In this unit of the course, you’re introduced to a variety of empires. In this activity, you’ll analyze various characteristics that made each of these empires a success. By doing so, you’ll begin to understand the ways in which certain empires were successful as well as the qualities that might have led to their failure. In addition, you’ll be able to use these skills to analyze modern governments and possibilities for future collapses.

Reading, comparison, causation, claim testing
In this activity, you’ll have to use your close reading skills to complete the Three Close Reads Worksheet for a set of articles in order to pull out the information necessary to complete the activity. You’ll also have to compare the empires and decide which elements of each empire were the best, and in doing so will get to create your own Frankenstein-type empire. In addition, you’ll have to use causation skills to decide if the combination of elements you’ve chosen will lead to the empire declining or falling. Finally, claim testing will be required as you determine how to create the best type of empire using evidence and logic.

At this point in the course, you’ve read a number of articles about ancient empires. Now, you’ll take what you’ve learned, categorize that information, and then use it to create a new, Frankenstein-style empire using the best or most successful qualities from each of the categories you’ve assessed.

First, your teacher will either hand out or have you download the Empire Building Worksheet, the Three Close Reads Worksheet, and each of the articles listed above. Then, you’ll work in small groups of three or four on one of the following categories your teacher will assign your group: political structure, economic systems, military strength, social hierarchy, and main weakness. Each member of your group will then review the article set to pull out information about each empire for your group’s assigned category and fill in appropriate row of the worksheet table.

Once each group has completed the worksheet for their assigned category, your teacher will put you into new groups. Your new group will have an expert in each of the different categories (remember, you’re now the expert for the category you were assigned in the last part of this activity). Then, each category expert will share their information with the rest of the group and together you’ll complete all the rows of the chart.

Next, you’ll work together to decide which elements to include in your new, Frankenstein-style empire. Your goal is to create the best, most successful, or most indestructible empire, but you can only use the “best” parts of the historical empires for three of the categories. The other two categories must be constructed based on what your group decides are the second or third best. Your group will now have at least one weakness. The trick is to pick the weakness or weaknesses you can most easily defend when you present their empire to the class. You will have to justify your selections with evidence from the articles you read earlier.

Now, use butcher paper or your computer to create your group’s Frankenstein empire. Your Frankenstein should include an image and a name to represent your newly created empire with labels and descriptions for each of the categories, explaining your choices for why these selections make the “best” empire.

Next, each group will present their Frankenstein empire to the class. As each group presents, take brief notes on any weaknesses you see in each empire. Then you’ll have a class discussion about the similarities between all of the Frankenstein empires. Think about why most groups included these elements in their empires. Finally, you’ll individually answer the following prompt at the end of the worksheet:

What is the most important quality that made these empires successful and what was the most significant weakness that led to the collapse of empires?

Make sure you use evidence from the activity in your answers. Your teacher will collect these answers to assess how well you understood the success and failure of empires in this unit.

For six centuries, the Ottoman Empire controlled one of the world’s great empires. At one point stretching from the borders of Morocco to the Persian Gulf, the Ottoman Empire was one of the vast Afro-Eurasian gunpowder empires of the age. Its use of gunpowder weapons combined with control of trade routes and effective political organization to make the Ottomans the dominant force in the Mediterranean Sea for most of the period from 1450 to 1750.

Unit 3 focuses on the emergence and expansion of the great land-based empires of Afro-Eurasia. The Ottoman Empire contained many different ethnic and religious communities. By exploring the political organization of the Ottoman Empire, this article provides evidence to respond to the question of how these empires governed diverse communities. It will prepare you to compare the Ottoman example against other land-based empires in this unit and with the sea-based empires you will encounter in the next unit.

Preview – Skimming for Gist

Fill out the Skimming for Gist section of the Three Close Reads worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!

Key Ideas – Understanding Content

For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. Why does the author argue that the story of Master Orban is problematic?
2. What factors are listed in this article as contributing to Ottoman success?
3. Why was the lack of a permanent aristocracy an advantage?
4. What was the devshirme?
5. What other title did the sultans claim? Why was this important?

