Unit 5: Intensified Hemispheric Interactions (1000-1500)
Unit Overview: Intensified Hemispheric Interactions
This unit spans the years 1000 to 1500. Important events/themes covered in this unit:
Chinese Expansion and Japan and Korea in the late Middle Ages
Viking invasions and trade
Norman invasion of Britain in 1066
Fall of the Byzantine Empire and rise of the Ottoman Empire
The Crusades
"New Monarchs" and the rise of the European Nation State
The rise of the Mongolian Empire
The Hundred Years' War
The Black Death and decline of European Feudalism
Unit Essay: An Age of Conflict
In order to get credit for this project you must write a well-developed essay on the following topic:
An Age of Conflict
The Middle Ages is usually considered to be the era between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance, about AD 500 to 1300. This era witnessed its share of conflict: conflict between Muslims and Christians, invasions of groups like the Vikings, and the brutal establishment of the Mongolian Empire. The frequency of conflict was one of the reasons historians often dubbed the Middle Ages the "Dark Ages"; The truth about the Middle Ages is not so simple, though, and most modern scholars of the era insist that progress and development was made through each step of the Middle Ages. Now that you have learned about the Middle Ages in your lessons for this unit, you must write an essay of no less than 600 words that describes three major conflicts of this era and explains the progress or development that occurred during or perhaps because of the conflicts.
Some possible conflicts that you may choose but are not limited to:
Battle of Tours/Umayyad Conquest of Iberia
The Crusades/Struggles with the Ottoman Empire
King John "Softsword" signing the Magna Carta, 1215
World History A Unit 5 Key Terms
For this project you must define the terms listed below and explain each term's significance to the unit/era being studied. Your definition should be 2-3 sentences long and may be copied and pasted from a source like Wikipedia, but the significance of the term must be in your own words and based on your own understanding. To fill out a term's significance, ask yourself, "Why is this item included in my study of this unit? Why is this term in a history book?" The answer to this question is your term's significance.
Unit 5 Key Terms:
Mid Imperial China
Italian City States
Genghis Khan
Al Andalus
Marco Polo
Magna Carta
Pax Mongolica
Ottoman Empire
feudal Japan
The Long Parliament
Crusades
The Black Death
feudalism
guilds
Kievan Rus
New Monarchs
Middle Ages
chivalry
Ming Dynasty
100 Years' War
Below is an example of a key term done with the proper format:
William the Conqueror: William I (c. 1028[2] – 9 September 1087), also known as William the Conqueror (Guillaume le Conquérant), was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II. Before his conquest of England, he was known as William the Bastard because of the illegitimacy of his birth.To press his claim to the English crown, William invaded England in 1066, leading an army of Normans, Bretons, Flemings, and Frenchmen (from Paris andÎle-de-France) to victory over the English forces of King Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings, and suppressed subsequent English revolts in what has become known as the Norman Conquest.[3] (I copied and pasted this definition from Wikipedia)
Significance: William the Conqueror is significant because his conquest of England created the first nation state in Europe. His rearrangement of English feudal territories to give himself dramatically more power than the the barons and nobles around him caused him to be the most powerful monarch in Europe and eventually led to the rise of other nation states over the next few centuries. (These are my words based on my knowledge of English and European history.)
