Era 6: Early Modern Period

Suggested time for instruction: five to six weeks

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

World History and Geography Macro View

Around the year 1500 A.D., major states and empires had developed in various regions of the world. While many of these states isolated themselves, others expanded their knowledge and influence in the world. The period of the Renaissance in Western Europe renewed the emphasis on classical ideas in political, intellectual and artistic disciplines. These ideas brought about a religious revolution that altered the power and position of the Catholic Church in Europe. The resulting religious divisions created instability and initiated the need for strong political leadership. European monarchs reasserted their power and consolidated their political control. The European monarchies adopted new technology to gain dominance over long-distance water routes and eventually moved towards the colonization of lands along these routes. While European expansion would lead to conflict, it also resulted in a permanent and sustained world trading system. During this era, traditional religions spread along with the expansion of empires and commercial contacts.

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Focus Questions for Era 6

1. What were the characteristics of the empires that developed in Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas?
   
   
2. Why did the Renaissance and Reformation happen in Europe and how did this affect its relationship with the rest of the world?
   
   
3. What factors contributed to the dramatic expansion in the volume and geographic patterns of world trade through the early modern period?
   
   
4. What was the effect of the European migration and settlement on the Americas, Africa, and Asia?
   

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Global Themes for Era 6

• Patterns of human population and migration: Depopulation due to warfare, disease, and technological improvements leading to population growth resulted in cyclical demographic change. The combination of forced migrations of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the voluntary migrations of Europeans to the Americas, Russians across Northern Asia, and Chinese into Southeast Asia characterized this era.
  
  
• Development and diffusion of technology: Merchants diffused technology along long-distance trade routes and empires adapted, altered, and re-diffused technology in various forms. Examples include gunpowder, cannon technology, shipbuilding, aids to navigation, printing, and new sources of food.
  
  
• Communication and exchange: Cultural and commercial contacts intensified between the 15th and 17th centuries across existing zones of exchange, resulting in a massive increase in trade. The triangular trade systems of the Atlantic were added to the world trade system. The plantation system, mercantilism, and the use of cash crops all thrived and eventually gave rise to capitalism.
  
  
• Belief systems: Major religions experienced dynamic challenges as a result of significant splits and diffusion of ideas. The Reformation and Counter-Reformation in Europe divided Christianity. At the same time, Christianity spread to Africa and the New World. Islam expanded in Africa and throughout the Indian Ocean. Sufism spread and adapted in Muslim and Hindu societies, while the Sunnis and Shi’ites experienced their final schism. Neo-Confucianism reasserted itself in China and Korea. Finally, the maturation and fragmentation of Buddhism occurred.
  
  
• Political legitimacy and authority: Societies began to consolidate political power in diverse ways. Ottomans and Mughals utilized emerging gunpowder technology to centralize and expand their bases of power. Japan centralized authority under the Tokugawa Shogunate. Ming China re-unified under conservative Confucian principles. Toward the end of this era, Absolutism began in Europe that helped to consolidate power among several nations.
  

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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 6.0: The student will improve skills in historical research and geographical analysis during the Early Modern Period. (WHII.1)

6.0 Performance Indicators
Students reach the benchmark when they are able to:

1. Identify, analyze, and interpret primary and secondary sources to make generalizations about events and life in the Early Modern Period.
   
   
2. Use maps, globes, artifacts, and pictures to analyze the physical and cultural landscapes of the world to interpret the Early Modern Period.
   
   
3. Identify geographic features important to the study of the Early Modern Period.
   
   
4. Identify and compare political boundaries with the location of civilizations, empires, and kingdoms in the Early Modern Period.
   
   
5. Analyze trends in human migration and cultural interaction in the Early Modern Period.
   

Benchmark 6.1: The student understands the political, cultural, and economic conditions of the world in 1500 A.D. (WHII.2)

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

1. Explain that by 1500 major states and empires had developed in various regions of the world (England, France, Spain, Russia, Ottoman Empire, Persia, China, Mughal India, and Songhai Empire).
   
   
2. Identify on a world map the location of the following major states and empires in the Eastern hemisphere around 1500 (England, France, Spain, Russia, Ottoman Empire, Persia, China, Mughal India, and Songhai Empire).
   
   
3. Identify on a world map the location of the following major states and empires in the Western hemisphere around 1500 (Aztec Empire and Inca Empire).
   
   
4. Analyze the major trade patterns linking Europe, Asia, and Africa (Silk Road, Indian Ocean, Trans-Sahara, Black Sea, Western European sea and river trade, South China Sea, and lands of Southeast Asia) and their importance (the exchange of products and ideas).
   