Evaluating and Corroborating

At the end of the third close read, respond to the following questions:

1. The author describes several different factors that contributed to the Ottoman Empire’s success during this period. Which factor do you think was most important? Would you place this factor under the category of governance, cultural developments and interactions, or economic systems? Why?
2. What similarities and differences do you see between the Ottoman Empire and other empires you have encountered in the previous units?

It’s easy to see political relations between Muslim and Christian states in the early modern period as a history of conflict and religious division. But the reign of Moroccan Sultan Mawläy 'Abd al-Mälik complicates that over-simplified story. In his short time as Sultan, he had to defend against a rival Muslim who claimed the throne and then enlisted the Christian Portuguese as allies. This led to the Battle of the Three Kings, in which 'Abd al-Mälik managed to keep Morocco independent, but at the cost of his life.

The early modern era was a time of great conflict among growing states. Whether vast empires, kingdoms, or even smaller principalities, large areas of Afro-Eurasia saw states both growing in size and becoming more centralized. In the Mediterranean, the conflict between these states is often depicted as Muslim vs. Christian. Reality was more complex, however. Political and economic realities were often more important than ideological or religious differences in determining who fought whom, and who allied with each other. This biography demonstrates the kinds of calculations leaders had to make.

Read 1: Observe

As you read this graphic biography for the first time, review the Read 1: Observe section of your Three Close Reads for Graphic Bios Tool. Be sure to record one question in the thought bubble on the top-right. You don’t need to write anything else down. However, if you’d like to record your observations, feel free to do so on scrap paper.

Read 2: Understand

On the tool, summarize the main idea of the comic and provide two pieces of evidence that helped you understand the creator’s main idea. You can do this only in writing or you can get creative with some art. Some of the evidence you find may come in the form of text (words). But other evidence will come in the form of art (images). You should read the text looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the main idea, and key supporting details. You should also spend some time looking at the images and the way in which the page is designed. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. Which countries were the main threats to Morocco during the period of Sa'âdi rule, and what were the religions of their leaders?
2. Who was Mawläy ‘Abd al-Mälik’s main rival for the Moroccan throne, and to whom did this competitor turn for support?
3. In your own words, what was in Mawläy ‘Abd al-Mälik’s letter to Don Sebastián I?
4. What was the outcome of the Battle of the Three Kings?
5. Why do you think the artist drew the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea criss-crossed by lines in the top panel?

Read 3: Connect

In this read, you should use the graphic biography as evidence to support, extend, or challenge claims made in this unit of the course. On the bottom of the tool, record what you learned about this person’s life and how it relates to what you’re learning.

1. How does this biography of Mawläy ‘Abd al-Mälik support, extend, or challenge what you have learned about international relations and conflict in this period?

To Be Continued…

On the second page of the tool, your teacher might ask you to extend the graphic biography to a second page. This is where you can draw and write what you think might come next. Here, you can become a co-creator of this graphic biography!

The Omani Empire was not a typical empire. It was not something you could easily see on the map. It didn’t have an army or typical bureaucracy. In the corner of Arabia, on the Indian Ocean coast, the Omani rulers looked away from the land and outward to the sea, ultimately controlling many important sea lanes. This so-called empire was a loose web of ports connected through trade relations. Over time, it became a powerful economic, political, and cultural force that reshaped the Indian Ocean world, from Oman to Zanzibar and beyond.

In this video, you’ll learn about the formation, history, and legacy of the Omani Empire. The Omani Empire is an interesting case study for world history, as it wasn’t a typical empire. This will make it useful for comparing to other Afro-Eurasian empires or empires in the Americas like the Comanche Empire. The example of Oman highlights the importance of Indian Ocean trade for political power, which will help you test claims about how we organize the regions we use in world history.

Preview – Skimming for Gist

As a reminder, open and skim the transcript, and read the questions before you watch the video.

