What do modern pit stops and medieval caravanserai have in common? Quite a lot! Merchants who traveled the Silk Roads, Indian Ocean, and trans-Saharan routes needed safe places to stop, rest, and refuel during their journey, just like modern travelers do. In this video you’ll learn how in times of political stability, such as the Pax Mongolica, networks of exchange flourished, and pit stops like caravanserai flourished along trade routes. Goods, people, technology, and ideas moved along these networks of exchange, connecting Afro-Eurasian societies. But people traveling these networks also spread diseases, one of which led to the breakdown of networks in the fourteenth century.

This video gives you an overview of the content and themes you’ll explore in Unit 2. The evidence presented in the video will help you make comparisons across Afro-Eurasian networks and help you respond to the Unit Problem: “What were the similarities and differences among networks of exchange in various regions of the world from c. 1200 to 1450 CE?” You’ll also begin to understand how the themes of governance, humans and the environment, cultural developments and interactions, technology and innovation, and economic systems can be used to evaluate networks of exchange from 1200 to 1450.

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. What are caravanserai and why were they useful?
2. Where did large regional networks exist in this era?
3. How was trade conducted over the largest network in Afro-Eurasia and what goods were traded along this route?
4. How are the themes of governance and economic systems linked when studying networks of exchange in this era?
5. How did the creation of the Mongol Empire disrupt trade but also lead to building new caravanserai?
6. How did caravanserai affect many of the regions in which they were built?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. Many of the things you use today come to you from far away. If you need proof, just look at the tags on your clothes or the “made in ____” labels on your pens or electronics. Using evidence from the video, what is one way that long-distance trade has changed since 1200 CE?

People are willing to pay for things they don’t have. This simple fact has driven the development of huge trade networks. By the thirteenth century, merchants were traveling long distances on extensive trade routes, buying things from one place and selling them in another place that did not have those things. In Afro-Eurasia, these routes are often grouped together as the Silk Roads, but a lot of trade also traveled by sea, and the Americas had their own long-distance trade networks. In Afro-Eurasia and the Americas, these networks created new connections that changed economies, cultures, and health around the world.

Between 1200 and 1450 CE, trade networks expanded in many parts of the world. This introduction article explains how regional differences in production and distribution helped drive the creation and growth of long-distance trade networks. It introduces several important networks in Afro-Eurasia and the Americas, preparing you to evaluate the environmental and cultural consequences of increased global connections.

Read 1—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!

Read 2—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 evidence does the author provide to challenge the narrative that European peasants had miserable lives?
2. What is an artisan and where were the largest centers of artisan production in 1200 CE?
3. How does the author explain the existence of the merchant occupation?
4. What are the economic, cultural, and biological consequences of long-distance trade described by the author?

Read 3—Evaluating and Corroborating

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

1. The author opens this article by suggesting that life for European peasants wasn’t all that bad, in part because they had access to new trade goods. Do you think that access to new types of goods was always good for common people? Can you think of any types of goods that might have made life worse for some people?
2. In Unit 1, you explored the diversity of the global tapestry from 1200 to 1450 CE. Unit 2 covers the same period, but focuses more on the way diverse regions were connected. After reading this article, do you think it is useful to study the world by dividing it into separate cultural or geographic regions? Why or why not?

In Unit 2, you will explore the rich diversity and surprising interconnections of the world from 1200 to 1450 CE. Over the course of this unit, you will see new long-distance trade routes emerge and expand, reshaping the communities and states they passed through. The purpose of this activity is to introduce some of the many communities that you’ll encounter in this unit. You will also begin thinking about how these varied communities were connected to each other and you’ll predict the consequences of these interconnections. 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’ll encounter in this unit.

You will begin this activity by identifying several communities and states in the world of 1200 CE. You’ll then locate these communities on a blank map and make some guesses and predictions about the consequences of connectivity from 1200 to 1450.

Step 1

This activity is intended to introduce the geography of the world in 1200 CE. You aren’t expected to have all the answers!

With your teacher, brainstorm some factors that might have impacted the development of long-distance connections in this period. How do you think the development of these connections might have reshaped human communities? Your teacher may add some factors you haven’t thought about.

Step 2

In small groups, you should select one “communities” and one “geographic features” column from the table and label the four units in each of your selected columns on the blank map (eight labels total). When this is complete, each group should share their answers until all 40 features are labeled on your map.

