 221-223.
Unit 7: Globalization and the Effects of Modern World Trade (Lesson map) (Journey of a Product project)
Sub-questions: How is global trade today like or unlike trade systems in the past? Does global trade help or hurt poor countries?
Major topics: The history of global trade since 1950 and globalization based on new technologies; examination of globalization’s impact on different regions of the world.
Digital readings
• “Two Cheers for Sweatshops” by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
Final Assessment for the Year: Performance-Based Assessment (PBA assignment) (PBA rubric)
Demonstrate proficiency in text-rich mapping and the five-paragraph essay form in June.