By the fifteenth century, the Afro-Eurasian trading system had recovered from the Black Death. But now, the system was different. With no great Mongol state dominating Eurasia, several large, land-based empires emerged and competed for control of Afro-Eurasian trade networks. With the Mongol state fractured, it was now harder for Europeans to get the goods they wanted from Asia. Going in search of new routes, they encountered the Americas, where other trade networks connected societies across long distances. This collision led to the first truly global network—the Columbian Exchange. American silver, valued in Asia and carried by Europeans, helped to permanently transform the world.

This video introduces you to the period in which a truly global economic system emerged. European oceanic empires and large, land-based empires struggled for control over the new networks created. This video asks you to consider the Unit 3 Problem: How did transoceanic connections transform global economic systems and societies in different parts of the world? It also gives you your first evidence for beginning to shape a response to this question.

Preview – Skimming for Gist

Before you watch the video, open and skim the transcript. Additionally, you should always read the questions below before you watch the video (a good habit to use in reading, too!). These pre-viewing strategies will help you know what to look and listen for as you watch the video. If there is time, your teacher may have you watch the video one time without stopping, and then give you time to watch again to pause and find the answers.

Key Ideas – Understanding Content

Think about the following questions as you watch this video:

1. According to this video, how did trading systems change in the period from 1450 to 1750?
2. How did the fall of the Mongol Empire change the way that long-distance trade networks worked after 1450?
3. What were some global changes that came with the Columbian Exchange?
4. According to the video, what were the most powerful kind of states during this period? What were their priorities?
5. What was Manila’s role in this global trading system?
6. According to the video, what were some major demographic events in this era?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. What does the demographic data presented in this video tell us about the different experiences of different regions in this era? What can it not tell us?
2. What are some ways that your life today is still shaped by changes that started as a result of the first transoceanic connections?

The Early Modern era is an awkward era. It’s not quite modern, but it’s also not not modern. In this overview article, historian Trevor Getz explores how this awkward era introduced some really important transformations that helped create our modern world. Focusing on the Columbian Exchange in the Atlantic world and the rise of powerful land-based empires in Afro-Eurasia, he examines how our communities, networks, and methods of production and distribution were transformed by the transoceanic connections forged in this era.

This overview will introduce you to Unit 3. In particular, it will help you think about how the first connections between the Americas and Afro-Eurasia launched important transformations in both hemispheres. It introduces you to some important changes in the three course frame narratives and offers you some early evidence to evaluate the impact of the European colonization of the Americas on the rest of the world.

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. What was the Columbian Exchange, and why was it important?
2. What were some of the land-based empires in the period, and why does the author suggest that they emerged?
3. What advantages did these land-based empires have?
4. What were some important transformations in production and distribution that started in the Americas but also had broader effects?

Evaluating and Corroborating

For the third close read, you should think about how the article relates to the idea or question you thought about as you read.

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

1. What are some things that you use or eat on a daily basis that might not exist without the Columbian Exchange?
2. Do you think that “Early Modern” is a good term to describe this era? Why or why not? Can you think of any alternatives?

Unit 3—the era from 1450–1750—was a time of intensive changes. At the start of this period, large, land-based empires emerged in Afro-Eurasia and ruled vast territories within and around the former Mongol realm. But, perhaps the most dramatic of these changes was the linking of Afro-Eurasia with the Americas. The results of these changes can be interpreted through all three frames. Products were exchanged, new systems of production arose, and distribution routes expanded. Some existing communities were conquered or destroyed, and new oceanic empires arose. Global networks connected people and transmitted ideas, beliefs, and philosophies.

This video familiarizes you with Unit 3 of this course, which covers the period from 1450-1750. It introduces you to the dominant land-based empires of the time, as well as the Columbian Exchange and the massive impacts of transoceanic connections. Using the three frames of this course, you will work to understand how and why these global changes impacted people differently. Of course, not everyone benefitted from these changes equally, and understanding the long legacy of these changes is one important way to use history to better understand the present.

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. Why was the Columbian Exchange the world’s first global system, according to the video?
2. How did European entry to the Americans—and the conquest that followed—change communities?
3. What were the large land-based empires that existed at the beginning of this period in and around former Mongol territory? Why did the dominance of these empires begin to fade?
4. What were some large changes in this period related to the production and distribution frames?
5. What were some large changes in this period related to the networks frame?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. How is it useful to view the impact of the Columbian Exchange through three different frames, rather than simply one?

In this unit, transoceanic voyages linked the world in new, dramatic, and sometimes devastating ways. The purpose of this activity is to introduce you to the new connections forged from 1450 to 1750 and their consequences. You will also begin thinking about how new, transoceanic connections reshaped human societies around the world. The focus of this activity is on the task of identifying and predicting with maps. As the opening map activity for this unit, this is intended to help orient you in time and space while raising some important questions about the geography you will encounter in this unit.

You’ll begin this activity by identifying several empires in the world of 1550 CE, after the first transoceanic voyages began to connect the hemispheres. You will locate these communities on a blank map and then make some guesses and predictions about the consequences of connectivity from 1450 to 1750.

Step 1

Remember, this activity is intended to introduce you to geography in this unit. You aren’t expected to have all the answers.