Key Ideas – Understanding Content

Think about the following questions as you watch this video:

1. What makes the Omani Empire different from other Islamic empires?
2. What areas did the Omani Empire cover at its peak?
3. How did the Omani Empire come to be an empire?
4. What are two key differences between the Omani Empire and most other Empires?
5. How did the Omani Empire change East Africa in the long term?
6. What lasting impact did the Omani Empire have on Oman today?
7. According to Kamala Russell, what makes the Omani Empire interesting from the perspective of global history?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. Do you think the Omani Empire was actually an empire? Why or why not?

The Mughals were a Muslim dynasty who, in the sixteenth century, built an empire stretching over a huge region of South and Central Asia. Their population produced a lot of the world’s most desired goods, including much of its cloth. They dominated the region partly through a vast army and a loyal nobility, and partly through a policy of religious tolerance. But declining tolerance, continuing wars, and a changing global economy created challenges in the eighteenth century.

This article is one of several that will introduce you to a number of empires. This series will help you understand how societies were connected around the world, and how each empire was unique.

Preview – Skimming for Gist

Fill out the Skimming section of the Three Close Reads worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!

Key Ideas – Understanding Content

For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. Looking at the map, what do you notice about the changing shape and size of the Mughal Empire in the years leading up to 1750?
2. What groups or classes of people were the most important supporters of Mughal rule?
3. Like other empires, the Mughal Empire had lots of different communities. How did it successfully rule all of these groups until the mid-eighteenth century?
4. According to the article, what was the role of the Mughal Empire in the global economy?
5. What internal challenges did the Mughal emperors face in 1750?
6. What external challenges did the Mughal emperors face in 1750?

Evaluating and Corroborating

At the end of the third close read, respond to the following questions:

1. Based on the evidence in this article, what aspects of the Mughal Empire in 1750 seem unique or distinctive, and what aspects seem to be part of a wider global pattern?
2. If you could ask the author for one more piece of information about the Mughal Empire—that isn’t included in this article—what would it be?

There is an assumption that, in the early modern Islamic world, the two spheres of household and politics were separate. But the household often played a key role in governance and diplomacy. Understanding these connections can help us to more deeply understand how the state worked. It also reveals the role women often played in government and politics. The career of Timurid (Mughal) noblewoman Khanzada Begum is one example of how the lines between politics and the household often blurred.

For the era c. 1450–1750, we see the expansion of states—both in terms of geographic size and how much the government tried to control people’s lives. But what did these governments look like? You might think of them as being separate from the life of the household, but were they? You may also have been introduced to many, many male rulers and members of royal families. But what were the roles of their female family members? This biography is one example that may complicate the way you think about these states.

Read 1: Observe

As you read this graphic biography for the first time, review the Read 1: Observe section of your Three Close Reads for Graphic Bios Tool. Be sure to record one question in the thought bubble on the top-right. You don’t need to write anything else down. However, if you’d like to record your observations, feel free to do so on scrap paper.

Read 2: Understand

On the tool, summarize the main idea of the comic and provide two pieces of evidence that helped you understand the creator’s main idea. You can do this only in writing or you can get creative with some art. Some of the evidence you find may come in the form of text (words). But other evidence will come in the form of art (images). You should read the text looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the main idea, and key supporting details. You should also spend some time looking at the images and the way in which the page is designed. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. 1How was Khanzada Begum related to the first Mughal Emperors, Babur and Humayun?
2. Why did Khanzada Begum marry Muhammad Shaybani Khan, and why were they divorced?
3. How did Khanzada Begum help her brother in his conflict with the Uzbeks after her divorce?
4. How did Khanzada Begum help her nephew rule?
5. How does the artist use art and design to demonstrate the power and authority of Khanzada Begum?

Read 3: Connect

In this read, you should use the graphic biography as evidence to support, extend, or challenge claims made in this unit of the course. On the bottom of the tool, record what you learned about this person’s life and how it relates to what you’re learning.

