Download The maturing of an interregional system of communication, trade

Global History
Course Guide
Social Studies Department
Mercer Island High School
Topics of Study
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Early Man and Early Civilizations
Ancient Greece
Ancient Roman Republic and Empire
World Religions
Intensified Hemispheric Interactions 1000-1300 CE
Early Man and Early Civilizations
Central Focus/Essential Questions: How did the Agricultural Revolution fundamentally
change life for human beings? What have been the advantages and disadvantages of that shift?
How did the Agricultural Revolution lead to Civilization? How can civilization be defined?
What comparisons can be made between various early civilizations, both eastern and western?
Themes:
Culture
Cultural Relativism
Civilization
Civilized and Uncivilized
Religion
Early Government
Social Stratification
Gender Inequality
Possible Topics:
Hunting and Gathering
Agricultural Revolution
Geography—the River Valley
Development of writing
Hammurabi’s Code
Egypt
China
India
Mesopotamia/Ancient Middle East
Confucianism
Daoism
Legalism
Reading Assignments:
Textbook: World History: Connections to Today, Ellis and Esler: Chapters 1-4
Possible Secondary Source Selections:
Hunting and Gathering and the Emergence of Agriculture (reading)
Of Headhunters and Soldiers, Rosaldo
Ilongot Headhunting, Olivariez
Cultural Relativism and Universal Human Rights, Fleur-Lobban
Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond (selections)
Mummification (National Geographic)
A Thoroughly Modern Process (Archeology Magazine)
Foot-binding (article)
Civil Service Exams in China (article)
Possible Primary Source Document Selections:
Hammurabi’s Code
Gilgamesh
Possible Media Resource Selections:
The God’s Must Be Crazy (motion
picture)
Lascaux Cave website
Evolution (Walter Cronkite)
Mesopotamia (time life)
Secrets of the Pharos (National
Geographic)
Ancient China (Time Life)
Pyramids (PBS)
Ancient Greece
Central Focus/Essential Questions: Why is Ancient Greece widely regarded as the Cradle of
Western Civilization? What have been Greece’s greatest legacies?
Themes:
Art and Architecture—the search for the perfect form
Greek Geography and the Polis
Philosophy
From Monarchy to Democracy, governmental evolution
Free Speech
Greek Myth
Possible Topics:
Socrates
Plato
Aristotle
The Parthenon
Oedipus Rex
Homer
Iliad
Odyssey
The Polis
Athens vs. Sparta
Peloponnesian War
Trojan War
Reading Assignments:
Textbook: World History: Connections to Today, Ellis and Esler: Chapter 5
Possible Secondary Source Selections:
The Polis, Kitto
When Free Speech Was First Condemned, Stone
Greek vs. Greek
The Socratic Method
The Peloponnesian War
Possible Primary Source Document Selections:
Oedipus Rex (selections)
The Iliad (selections)
The Odyssey (selections)
Pericles Funeral Oration
Allegory of the Cave, Plato
The Death of Socrates, Plato
Possible Media Resource Selections:
Crucible of Civilization (PBS)
Greek Thought (The Western Tradition)
Ancient Roman Republic and Empire
Central Focus/Essential Questions: What various factors led to the transformation of Rome
from a Republic to an Empire? What were the various factors that led to the decline and fall of
Roman Empire? To what extent can these factors be applied to other empires, past and present?
What was the nature of Roman Rule?
Themes:
Roman Culture and Values
Roman compared to the United
States
Republican government
Roman Achievements
Possible Topics:
Gladiatorial Contests
“Bread and Circuses”
Julius Caesar
Roman Law
Roman Cities and Infrastructure
Pax Romana
Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire
Punic Wars
Roman Trade and Economy
Rise of Christianity
Reading Assignments:
Textbook: World History: Connections to Today, Ellis and Esler: Chapter 6
Possible Secondary Source Selections:
Gladiatorial Contests and Roman Culture
Law in the Roman Empire
Possible Primary Source Document Selections:
Of Romulus and Remus: How Rome First Came to be Built
Of Horatius: How He Kept the Bridge
Lucius (Titus) Quinctius Cincinnatus
The Aeneid, Virgil
The Assassination of Julius Caesar, Plutarch
Possible Media Resource Selections:
Gladiator (motion picture)
Roman City (PBS)
The Decline of the Roman Emipre (Western Tradition)
The Fall of the Roman Emipre (Western Tradition)
World Religions
Central Focus/Essential Questions: What are the similarities and differences of the various
religions that emerge in the ancient and early medieval world, both in terms of doctrine and their
historical development? How have the various faiths interacted in the past and today? What
effect has religion had on social, political, and economic developments?
Themes:
The role of ideas and beliefs in shaping people’s approach to the world
Possible Topics:
Hebrew civilizations/Judaism
Rise of Christianity
Rise of Islam
Rise of Hinduism
Rise of Buddhism
Basic tenets of the various faiths
Reading Assignments:
Textbook: World History: Connections to Today, Ellis and Esler: Chapters 2, 3, 4. 6, 11
(selections)
Secondary Source Selections:
Sunni and Shi’a, David Kremer
Primary Source Document Selections:
Selections from various original religious texts (Bible, Koran, etc.)
Media Resource Selections:
Empire of Faith (PBS)
Hajj (Nightline)
Pillars of Faith (Kramer)
Western Tradition (Eugene Weber)
Intensified Hemispheric Interactions 1000-1300 CE
Central Focus/Essential Questions: To what extent were the Middle Ages a period of
backwardness and lack of human progress? How was the period a time of technological
germination and subtle but important changes?
Themes:
 The maturing of an interregional system of communication, trade, and cultural exchange
in an era of Chinese economic power and Islamic expansion.
 The redefining of European society and culture, 1000-1300 CE
 The rise of the Mongol empire and its consequences for Eurasian peoples, 1200-1350
 The growth of states, towns, and trade in Sub-Saharan Africa between the 11th and 15th
centuries
Possible Topics:
Feudalism, manorialism
“The Age of Faith”
Crusades
Cathedrals
The Black Death
Agricultural Changes
Revival of Towns and Trade in Europe
Growth of interregional trade and communication
Magna Charta and political developments in Europe
Rise of the Islamic Empires
Growth of empires and trade in sub-Saharan Africa
Urbanization and commercial expansion in China
Mongol conquests and “Pax Mongolica”
Reading Assignments:
Textbook: World History: Connections to Today, Ellis and Esler
Secondary Source Selections:
The Crusades, Harold Lamb (selections)
A World Lit Only By Fire, William Manchester (selections)
Technology and Invention in the Middle-Ages, Gies and Gies (selections)
The Black Death, Mark Damen
Material Civilization: Crisis and Recovery, Peters
The Manor System
Rise of Towns and Trade
Primary Source Document Selections:
Town Charter of Lorris
Magna Carta
Canterbury Tales (Chaucer)
Media Resource Selections:
The Crusades (History Channel)
History’s Turning Points: The Black
Death
Cathedral, David Macaulay (PBS)
Castle, David Macaulay (PBS)
The Western Tradition