   
5. Describe major technological and scientific advancements and their exchange along trade routes by 1500 A.D. (paper, compass, silk, porcelain, textiles, numeral system, medicine, astronomy, and mathematics).
   

Benchmark 6.2: The student understands the political, intellectual, and artistic developments of Renaissance Europe. (WHII.2)

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

1. Describe Machiavelli’s political theory and its support for strong rulers.
   
   
2. Explain connections between the Italian Renaissance and the development of humanist ideas in northern Europe.
   
   
3. Evaluate the major achievements in literature, music, painting, sculpture, and architecture in 16th century Europe (Michelangelo, da Vinci, Shakespeare, Erasmus, Donatello, Botticelli, Sir Thomas More, Van Eyck, Raphael, Albrecht Dürer).
   
   
4. Evaluate the social and intellectual significance of the European development of printing with movable type (Gutenberg).
   

Benchmark 6.3: The student understands the religious, cultural, and political developments in Reformation Europe. (WHII.3)

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

1. Explain the religious discontent among Europeans with the late medieval church arising from corruption (indulgences and usury).
   
   
2. Analyze the influence of emerging German and English nationalism and opposition to the Catholic Church’s Italian leadership.
   
   
3. Identify the beliefs and ideas of the leading Protestant reformers (Martin Luther - salvation by faith alone, Bible as the ultimate authority, all humans equal before God, 95 Theses, and birth of the Protestant Church; John Calvin - predestination, faith revealed by living a righteous life, work ethic, and expansion of the Protestant movement; Henry VIII - dismissed the authority of the Pope in Rome, divorced, broke with Rome, headed the church in England, appropriated lands and wealth of Roman Catholic Church in England).
   
   
4. Assess how the religious divisions accentuated political tensions in Germany, England and France (Germany - princes in northern Germany converted to Protestantism ended the authority of the Pope in their states, the Hapsburg family and the authority of the Holy Roman Empire continued to support the Roman Catholic Church, and conflicts between Protestants and Catholic resulted in devastating wars, e.g, the Thirty Years’ War; England - Anglican church becomes national church under Elizabeth I, and the Reformation contributed the rise of capitalism; France - Catholic monarchy granted Huguenots freedom of worship by the Edict of Nantes, and Cardinal Richelieu changed the focus of the Thirty Years’ War from a religious to a political conflict).
   
   
5. Explain the aims and policies of the Catholic Counter-Reformation (Council of Trent - series of reforms and reassertion of authority; Jesuits - Society of Jesus founded to spread Catholic doctrine around the world, and Ignatius Loyola; the Inquisition - established to reinforce Catholic doctrine).
   
   
6. Analyze the changes in European cultural values, traditions, and philosophy during the Reformation (growth of secularism, individualism, and religious tolerance).

Benchmark 6.4: student understands the consolidation of states in Eurasia. (WHII.5)

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

1. Analyze the power and limits of imperial absolutism during the Ming Dynasty and explain China’s self-concept as the “Middle Kingdom.”
   
   
2. Assess the character of Ming China’s political, commercial, and cultural relations with Asian and European countries (creation of foreign enclaves to control trade, imperial policy of controlling foreign influences in trade, and increased in European demand for Chinese goods [porcelain and tea]).
   
   
3. Analyze the rise of the Ottoman Empire (Asia Minor), its destruction of the Byzantine Empire, and expansion into Europe (Southwest Asia, Southeastern Europe, Balkan Peninsula, North Africa, Constantinople renamed Istanbul, Islamic religion as a unifying force that accepted other religions, and trade in coffee and ceramics).
   
   
4. Explain the rise of the Mughal Empire and its conquest of India (location of Mughal Empire - North India; contributions of Mughal rulers - spread of Islam into India, Taj Mahal, establishment of European trading outposts, and influence of Indian textiles on British textile industry; trade with European nations - Portugal, England, and the Netherlands competed for Indian Ocean trade by establishing coastal ports on the Indian subcontinent).
   
   
5. Compare the impact of gunpowder weaponry and other innovations in military technology in the development of different empires.
   
   
6. Explain the character of centralized feudalism in Japan under the Tokugawa Shogunate and the reasons for Japan’s political stability, economic growth, and cultural dynamism (characterized by powerless emperor, ruled by military leader [shogun], and adopted policy of isolation to limited foreign influences).
   

Benchmark 6.5: The student understands the origins and consequences of European overseas expansion in the 15th and 16th centuries. (WHII.4)

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

1. Explain the characteristics of the trading system that linked Eurasia and Africa on the eve of European exploration including the factors that contributed to European discovery of lands in the Western hemisphere (demand for gold, spices, and natural resources, diffusion of Christianity, innovations in navigational arts, Prince Henry the Navigator, shipbuilding, gunpowder, and naval warfare).
   