1. How does this biography of Khanzada Begum support, extend, or challenge what you have learned about the “gunpowder empires,” and government generally, in this era?

To Be Continued…

On the second page of the tool, your teacher might ask you to extend the graphic biography to a second page. This is where you can draw and write what you think might come next. Here, you can become a co-creator of this graphic biography!

The time period of this unit, 1450 to 1750, isn’t a great fit for Chinese history. During this time, China was divided into the rule of two dynasties—the Ming who ruled from 1368 to 1640 and the Qing who ruled from about 1640 to 1912. But within the period 1450 to 1750, we can see an important change in Chinese policy under both dynasties. This was the turn inland, a perfectly logical decision to focus on agriculture and relations with Central and Northern Asian peoples, rather than trade across the ocean.

This unit focuses on the emergence and expansion of land-based empires in Afro-Eurasia. China was a key land-based empire. Ming and Qing emperors focused on the interior of Asia as a place of both threat and opportunity. This article provides evidence to respond to the question of how these dynasties governed the massive, densely-populated Chinese state. It will prepare you to compare the Chinese example against other land-based empires in this unit. It will also help you understand why Chinese rulers after 1433 focused on land, rather than becoming sea-based empires like those you will encounter in the next unit.

Preview – Skimming for Gist

Fill out the Skimming section of the Three Close Reads worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!

Key Ideas – Understanding Content

For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. What were the two dynasties that ruled China from 1450 to 1750, and what were their periods of rule?
2. What was the “turn inland” after 1433, and why did it happen according to the author?
3. What was the focus of the Yongle Emperor (1402-1424) according to the article?
4. What caused the fall of the Ming dynasty and the rise of the Qing dynasty around 1640?
5. What policies did the Kangzi Emperor (1661-1772) pursue?

Evaluating and Corroborating

At the end of the third close read, respond to the following question:

1. For many decades, world historians saw China’s turn “inward” (or “inland”) as a mistake, because it slowly allowed Europeans to dominate global trade. Many historians now argue, however, that it was a logical decision given China’s needs in the from the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries. Do you think these policies were a mistake? Why or why not? What evidence from this article supports or challenges your argument?

Late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Guangzhou was an important center for global trade. Qing Shih entered this city as one of hundreds of thousands of poor workers. She rose to become a leader of the pirates who grew to take advantage of this rising trade and the increasing weakness of the Qing Dynasty that ruled China. She helped build a vast pirate confederacy that threatened the Chinese state, and eventually negotiated a wealthy retirement.

The story of Qing Shih, a pirate queen, will provide an individual lens through which you can think about the Unit 3 Problem: How did transoceanic connections transform global economic systems and societies in different parts of the world? Qing Shih’s biography may help you support or modify your response to this question. The story also features China as a central point for thinking about these issues of connection and experience.

Read 1: Observe

As you read this graphic biography for the first time, review the Read 1: Observe section of your Three Close Reads for Graphic Bios Tool. Be sure to record one question in the thought bubble on the top-right. You don’t need to write anything else down. However, if you’d like to record your observations, feel free to do so on scrap paper.

Read 2: Understand

On the tool, summarize the main idea of the comic and provide two pieces of evidence that helped you understand the creator’s main idea. You can do this only in writing or you can get creative with some art. Some of the evidence you find may come in the form of text (words). But other evidence will come in the form of art (images). You should read the text looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the main idea, and key supporting details. You should also spend some time looking at the images and the way in which the page is designed. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. How and why did Qing Shih get to Guangzhou?
2. What was Guangzhou like in 1775, according to the author?
3. How did Qing Shih become a pirate queen?
4. How did Qing Shih strengthen the pirate confederacy? What policies did she pursue?
5. The artist shows Qing Shih at the edge or towards the back of panels at the beginning of the biography, but by the end she is in the middle and front of each panel. What message is she giving through this placement?