With your teacher, brainstorm some of the general characteristics of long-distance trade in this period. What directions did it flow? Which parts of the world were the most important centers of trade and production? What types of goods moved over long-distances?

Step 2

In small groups, select three land and sea empires in 1550 from the list on the worksheet. Label and shade (in different colors) each of the three empires the 1550 Blank Map. When this is complete, each group should share their answers until all six empires are labeled on your maps.

Note: You can use the 1550 Political Map to find the answers.

Step 3

Examine the 1550 Political Map and the Medieval Trade Routes Thematic Map. Based on these maps and your discussion in Step 1, you should annotate your blank maps (or write in the table), making one prediction in response to the following three questions:

1. How do you think the first transoceanic connections changed long-distance trade routes from 1450 to 1750? Trace one new trade route on your map and provide an annotation for why it emerged.
2. How do you think empires changed between 1550 and 1750 as transoceanic connections intensified? Which empires do you think will grow more powerful? Which will shrink? What new empires might emerge? Make one prediction.
3. Pick one trade good that you think will become more important to world trade in this unit. Explain why.

This repeated activity should help you become familiar with a process for understanding unfamiliar words any time you encounter them in the course.

Take out your vocab tracker and be sure to record new and unfamiliar words on it according to your teacher’s instructions.

Understanding vocabulary is integral to you being able to access course content. This word wall activity will expose you to some of the most important words in Unit 2.

In this activity, you’ll work with your class to create a word wall using the Unit 2 vocabulary.

Your teacher will assign a vocab card to each of you. Once you get yours, take a few minutes to look it up in the Unit 2 Vocab Guide and then examine the unit itself (click around and quickly skim the content) to see where in the unit your word might be most applicable. Once you’ve done your research, create a sentence using your word. And, just like you did in Unit 1, get ready to argue for why your word is the “best” one to start with. After everyone has given a pitch on their word, you’ll all decide which two words should make it onto the wall first.

Your teacher may add some fun twists to this assignment, so be sure to listen closely for directions!

Each unit of the WHP course is guided by a Unit Problem. You’re learning a ton of stuff in this and every other unit, and it can be hard to keep track of what’s most important. It would be pretty easy to become obsessed with a detail that, although interesting and a great way to impress people at a party is relatively unimportant. This activity will help you stay focused! You’ll think about the Unit Problems, and then you’ll respond to them in writing. By keeping track of how your thinking changes throughout each unit, you’ll see how much you’re learning as you move through each section of the course.

Use the Unit 3 Problem Notebook Worksheet to respond to the prompts as best as you can. Be prepared to talk about your ideas with your class.

Open the following charts in your internet browser:

• Chart 1 – Urban Area Over the Long Term: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/urban-area-long-term
• Chart 2 – Urbanization over the Past 500 years: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/urbanization-last-500-years
• Chart 3 – Land Use over the Long Term: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/land-use-over-the-long-term
• Chart 4 – Urban Population vs. GDP: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/urbanization-vs-gdp?time=

Today, more than half of the humans on this planet live in cities. Yet for almost all human history, the vast majority of people lived outside of cities. As more and more humans moved into cities, urbanization gradually changed the ways we lived. After 1800, these changes intensified as urbanization accelerated. Even with over half of all humans living in cities, the “built environment” of urban landscapes is only a small percentage of Earth’s surface. But urbanization’s reach extends beyond cities, affecting how we produce food and the relative wealth of nations.

The first data exploration introduced one chart. This second exploration has four. Wow, that escalated quickly... kinda like urbanization! One chart rarely tells the whole story. That’s why it’s important for you to learn how to make connections between different types of data and different charts. Together, the charts in this article will introduce you to changes in urbanization at the global, regional, and national levels. They will also provide you with evidence to evaluate and make claims about urbanization’s impacts on human networks and systems of production and distribution.

Your teacher will let you know if there is an overall question to hold in your mind as complete your three reads of the article.

Preview – What Do We Have?

Fill out the Read 1: Preview section of the Three Close Reads for Data worksheet as you complete your first close read. Remember—this should be a quick process!

Key Ideas – What Do We Know?

For this read, your goal is to understand the “story” the chart is telling by identifying its arguments and evaluating its presentation of data. You will decide what claim or claims this chart is making and what evidence is being used to support those claims. Do you think the data is reliable? Is the chart misleading in any way? By the end of this read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. How has urbanization changed in the last 12,000 years?
2. How are Charts 1 and 2 different?
3. What does Chart 3 tell us about the impacts of urbanization on human use of the land?
4. What does Chart 4 suggest about the relationship between urbanization and wealth?
5. Thinking back to the “ice cream and violent crime” chart from “A Guide to Reading Charts,” can you think of any problems with Chart 4? Can you think of any other variables (like weather in the ice cream chart) that might explain both high levels of urbanization and wealth?

Making Connections – What Does This Tell Us?

The third read is really about why the chart is important, what it can tell us about the past, and how it can help us think about the future. At the end of this read, respond to the following questions:

1. What are the connections between these four charts? Together, what do they tell us about urbanization in the long term of human history? What do they tell us about the more recent past?
2. Using these four charts, make one prediction about how urbanization will change in your lifetime. What evidence from the charts supports your prediction? What evidence challenges it?