Big Era Five: Landscape Unit 5.3

Why This Unit?

World history textbooks for middle and high schools generally lack much discussion of long-distance trade, or an overview of trade routes in the Eastern Hemisphere before the fifteenth century. Instead, trade is described as an aspect of lessons on regional civilizations, especially in chapters about the rise of towns and trade in Europe during the high middle ages. Students learn about the importance of European merchant classes, but the extensive merchant activity across Afroeurasia is often neglected. Textbooks from the collegiate market used for Advanced Placement World History all include hemispheric trade, but few primary source selections.

This unit provides both an overview and a close-up picture of locations, goods, and participants in trade in Afroeurasia. It allows students to compare primary source accounts of trade goods, merchants, types of markets, and effects of trade with more general secondary source information on trading societies. It also guides them in linking their understanding of how particular regions fit into the networks of Afroeurasia as a whole. Students practice differentiating among various types of historical sources and moving from one geographic and historical scale to another, that is, from local to regional to hemispheric.

This unit is centered on the period from 1000 to 1250 CE but encompasses related developments in the preceding and subsequent centuries.

Unit Objectives

Upon completing this unit, students will be able to:

1. Describe the impact of trade on selected societies in Africa, Asia, and Europe during the period from 800 to 1500 CE, and describe how regional trade relates to long-distance trade across Afroeurasia.

2. Compare primary source accounts of trade goods, customs, and socio-economic effects of trade with secondary sources on trading societies.

3. Analyze the connection between specific marketplaces and the trading zones of Afroeurasia as a whole.

4. Analyze how selected technologies, ideas, and goods were disseminated among various regions of Afroeurasia.

Time and Materials

Time:
These three lessons take three to six class periods to complete.

Materials:

• Student Handouts

Table of Contents

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