In 1200, the world was a diverse tapestry of different societies. During this period, increasing interconnections began to weave the many threads of humanity closer together.

The period between 1200 and 1450 CE was one of both diversity and similarities among societies in different parts of the world.

Looking at the period from 1200-1450 through the World History Project frames can give us a sense of the incredible diversity and important changes of the era.

Orient yourself in time and space as you begin Unit 2, by using maps to make predictions about the consequences of connection and trade in this unit.

A full-color political map of the world in 1200 CE, highlighting the major states, communities, and cities you’ll learn about in WHP.

A black and white version of the world in 1200 CE, that can be cropped to specific regions and easily printed.

A full-color thematic map of Medieval Trade Routes in 1450 CE, meant to help you support, extend, and challenge the frame narratives.

More personalized vocab, this time for Unit 2. Add to it as the unit progresses.

Back to the full class word wall, this time for Unit 2 vocabulary.

This vocab guide provides a summary of the key vocabulary for the unit.

Vocab cards for each of the key words in this unit.

It’s time to explore the Unit 2 Problem. Remember: you’ll have a chance to return to this worksheet at the end of the unit when you have more evidence!

Learning to read and evaluate charts is an important skill. This guide will be a useful reference as you encounter different charts in this course.

This activity introduces students to the Three Close Reads for Data tool by providing step-by-step instructions as they read the first Data Exploration on population.

There are a lot of humans living on the planet today. But for most of our history, our population was much smaller. Demography provides one window into our shared history.

Who? Where? Why? These are crucial questions a historian must ask of every text they read. This important skill is called sourcing.

Afro-Eurasian societies took a variety of forms in 1200, from independent villages to empires. The coming of the Mongol Empire created the largest empire of all.

From its origin in seventh century Arabia to its status as a global religion today, Islam has a fascinating history, which we learn from multiple sources.

Students will use their contextualization skills to consider the factors that made industrialization possible.

As trade recovered across Afro-Eurasia, new states expanded in parts of Africa. These states were tied to and exerted significant influence over Islamic trade networks.

From 1206 to 1368, the Mongol Empire ruled most of Eurasia. The influence of the Khans stretched far beyond their borders and outlasted their empire. How did they do it?

Sorqoqtani Beki was one of many royal women whose actions and relationships shaped the Mongol empire, providing unity and later causing its division.

The Mongols started off as small, nomadic pastoral communities. United as an empire by Genghis Khan, they swiftly expanded and energized Eurasian trade and exchange.

Learn how to use the Quick-Sourcing Tool to source documents and help you prepare to respond successfully to document-based questions (DBQs).

Savage barbarians or the greatest empire-builders of all time? The Mongols were as interesting to their European neighbors in the thirteenth century as they are for students today.

Rashid al-Din was a Muslim intellectual whose history of the world showed the diversity of the peoples and ideas mixing in the Mongol Ilkhanate.

Rumi was a poet who believed that universal love was a path to God. He rejected divisions based on ethnicity and religion.

In this final vocab activity of the unit, students move beyond simply defining words to applying them, therefore solidify their understanding and use of the words in context.

This vocab guide provides a summary of the key vocabulary for the unit.

Vocab cards for each of the key words in this unit.

Prophecies, legends, community crops, pottery, tools, and ecological knowledge provided the basis for community organization in the Americas.

Vibrant networks of exchange connected the islands of the Caribbean since c. 5000 BCE. So why do we usually only hear about this region starting in 1492 CE?

A triple alliance between Aztec city-states led to the formation of the Aztec Empire, with Tenochtitlan as its seat of power.

Macuilxochitl was a poetess and princess whose work is an important source about the Aztec state, warfare, and trade in the pre-Columbian era.

The Ancestral Pueblo built large, complex agricultural societies across the Colorado Plateau. Their farming communities relied on repeated migrations.

The Kingdom of Cusco brought other groups under its control and collected tribute, growing into a sophisticated empire with millions of residents.

By 1200 CE, Oceania had become a web of far-flung communities. Despite long distances and great diversity, they used sophisticated maritime technology to stay connected.

Kupe is a founding figure for Polynesian communities in Aotearoa (New Zealand). His story helps orient these communities to the past and present.

The thirteenth century seems like a long time ago. Surely life was different then? Explore the similarities and differences in this introduction to the Comparison Tool.

Students are first introduced to CCOT by evaluating how farms have changed over time. They use the frames to help guide their analysis of continuities and changes.

A highly sophisticated and expansive commercial network developed in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, which moved things, ideas, and germs throughout Afro-Eurasia.

Around 1250-1350, an archipelago of trade stretched across Afro-Eurasia. Nick and Trevor explore the role of the wool trade in this system and its impact on England.

How do we decide who to believe? Who can we consider “authority?” And what does Taylor Swift have to do with understanding human migration?

Diverse indigenous communities thrived and had extensive networks of exchange across the Americas long before Europeans arrived in the New World in the 1490s.

A thousand years ago, the Ancestral Pueblo made Chaco Canyon the center of their cultural world. Their networks stretched across the vast Colorado Plateau.

From 1200 to 1450, an extensive trading network stretched across the Sahara Desert, linking the empires of West Africa to the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean.