Read 3: Connect

In this read, you should use the graphic biography as evidence to support, extend, or challenge claims made in this unit of the course. On the bottom of the tool, record what you learned about this person’s life and how it relates to what you’re learning.

1. Thinking about the communities frame, does Qing Shih’s story support, extend, or challenge what you have learned about China in this unit? In other words, does it confirm what you know about communities in China (support)? Does it deepen what you already know (extend)? Or does it provide evidence that goes against what you’ve been told (challenge)?

To Be Continued…

On the second page of the tool, your teacher might ask you to extend the graphic biography to a second page. This is where you can draw and write what you think might come next. Here, you can become a co-creator of this graphic biography!

The Mughals were a Muslim dynasty who, in the sixteenth century, built an empire stretching over a huge region of South and Central Asia. Their population produced a lot of the world’s most desired goods, including much of its cloth. They dominated the region partly through a vast army and a loyal nobility, and partly through a policy of religious tolerance. But declining tolerance, continuing wars, and a changing global economy created challenges in the eighteenth century.

This article will help you understand Muscovy and the Russian Empire under early Romanov rule. Pay attention to how this society developed as it emerged from Mongol rule, through its governance by the Grand Dukes of Muscovy, and then the Russian Empire under the Romanovs. Consider how these northern Eurasian societies developed and interacted with surrounding regions, and be prepared to compare their system of government and social and economic organization with other large states and empires of this period.

Preview – Skimming for Gist

Fill out the Skimming section of the Three Close Reads worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!

Key Ideas – Understanding Content

For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. Why have historians generally paid more attention to southern Eurasia than northern Eurasia?
2. According to this essay, what northern Eurasian group had a huge impact on the entire region in the thirteenth century?
3. Who drove the Mongol “Golden Horde” out of Muscovy, the region around today’s Moscow?
4. How long did the Romanovs rule the Russian Empire?
5. Who were the serfs and who were the boyars in imperial Russia? What were their roles?
6. How and where did the Russian Empire expand under the Romanovs?

Evaluating and Corroborating

At the end of the third close read, respond to the following question:

1. How did the role of the Orthodox Church in Muscovy/Russia compare with the role of religions in other Eurasian land-based empires?

In this video, John Green argues that the relationship between Venice and the Ottoman Empire in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries led to the Renaissance and Christopher Columbus. This mutually beneficial relationship was based upon the exchange of goods—namely spices, grain, and ash. The Ottomans became wealthy from taxing this trade, while the Venetians received the goods they needed and also profited by selling spices to other Europeans.

John Green asks you to evaluate the following causal claim in this video: how the relationship between Venice and the Ottoman Empire led to the Renaissance and Christopher Columbus. This unit focuses on global interconnections that began as a result of the Columbian Exchange, but there were also important regional networks that continued to thrive during this era. This will help you assess the narrative put forth in the networks frame.

Preview – Skimming for Gist

As a reminder, open and skim the transcript and read the questions before you watch the video.

Key Ideas – Understanding Content

Think about the following questions as you watch this video:

1. How did geography affect Venice?
2. How did Venice become “the biggest European power in the Mediterranean”, according to John Green?
3. What did the Venetians need from the Ottoman Empire?
4. What were the main differences between the political organizations of Venice and the Ottoman Empire?
5. After the Ottoman Empire took over Egypt, what type of relationship was negotiated with the Venetians?
6. John Green claims that the relationship between Venice and the Ottoman Empire led to the Renaissance and Christopher Columbus. What evidence does he use to back up this claim?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. The previous lesson focused on the creation of global networks that occurred with the Columbian Exchange. This lesson’s focus is on early modern empires and regional networks. Create a comparison chart to identify similarities and differences between the global regional networks of this era.

