Era 5: Regional Interactions

Suggested time for instruction: eight weeks

• SOL Standards
• Macro View
• Focus Questions
• Global Themes
• Resources
• Benchmarks
• Legacies

World History and Geography Macro View

More than in any previous era, regional interactions intensified from 1000 – 1500 C.E. In addition, regional systems of exchange connected various societies into a transcontinental system. This new level of interconnectedness presented societies with larger opportunities and dangers. Western and Central Europe expanded in agricultural production, population, commerce, and military strength and became important centers of Christian society.

Islam challenged this expansion and also extended into areas touched by Indian Ocean trade. The second half of this era saw the rise of the Mongols, who created the largest land empire in the history of the world and influenced nearly all Eurasian societies. Following earlier classical civilizations in Mesoamerica, the Aztecs and Incas developed the largest empires of the Americas. Although these empires had not yet developed sustained connections with the African and Eurasian zones of exchange, they developed their own regional networks of commercial and cultural contacts. Toward the end of this era, the increasing and expanding pace of trade paved the way for the European Renaissance, Atlantic voyages, and sustained contact between the hemispheres.

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Focus Questions for Era 5

1. What factors contributed to expanding zones of exchange?
   
   
2. What were the consequences of the expanding zones of exchange on individual societies?
   
   
3. What are the enduring legacies that developed during this era?
   
   
4. Why were the economic, cultural and social transformations most intense in Europe and how did this affect Europe’s relationship with the rest of the world?
   

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Global Themes for Era 5

• Development and diffusion of technology: Mongol, Muslim, and European exchanges spread technologies to new regions.
  
  
• Communication and exchange: Regional systems of commercial and cultural exchange became increasingly interconnected in a period of Chinese, Islamic, and Mongol expansion. Ideas, disease, technology, and agricultural products diffused over a wide geographic area due to expanding zones of exchange. Societies in the Americas began to develop patterns of long-distance trade. Societies in Africa played an important role in facilitating exchange in the Indian Ocean.
  
  
• Conflict: The Mongols established the largest land empire in the world causing tremendous changes for peoples of China, Southeast Asia, Russia, and Southwest Asia. Conflicts between Islam and Christianity led to the Reconquista in the Iberian Peninsula, Crusades in the eastern Mediterranean, and to the fall of Constantinople.
  
  
• Political legitimacy and authority: European feudalism eventually gave way to the development of centralized monarchies and the eventual establishment of nation states. Neo-Confucianism replaced Buddhism as the state religion in China. The character of Islamic empires changed as a result of the intermingling of the Turks and Mongols. New empires in the Americas expanded and consolidated control over extensive areas of Mexico and South America.
  

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Benchmarks:

NOTE: Red Bolded content in the indicators is considered essential and must be taught in all classrooms. Content which is not bolded goes beyond the scope and sequence of the state standards.

Benchmark 5.0: The student will improve skills in historical research and geographic analysis during the era of Regional Interactions. (WHI.1)

5.0 Performance Indicators
Students reach this benchmark when they are able to:

1. Identify, analyze, and interpret primary and secondary sources to make generalizations about events and life in the era of Regional Interactions.
   
   
2. Use maps, globes, artifacts, and pictures to analyze the physical and cultural landscapes of the world and interpret the past during the era of Regional Interactions.
   
   
3. Identify major geographic features important to the study of world history during the era of Regional Interactions.
   
   
4. Identify and compare modern political boundaries with the location of major empires during the era of Regional Interactions.
   
   
5. Analyze trends in human migration and cultural interaction during the era of Regional Interactions.
   

Benchmark 5.1: The student understands the development and expansion of states and societies in the Americas. (WHI.11)

5.1 Performance Indicators
Students reach this benchmark when they are able to:

1. Interpret archaeological evidence of the development of Mesoamerican civilizations (Olmec, Toltec, maize cultivation, early settlements).
   
   
2. Describe the location of Mayan civilization (Mexican and Central America rainforest), examples of urban development (Chichen Itza), and political (city-states ruled by a king), economic (agriculture and trade), and social characteristics (polytheistic religion, pyramids, glyphic writing, calendar, astronomy, mathematics).
   
   
3. Analyze various interpretations of how and why the Mayan civilization declined.
   
   
4. Describe the location of Aztec civilization (arid valley in Mexico), examples of urban development (Tenochtitlan), and political (ruled by emperor), economic (agriculture), and social characteristics (pyramids, polytheistic, warfare, calendar, mathematics).
   
   
5. Describe the location of Incan civilization (Andes Mountains), examples of urban development (Machu Picchu), and political (emperor, road system), economic (high-altitude agriculture, road system), and social characteristics (polytheistic religion, calendar, mathematics).

Benchmark 5.2: The student understands patterns of social, economic and political change in Western Europe from 1000 to 1500 A.D. (WHI.12)

5.2 Performance Indicators
Students reach this benchmark when they are able to:

1. Identify the location and describe the political development of England including the development of representative institutions and legal traditions (William the Conqueror, Norman Conquest, Henry II, common law, King John, Magna Carta, Hundred Years War).
   
   
2. Identify the location and describe the political development of France (Hugh Capet, Joan of Arc, Hundred Years War, Estates General).
   
   
3. Identify the location and describe the political development of Spain (Ferdinand and Isabella, expulsion of Muslim Moors/Reconquista, Phillip II).
   
   
4. Identify the location and describe the political development of Russia (Ivan the Great, Mongols, tsar, Orthodox Church).
   
   
5. Explain the changing political relationship between the Roman Catholic Church, the expanding monarchies in Europe, and the city-states in Italy and Northern Europe.
   