   
2. Explain the founding and organization of Spanish and Portuguese colonial empires in the Americas and Southeast Asia and assess the role of the Catholic Church in colonial administration and policies regarding indigenous populations (da Gama [Portugal], Columbus [Spain], Cortez [Spain], Pizarro [Spain], Magellan [Spain], Drake [England], and Cartier [France]).
   
   
3. Analyze the ways in which the Europeans exploited American Indian labor and why commercial agriculture came to rely overwhelmingly on African slave labor.
   
   
4. Define the major types of European colonial activity and control (Americas - expansion of overseas territorial claims and European emigration to North and South America, demise of Aztec and Incan Empires, legacy of a rigid class system [peninsulares, creoles, and mestizos] and dictatorial rule in Latin America, forced migration of some Africans into slavery, and colonies of imitation of the culture and social patterns of the parent country; Africa - European trading posts along the coast, and trade in slaves, gold and other products; Asia - colonization by small groups of merchants, including India, the Indies, and China, and influence of trading companies including Portuguese, Dutch, and British).
   
   
5. Assess the extent of European commercial and military penetration in Africa, Asia, and the Americas and compare the resistance of the indigenous peoples to European colonization.
   
   
6. Analyze the diffusion of Christianity into Africa, Asia, and the Americas (means of diffusion of Christianity - migration of colonists to new lands, influence of Catholics and Protestants who carried their faith, language, and cultures to new lands, and conversion of indigenous peoples).
   
   
7. Explain how European governments and firms organized and financed the trans-Atlantic or triangular trade and describe the conditions under which slaves made the “middle passage” from Africa to the Americas (African exports - slaves, and raw materials; African imports - manufactured goods from Europe, Asia and the Americas, and new food products [corn and peanuts]; triangular trade linked Europe, Africa and the Americas, slaves, sugar, and rum were traded).
   
   
8. Define mercantilism (an economic practice adopted by European colony powers in an effort to become self-sufficient, and based on the theory that colonies existed for the benefit of the mother country), explain how European power rivalries over precious metals (silver and gold) and raw materials consolidated the global economy, and define the Commercial Revolution (European maritime nations competed for overseas markets, colonies, and resources, and a new economic system emerged - new money and banking systems were created, economic practice such as mercantilism evolved, and colonial economies were limited by the economic needs of the mother country).
   
   
9. Describe the impact of the Columbian Exchange between European and indigenous cultures (agricultural products - corn, potatoes, tobacco, tomatoes; livestock - horses, cattle and pigs; disease [smallpox], plantation system, and slave labor).
   

Benchmark 6.6: The student understands the expansion and division of traditional religions in 1500 A.D. (WHII.2)

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

1. Describe the spatial distribution of traditional religions around the globe.
   
   
2. Compare the religious beliefs of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism during this era.
   

Benchmark 6.7: The student understands how the absolute monarchs of Europe increased and utilized political power. (WHII.6)

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

1. Assess how the religious wars of the 16th and 17th centuries led to the development of strong monarchs (Louis XIV, Frederick the Great, Peter the Great, Elizabeth I, Phillip II, and Catherine the Great).
   
   
2. Analyze the character, development, and sources of wealth of strong bureaucratic European monarchies in the 16th century (centralization of power, divine right, Palace of Versailles [Louis XIV], and Frederick’s militarism).
   
   
3. Explain how absolute monarchs maintained religious uniformity and repressed religious minorities (Huguenots, the Thirty Years’ War, Irish Catholics, Edict of Nantes, Peace of Augsburg, and Treaty of Westphalia).
   
   
4. Assess the growth of bureaucratic monarchy in Russia, its expansion through Siberia, and analyze the significance of Peter the Great’s westernizing reforms.
   

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Legacies

• New empires and states developed during this era: Tokugawa Japan, Ming China, Mughal India, Ottoman Turkey, and Muscovite Russia.
  
  
• Many of these empires began to use gunpowder.
  
  
• A global trading network developed that facilitated the exchange of knowledge, technology, foodstuffs, and diseases.
  
  
• Political and religious pluralism developed in Europe.
  
  
• The European Renaissance marked significant achievements in art, architecture, literature, and the spread of humanist thought.
  
  
• Significant achievements occurred in art, architecture, and literature in the empires in Asia and the Americas.
  
  
• European nation-states emerged that were ruled by absolute monarchs who controlled large standing armies and navies.
  
  
• Europe rose to global political, military, and commercial dominance.
  
  
• Major religions expanded around the world.
  
  
• Religious divisions in the Christian and Islamic faiths became permanent.

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