You will be practicing claim testing throughout the course—and in everyday life. At times, you’ll find that using one claim tester will be sufficient for determining a claim’s validity. In other instances, you’ll need to use multiple claim testers. Up to this point in the course, you’ve learned about the claim testers in general, and about authority specifically. In order to develop as writers, readers, and speakers, you’ll need to be able to use evidence to prove your claims and assertions. Evidence is often considered the most important claim tester because it relies largely on factual information, research, and data. Not only will using evidence help you prove your own claims, it will also help you determine what to believe in the writing of others. By applying multiple claim testers at the same time, you’ll be able to determine if evidence is being proposed by a credible authority, and then be able to use it to further your claims.

Reading, writing
In this activity, you’ll read “A Sublime Empire: Ottoman Rule on Land and Sea” to identify the major claim or claims and evidence used in the article. You’ll also analyze the strength of evidence, which will increase your awareness of how to incorporate strong evidence in your own writing.

Evidence is information that we can gather to understand the world around us—specifically things that we can see and observe. You’re going to read “A Sublime Empire: Ottoman Rule on Land and Sea,” by Bennett Sherry, to see how the author uses evidence to support his claims. Remember, evidence doesn’t mean a lot if you don’t have the claim it supports (or refutes) in mind, so as you read the article, focus on the claims that Sherry makes.

Once you’re done reading, highlight the claims you find in the article. Be prepared to share your claims with the class.

Now that you’ve found the claims, it’s time to think about evidence. Is all evidence the same? Are some types of evidence better than others? As a class, brainstorm as many types of evidence people use in history as you can.

Now, read the article again, this time looking for and underlining the supporting statements or evidence being used to support the claim or claims.

Remember that there can also be arguments against a claim or evidence. So, as you underline the evidence, look out for counterclaims, or sections of the article where Bennett Sherry refutes or questions the evidence for these claims. Circle any counterclaims you find. Again, be prepared to share your answers with the class.

Finally, answer the following questions on a piece of paper to submit as an exit ticket:

• Write a claim about which piece of evidence is strongest in supporting its claim and why.
• Write a claim about which piece of evidence would be easiest to refute and why.

This article explores how and why the early maritime (oceanic) empires of Europe developed, and how they expanded into the Americas, Africa, and Asia. This new development in world history dramatically increased the ways in which the globe was connected. These connections were dominated by European states, and these states used entities like powerful joint-stock companies to share in the burdens and the benefits of imperial expansion. Competition, extraction of resources, and expansion of political and cultural control all drove this process.

This article should help you understand the complex economic developments in this period that connected the world in new ways. It will also help you consider change over time and think about how these developments led to massive global change. Finally, it will help you answer the Unit 3 Problem: How did transoceanic connections transform global economic systems and societies in different parts of the world?

Preview – Skimming for Gist

Fill out the Skimming section of the Three Close Reads worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!

Key Ideas – Understanding Content

For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. According to this article, what were the main empires that took part in the maritime expansion in this period?
2. What were the main regions that these empires expanded into during this period?
3. What does the author mean by “private actors” in this phase of imperial expansion? Can you note any examples?
4. What were some of the main reasons for the imperial maritime expansions in this period?
5. What product was in demand in Europe and drove plantation economies across the Atlantic Ocean?

Evaluating and Corroborating

At the end of the third close read, respond to the following question:

1. How did the new global networks described in this article change societies around the world? Connect what you learned here to earlier lessons and examples.

3x5 note cards or cut up paper

This sourcing collection, along with the Quick-Sourcing Tool, gives you an opportunity to practice a quicker kind of sourcing than you do in the sourcing practice progression. The tool and the process for using it—specifically designed for unpacking document collections—will help you be successful when responding to DBQs.

Note: If you are unfamiliar with the Quick-Sourcing Tool or the process for using it, we recommend reviewing the Quick-Sourcing Introduction activity in Lesson 2.1.

The Quick-Sourcing Tool can be used any time you encounter a set of sources and are trying to respond to a prompt or question, as opposed to the deeper analysis you do when using the HAPPY tool that is part of the sourcing progression.