   
6. Analyze the connection between population growth and increased agricultural production through technological innovation (three-field system, horse collar, mould board plow).
   
   
7. Analyze the causes, events, and consequences of the Crusades on Western Europe and the Byzantine Empire (Pope Urban II, capture of Jerusalem, founding of Crusader states, Saladin, sack of Constantinople, weakened Pope and nobles, strengthened monarchs, stimulated Western production of goods for trade, increased demand for Middle Eastern products, legacy of bitterness among Christians, Jews, and Muslims, weakened Byzantine Empire).
   
   
8. Analyze cultural achievements in Europe including the rise of art, literature, and the work of church scholars (reading and writing, monasteries, translation from Greek and Arabic to Latin, new knowledge in philosophy, medicine, and science, and laid the foundation for rise of universities, Romanesque architecture, Gothic architecture, scholasticism).
   

Benchmark 5.3: The student understands the significance of the Mongol and Turkic empires. (WHI.12)

5.3 Performance Indicators
Students reach this benchmark when they are able to:

1. Analyze the rise of the Delhi Sultanate as the first Muslim empire in South Asia (Mamaluks).
   
   
2. Assess the role of Genghis Khan as a political unifier, conqueror, and military innovator.
   
   
3. Describe the effects of Mongol rule (largest land based empire in history) on the peoples of China, Russia, and Southwest Asia and analyze how long-distance communication and trade led to cultural and technological diffusion across Eurasia (gunpowder).
   
   
4. Assess how Kublai Khan and the Mongols became assimilated to Chinese culture.
   
   
5. Explain the transition from Yuan to Ming rule, including the predominance of neo-Confucian rule.
   
   
6. Analyze the origins and early expansion of the Ottoman Turks up to the capture of Constantinople (1453 A.D., capital renamed Istanbul, cannon).

Benchmark 5.4: The student understands the significance and consequences of cross regional contact and exchange.(WHI.13)

5.4 Performance Indicators
Students reach this benchmark when they are able to:

1. Analyze global connections between population growth, increased agricultural production, and technological innovation.
   
   
2. Explain the increase of interregional trade and its effects on the rise of urban centers and the emergence of a prosperous commercial class in Eurasia and North Africa (Western European sea and river trade).
   
   
3. Explain the origins, characteristics and consequences of the Black Death (bubonic plague) and describe its spread across Eurasia and into Africa (declines in population/labor/feudal obligations/church influence/trade).
   
   
4. Assess the effects of the spread of Asian technology (printing, compasses, crossbows, gunpowder, firearms) on urban societies.
   
   
5. Analyze the continued expansion of Islam and its impact on various regions of Africa and Eurasia and the vital link it provided to interregional trade (Southeast Asia).
   
   
6. Define capitalism and analyze the extent to which capitalistic institutions and production methods were emerging in Europe, other parts of Eurasia, and Africa (letters of credit, banking, usury or interest, accounting, Arabic numerals).
   

Benchmark 5.5: The student understands the political, intellectual, and artistic developments in Renaissance Europe. (WHI.13)

5.5 Performance Indicators
Students reach this benchmark when they are able to:

1. Assess the importance of the Islamic states and the Byzantine Empire in transmitting scientific and philosophical knowledge to Europe.
   
   
2. Analyze the development of city-states in Italy (Florence, Venice, Genoa, trade centers, independent republics) and compare these city-states with the expanding monarchies in Western Europe.
   
   
3. Define Renaissance as a rebirth of humanist thought (stimulated the study of Greco-Roman literature and culture, celebrated the individual, supported by patrons).
   
   
4. Describe Machiavelli’s political theory and its support for strong absolute rulers (The Prince, early modern treatise on government, the ends justify the means, do good but evil when necessary).
   
   
5. Evaluate the change in Western art from the Middle Ages (focused on the Church and salvation) to the Renaissance (Church and worldly matters) including Leonardo da Vinci (Mona Lisa, Last Supper), Michelangelo (Sistine Chapel, David), and Petrarch (sonnets, humanist scholarship).
   
   
6. Explain the connections between the Italian Renaissance and Northern European Renaissance (increased wealth, Northern European thinkers merged Humanist ideas with Christianity, Erasmus, In Praise of Folly in 1511, Sir Thomas More, Utopia in 1516, art portrayed religious and secular topics).
   
   
7. Evaluate the social and intellectual significance of the European development of printing with movable type (Gutenberg Bible, dissemination of ideas, increased literacy, use of vernacular).

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Legacies

• New empires in Africa, China, India, Mexico, Peru, Russia, and Turkey all experienced cultural flowerings which became a part of our global heritage.
  
  
• Increased regional exchanges for ideas, disease, agricultural products, and technology set the stage for hemispheric interactions.
  
  
• Military technologies originating in Asia such as the longbow, crossbow, gunpowder, and firearms transformed European warfare.
  
  
• Agricultural and technological developments such as the mould board plow, horse collar, mechanical clock, and compass increased agricultural productivity and trade.
• Capitalist institutions and methods of production laid the foundation for the Commercial Revolution.
  
  
• The development of Western European nation-states, contractual agreements, and ideas about representative institutions shaped global political institutions and cultural values.
  
  
• Monumental architecture such as the Forbidden City, Tenochtitlan, Machu Picchu, castles, and cathedrals remain significant features of the world cultural landscape.
• The cementing of national and religions divisions between Shiite Persia and Sunni Ottoman manifests itself in the conflicts of Southwest Asia today.
  
  
• Christianity and Islam continued to expand becoming two of the world’s most important religions.
  

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