Step 3

Now examine the 1200 Political Map and the Medieval Trade Routes Thematic Map. Choose two communities you just identified and make a guess about how environmental, political, or cultural factors might have shaped connectivity in that place. Finally, annotate your map, making predictions for how and where you think the expansion of long-distance trade will change life for humans over the course of this unit (1200 to 1450 CE).

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!

The World History Project AP (WHP AP) curriculum asks you to visit and revisit the AP themes throughout the course. The aim of the Themes Notebook is to keep you connected to the core themes of each unit. In Part 1 of the Themes Notebook, which you’ll complete early in each unit, you will evaluate each of the statements on the worksheet based on what you currently know. In Part 2, which comes later in each unit, the statements appear as questions. You will respond to these questions as you revise and refine your initial understanding of the unit’s themes. In both parts of this activity, you should focus on concepts rather than formal writing. The primary purpose of the Themes Notebook is to help you assess how your thinking is progressing, where you’re gaining mastery, and where you might need additional instruction.

Although it might seem that you haven’t learned enough yet to respond to the prompts, that’s OK! This activity is meant to help you think about what you might already know about the ideas and concepts of the unit. You’ll revisit the prompts at the end of the unit (although this time they’ll appear as questions), and you’ll get to see how much you’ve learned! This activity will also give you a preview of what’s to come, as you’re learning which themes you should pay attention to as you learn new content.

Note: Since you’ll be revisiting this worksheet at the end of the unit, be sure you hold onto it! If your teacher offers to collect your class’s worksheets, that’s probably your best bet.

Use the Themes Notebook worksheet to respond to the Part 1 prompts as best as you can. Be prepared to talk about these ideas with your class.

From ice cream consumption, to climate change, to Nicolas Cage and deadly pools, charts convey some critical information. But they’re not always easy to read. In this guide, Marissa Major introduces you to some common types of charts and provides strategies on how to read them. But remember, people can use charts—and data—to lie. So, it’s always important to evaluate the stories told by the charts you encounter. The future of mint chocolate chip just might depend on it.

This guide is the first part of Project X. Project X is a series of articles and activities built into the course that are designed to teach you how to read, evaluate, and use data and charts. This guide introduces some of the basic concepts of different kinds of charts and warns you about some common ways that people use charts to manipulate the truth. Don’t throw away this guide when you’re done reading it—it will be useful later, when you encounter your first Data Exploration.

Read 1—Skimming for Gist

In OER Project courses, we encourage a special approach to reading, something we call Three Close Reads. This approach will help you get all the information you need when you read. In your first read, Skimming for Gist, you should just skim to understand the title, author, and general topics covered in the article. This should be a quick process! The directions for the next two reads—Understanding Content and Evaluating and Corroborating—are below. For this first introductory article of Project X, you will use these guiding questions to help you understand what you are reading. In the next activity, you will learn how to apply this Three Close Read technique to charts and data.

Read 2—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 is the chart linking violent crime and ice cream sales misleading?
2. Where are the x-axis and y-axis located on the chart about student knowledge in WHP?
3. What are variables?
4. What is scale in charts?
5. How is the “Average Annual Global Temperature in Fahrenheit” chart misleading?
6. Are Nicolas Cage films drowning people in pools?

Read 3—Evaluating and Corroborating

In this third read, you should start evaluating the author’s argument. How does the information they provide support, extend, or challenge what you already know? At the end of the third close read, respond to the following question:

1. Can you think of any examples you’ve seen of someone using data or charts to present misleading information?

Access to the “World Population Since 10,000 BCE” chart

In this activity, you are introduced to the WHP Three Close Reads for Data tool, which will provide you with a method for unpacking the charts you will encounter in this course and identifying the various elements of data visualizations. Instead of simply accepting data visualizations as truth, you will learn to evaluate the quality of data and the ways that data can be manipulated in charts. This will help you throughout this course, as well as encourage you to be thoughtful and inquisitive when coming across visual representations of data in your everyday life.

The Three Close Reads strategy for articles may already be familiar to you. In order to help you develop your ability to “read” data, the Three Close Reads for Data process is solely focused on the charts and graphs in the data articles.