First, take out or download the sourcing collection and review the guiding question that appears on the first page. Then, take out or download the Quick-Sourcing Tool and review the directions. For Part 1, you’ll write a quick summary of each source in terms of how it relates to the guiding question (we recommend using one note card or scrap of paper for each source).

For Part 2, which uses the first four letters of the acronym from the HAPPY tool, you only have to respond to one of these four questions. You should always include the historical significance or “why” (the “Y” in “HAPPY”) for any of the four questions you choose to respond to.

In Part 3, you’ll gather the evidence you found in each document and add it to your note cards so you can include it in a response later. Once each document is analyzed, look at your note cards and try to categorize the cards. There might be a group of documents that support the claim you want to make in your response, and another group that will help you consider counterclaims, for example.

To wrap up, try to respond to the guiding question.

This collection explores changing belief systems, from the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation to devotional movements like Sufism and the Bhakti movement. It also looks at the political dimensions of religion, from Christian Europe to the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Courts, all of which were entangled in sectarian struggles.

The primary source excerpts in this collection will help you grasp why religions transformed and, in some cases, split during this period. You will learn about the Protestant Reformation, Sunni-Shi’a split, and the rise of devotional movements like Sufism. This will help you understand some of the differences between faiths that persist today. In addition, you’ll work on your sourcing skills using the Quick-Sourcing Tool.

We recommend using the accompanying Quick Sourcing activity (above) to help you analyze these sources.

Records of Yasuke’s life exist only for a four-year period in the sixteenth century. We know little about his life beyond these four years. But it was an extraordinary four years. He traveled with Jesuit missionaries to Japan. He became perhaps the first foreigner—and the first African—to gain the rank of samurai. He befriended the most powerful daimyo in Japan, fighting in several important battles. After his lord committed ritual suicide to escape capture, Yasuke was sent back to the Jesuits and once again fades from the historical record.

Sometimes, it seems as if only Europeans were moving around the oceans of the early modern period. But in fact, the sea was full of travelers from Africa, Asia, Polynesia, and the Americas. In general, however, we don’t hear about these people—or even about average European sailors—except where they cross paths with important people. The biography of Yasuke challenges these typical narratives and reveals how much influence an individual can exert on events given the right circumstances. What little we know of Yasuke’s life, we know because of his relationship with an important leader, Oda Nobunaga.

Read 1: Observe

As you read this graphic biography for the first time, review the Read 1: Observe section of your Three Close Reads for Graphic Bios Tool. Be sure to record one question in the thought bubble on the top-right. You don’t need to write anything else down. However, if you’d like to record your observations, feel free to do so on scrap paper.

Read 2: Understand

On the tool, summarize the main idea of the comic and provide two pieces of evidence that helped you understand the creator’s main idea. You can do this only in writing or you can get creative with some art. Some of the evidence you find may come in the form of text (words). But other evidence will come in the form of art (images). You should read the text looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the main idea, and key supporting details. You should also spend some time looking at the images and the way in which the page is designed. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. Where was Yasuke likely from and how did he get to Japan?
2. What was Yasuke’s relationship with Oda Nobunaga?
3. What happened to Yasuke after Oda Nobunaga was killed?
4. What else do we know about Yasuke?
5. How does the artist’s depiction of Yasuke change across the page?

Read 3: Connect

In this read, you should use the graphic biography as evidence to support, extend, or challenge claims made in this unit of the course. On the bottom of the tool, record what you learned about this person’s life and how it relates to what you’re learning.

1. How does this biography of Yasuke support, extend, or challenge what you have learned about oceanic connections and networks in this period?

To Be Continued…

On the second page of the tool, your teacher might ask you to extend the graphic biography to a second page. This is where you can draw and write what you think might come next. Here, you can become a co-creator of this graphic biography!

Historians debate whether the Comanche Empire was truly an empire. Maybe that’s because Comanche society didn’t have some of the features of most empires. Maybe it was because scholars have historically been blind to the idea of empires created by indigenous Americans. So what exactly counts as an empire? Like the Mongol Empire, the Comanche Empire was formed by nomadic pastoralists. Using horses to trade, hunt, raid, and fight, the Comanche Empire became a formidable force that supported a robust trading network.