Silk was the ultimate medieval cloth, and Song Dynasty China was its main producer. More than just clothing, it served as money, art, and symbol of imperial power.

From 1200 to 1450, the Indian Ocean was the center of world trade. Merchants from all over Eurasia, including the world’s largest empires, traded in this network.

Zheng He was the great admiral of the Ming Dynasty. Were his expeditions peaceful trade voyages or threatening campaigns of conquest and imperialism?

How did trade networks facilitate cross-cultural interactions? Use the Quick-Sourcing Tool to assess the primary sources in this collection to find out!

How did trade networks enable cross-cultural interactions? The primary sources in this collection will help you formulate a response to this question.

We talk a lot about testing claims in this course. Thing is, you need to be able to make claims too!

It’s difficult to write something when you’re not sure what you’re being asked to do! This is the first in a series of activities in which you’ll practice analyzing prompts.

Religions change over time. Here are some short histories of continuity and change in some religions before about 1450 CE.

This activity allows students to see how networks of exchange can be both beneficial and detrimental to society.

One of the biggest epidemics in world history was started by one tiny animal. It spread through trade networks across large portions of Afro-Eurasia.

How has our understanding of the Black Death changed over time? Use the primary and secondary sources in this collection to find out!

The primary and secondary sources in this collection help us understand the origins and spread of the Black Death.

How has your understanding changed since the beginning of the unit? Time to revisit the Unit Notebook!

Students will use their causation skills to examine how the causes and consequences of the Black Death.

Disease has always existed in human history—and may have helped define it. John Green explores the world historical effects of disease, asking: Who is really in charge?

It’s time review the map predictions you made at the beginning of the unit, and examine a series of new maps to help you think about the unit problem.

A full-color political map of the world in 1200 CE, highlighting the major states, communities, and cities you’ll learn about in WHP.

A full-color political map of the world in 1450 CE, highlighting the major states, communities, and cities you’ll learn about in WHP.

A full-color thematic map of the Black Death and Mongols in 1200 CE, meant to help you support, extend, and challenge the frame narratives.

Before you can write a good claim, you need to know how to find one! In this activity, you’ll use the Writing Rubric to evaluate the claim and focus of an essay from the course.

In this Warm-Up activity, you’ll look closely at the Claim and Focus row of the WHP Writing Rubric to fine tune your writing skills.

Analyze documents written by travelers, merchants, historians, and other figures of the past, to help you craft an argument about the growth of networks of exchange after 1200 CE.

These DBQ writing samples provide example essays to help support writing instruction in different ways—use as you see fit in your classroom!

Now that you’ve written, it’s time to revise! This activity will help you identify areas to improve your writing based on the Claim and Focus row of the WHP Writing Rubric.

The early Islamic world was a community of faith, but it was also a political community known as the Caliphate.

Beyond the Caliphate, the Islamic world was a network of people who traded, shared beliefs, and exchanged ideas.

West African rulers built unique and extensive states by managing trade routes, religion, and relationships with pastoralists.

What happens between “golden ages?” Although not considered “golden,” there was still a lot happening in China between the Han and Tang dynasties.

The spread of technologies in central and southern Africa helped to create a vast, connected network of Bantu societies.

The fall of the Roman Empire saw the rise of two Christian communities: Byzantium and Latin Christendom. They shared some cultural values but had different power structures.

The Silk Road didn’t collapse after the fall of the Han Dynasty. It continued to tie together local networks and boost economic production across Asia.

Heavenly horses, see-through clothing, camel-shaped gravestones. The ancient, vast, trade network we call the Silk Road connected Eurasia and north Africa. And it was about a lot more than silk.

China’s Tang Dynasty gave rise to a new “golden age” by trading along the Silk Road routes, and the later Ming Dynasty built on that by expanding west across Eurasia.

Women in Medieval Europe were compared to Biblical figures like Eve and the Virgin Mary when it came to their moral and vocational roles in society.

During the early period of the Song Dynasty, women had legal, property, and inheritance rights. But women’s rights were curtailed with the rise of Neo-Confucianism.

From Ptolemy to Copernicus and Galileo, thinkers have debated what the Universe looked like for centuries. Ultimately, scholars moved from an Earth-centered model to a Sun-centered model. How did we get there?

Whether an individual or a collection of people, Jābir Ibn Ḥayyān’s work with chemical substances was an inspiration and guide for the later creators of chemistry.

Hasan Ibn al-Haytham revolutionized our understanding of how light moves through the Universe and how we see it. He urged people to question ancient knowledge.

The Muslim mathematician al-Khwarizmi built on ancient ideas and offered new approaches to mathematics that we still rely on today.

Being a great sailor requires a lot of knowledge, and the greatest among them relied heavily on the collective learning that made crossing the vast Indian Ocean possible.

The age of oceanic exploration was made possible when technologies and ideas from across Afro-Eurasia came together in fifteenth century Europe.

Scholars explaining the roots of the American Revolution often look to centuries of English democratic traditions. Are they right?

So by now you know that revolution = big change. Which of the revolutions you’ve studied in this unit caused the greatest enduring change for the most people?