Project X includes several articles that will introduce you to a series of charts from the Our World in Data website. While the articles provide historical context and an overview of the information contained in the charts, the Three Close Reads for Data tool will guide you through the process of reading, understanding, and evaluating each chart you encounter. Before you begin the Data Explorations, be sure to read the article, “A Guide to Reading Charts.”

Even though charts and maps are graphics—they’re essentially pictures—they still need to be “read” in much the same way you read text. Three Close Reads for Data is a helpful tool for getting all the information you need from the charts. Don’t worry— you’ll get faster and faster with each reading!

Take a look at the Three Close Reads for Data worksheet and quickly review the process for opening and reading the charts linked in the article.

Overall question or idea to think about as you read:

Before you read the article or open the chart, your teacher will give you a question or idea to think about as you read. Write this question or idea in the box provided at the top of the Three Close Reads for Data worksheet. Keep this framing question or idea in mind as you explore the charts.

Reading 1— What do we have?

The first close read is really meant to be a quick scan of the chart to identify its labels, variables, and scale. It should be very quick and allow you to identify what the chart is measuring. You should be looking at the title, labels, and captions. You should determine whether this is an interactive chart, but don’t start playing with any interactive functions just yet. On the Three Close Reads worksheet, look at the “Questions” section for the first close read and see which questions you can answer quickly.

Reading 2— What do we know?

Now, look at second section of the worksheet. Here, you’re trying to understand the “story” the chart is telling by identifying its arguments and evaluating its presentation of data. Review the “Pay Attention to…” and “Questions” sections of the worksheet so you know what to keep in mind as you start to examine the chart and play with any interactive elements. If the chart is interactive, what elements can you change? Does that change your understanding of the chart’s story?

By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. How has the global human population changed in the last 12,000 years?
2. In what 50-year period did the human population increase most dramatically?
3. Has the global human population ever shrunk? When? What events might have caused this?
4. What argument is this chart is making? How did the creator of this chart want you to feel after seeing it?
5. What dates do we seem to have the best data for? Do you think you can trust the population data used in this chart?

Reading 3— What does this tell us?

Now, it’s time for the third and final read. For this read, focus on why this chart matters, how it can inform us about the past and prepare us for the future. At the end of every Reading 3, you should make a prediction about how the topic covered by the chart will change during your lifetime. How might the global population change in the next 25 years? 50 years? 100 years?

At the end of the third read, discuss the following questions with your class:

1. Why does this chart matter? What do global changes in population tell us about human communities, networks, and production and distribution?
2. Using this chart, make one prediction about how the global human population will change in your lifetime. What evidence from the chart supports your prediction? Is there any evidence that challenges it?

Open “World Population since 10,000 BCE” chart in your internet browser: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/world-population-since-10000-bce-ourworldindata-series

Demography is the study of populations. This article and the chart it contains introduce you to what is probably the most important demographic story in history: the dramatic increase in the human population in the last two centuries. The chart measures human populations from 12,000 years ago (10,000 BCE) to today. For most of our history, the human population has grown quite gradually. Then, after about 1800, our numbers began to rise very quickly and reach very high numbers. Today, there are over 7 billion of us on this planet. In 1800, we numbered about 1 billion.

This article introduces you to what we call a data exploration. In each data exploration, you’ll be asked to read one or more charts. The ability to read, analyze, and evaluate charts is really important—in this course and beyond. Reading, analyzing, and evaluating charts helps you understand how people are representing history, but it can also help you be a better consumer of media and the news. We constantly see data used to make claims in the world, so it’s important for you to be able to fully understand and analyze data visualizations like this chart so you can come to your own conclusions about that data.

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 the global human population changed in the last 12,000 years?
2. In what 50-year period did the human population increase most dramatically?
3. Has the global human population ever shrunk? When? What events might have caused this?
4. What argument is this chart is making? How did the creator of this chart want you to feel after seeing it?
5. What dates do we seem to have the best data for? Do you think you can trust the population data used in this chart? Why or why not?

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. Why does this chart matter? What do global changes in population tell us about changes in human societies? How has population growth affected the way we organize ourselves, communicate with each other, and make and use goods?
2. Using this chart, make one prediction about how the global human population will change in your lifetime. What evidence from the chart supports your prediction? Is there any evidence that challenges it?