This video explores the idea of empire through a case study of an indigenous American community. It brings up questions about what counts as an empire and how political communities get labelled. You’ll be able to practice comparing and contextualizing. You’ll also be able to connect this video to the Unit 3 Problem: How did transoceanic connections transform global economic systems and societies in different parts of the world?

Preview – Skimming for Gist

As a reminder, open and skim the transcript, and read the questions before you want the video.

Key Ideas – Understanding Content

Think about the following questions as you watch this video:

1. What do the Comanche and the Mongols have in common?
2. What was unique about Comanche leadership, and how did it help them build their empire?
3. Why were horses so important to the Comanche Empire?
4. How did the Spanish colonizers relate to the Comanche?
5. What was production and distribution like in Comanche territory?
6. How did the Comanche form broader networks and communities with other indigenous groups?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. Is the author’s argument that the Comanche built an empire convincing? What other sources or facts support, extend, or challenge the author of this text?
2. The Comanche empire described in this video existed from about the sixteenth century. The Mongol empire was mostly a twelfth and thirteenth century state. The creators of this course believe it is useful to study the two together, despite the chronological difference. Do you agree? Why or why not?

In this activity, you will use your contextualization skills to unpack how the Omani and Comanche created empires that seemed to defy some of the traditional characteristics of empires in this era. Locating the Omani and Comanche empires in time and space as well as considering their respective cultures at the time is critical to thinking about this topic.

Comparison
You’ll will be asked to compare the Omani and Comanche empires with other empires of this era as you try to determine the context and conditions that led to the creation and expansion of the Omani and Comanche states.

In this activity, you will use the event cards on the Omani and Comanche Empires to complete the Contextualization Tool, which is included in the Contextualization – Omani and Comanche Empires worksheet. Then, you’ll use the information from your completed tools and evidence from the Omani Empire video from earlier in this lesson along with the Comanche Empire video to answer a prompt about these empires. By contextualizing the time, place, and culture that surrounded these empires, you will be able to more fully understand how these empires were formed and how they maintained control over such a vast area of diverse people.

First, discuss the following questions with your class:

• What examples come to mind when you hear the word empire? What did these empires have in common?
• Are there some empires that you’ve learned about in this course that seem not to fit with that traditional idea of an empire? What’s different about these empires?

Then, your teacher will either hand out or have you download the Contextualization – Omani and Comanche Empires worksheet. By now you should be becoming more familiar with the Contextualization Tool. Remember that contextualization is often about situating an event in its temporal (time period), spatial (location), and cultural setting. Also, remember to follow all the worksheet’s directions. Note: If you need to refresh your memory on these two empires, review the video transcripts. If necessary, you can also conduct independent research on the Comanche Empire. A suggested source to use is the official website of the Comanche Nation (https://comanchenation.com).

Your teacher will break the class into small groups of three to four students to complete the tool for the Omani and Comanche Empires. Start by writing the dates and locations for both these empires and then divide the event cards for each empire into broad and narrow context.

Then, you’ll share your broad and narrow context with the class by placing your event cards on the funnel on the board. Be sure to share your reasons for categorizing your event cards as broad or narrow context. You are allowed to move any event cards that you think were placed incorrectly by the prior group, but you must provide justification for doing so. After your group has moved any of the previous group’s event cards then you can place two of your event cards (one for each empire) that are not already up on the funnel and explain your reasoning to the class. Then, return to your group to answer the remaining questions on the tool.

Finally, use your descriptions of broad and narrow context on the tool to either individually or in your small groups write a one-paragraph response to the following question:

What historical context related to the time period, location, and culture of the Omani and Comanche allowed them to develop empires that seemed different from other, more traditional empires in history?

Your teacher will collect your worksheets and paragraphs to assess how your contextualization skills are progressing.