Think about the causes of the expansion of civilizations by completing an activity where you are the leaders of the civilization. This is a great way for you to begin to think about the pros and cons associated with the development of agrarian civilizations.

Imagine that you are part of the ruling class of an agrarian civilization. You have a problem: Your civilization is running low on resources! You have two options: raise taxes on your citizens or conquer a neighboring civilization. Choose one of these options and then answer the following questions:

1. What would it take to execute your plan? Come up with a general plan of action.
2. What are the benefits to your method of increasing revenue?
3. What are the costs (economic, political, cultural, geographical) and dangers of your plan?

Be prepared to share your answers with the class.

In Unit 8, we move from examining local and regional connections to new global interconnections. The reconnecting of the four world zones brought forth many positive effects that still impact our world today. What would Italian food be without tomatoes or Indian food without chilies?! But, you’ll also learn about the dark side of these exchanges that also continue to impact our world in negative ways. In particular, you’ll examine the transfer of diseases among societies and the enslavement of Africans who were forced to labor in the Americas.

This video previews the new interconnections that began in the fifteenth century. You’ll learn how explorers opened up new trade networks, which led to an increase in collective learning as new and diverse people shared ideas, plants, and goods. But there were also negative consequences that came along with these connections. Evaluating these connections will help you to answer the driving question for this unit: What are the positive and negative impacts of interconnection?

Preview

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

Key Ideas – Factual

Think about the following questions as you watch this video:

1. What was the bubonic plague and what caused it?
2. How did a recent interdisciplinary study help to rewrite the history of the spread of the Black Death?
3. What evidence challenged the narrative that farming brought increasing complexity?
4. If collective learning increased substantially due to new connections and larger populations, why isn’t there a new threshold of increasing complexity in this unit?
5. What types of exchange networks and connections existed before 1492 and after 1492?
6. What is the Columbian Exchange?
7. What were the negative effects of the Columbian Exchange?

Thinking Conceptually

1. This unit is all about expansion and interconnection as the four world zones came together. New crops were transferred, populations increased, and new empires were created. What evidence from this video challenges this story of progress and expansion?
2. Pick a side in the great threshold debate: should Unit 8 have its own threshold? Be sure to back up your decision with evidence and explain your reasoning.

Understanding vocabulary helps you access course content and become a better reader, a better writer, and a better communicator. This word wall activity will help you begin to learn some of the key vocabulary from the unit.

In this activity, you’ll work with your class to create a word wall using the Unit 8 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 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. Then, add as many antonyms to your card for your word as possible. Be careful if you decide to use the “related words” section from the vocab guide—it doesn’t distinguish between synonyms and antonyms. Your teacher will give you a limited amount of time to write antonyms. Then, the people with the most correct antonyms at the end of the time will put their words on the word wall first.

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

Answering the driving question in this lesson will help you begin to think about how expansion led to interconnection.

Think about this question: What are the positive and negative impacts of interconnection?

Use the DQ Notebook Worksheet—Unit 8 to respond to this question as best you can. Be prepared to share your ideas with the class.

One result of conquest by agrarian civilizations was access to greater amounts of the resources needed for a civilization to operate. This solved one problem that leaders of agrarian civilizations faced, but it also created others. Armies are expensive, and the need to pay, equip, and feed soldiers increased the expenses of agrarian civilizations. Some of the innovations created to support the military, like roads and iron technology, could be used for peaceful purposes as well, and these innovations contributed to greater interconnectivity and collective learning.

This video builds upon the opening activity for this lesson and delves deeper into how and why civilizations expanded.

Preview

Sustaining innovation is a challenge that all agrarian civilizations faced. Some of the most famous agrarian civilizations—the Roman Empire, the Persian Empire, and the Mongol Empire—faced this challenge, and their solution was to expand. Conquest meant the addition of new territories, resources, and people.

Key Ideas—Factual

Think about the following questions as you watch the video:

1. Why did civilizations expand geographically?
2. Why did many leaders of agrarian civilizations choose conquest to pay their expenses rather than trying to raise money in lands they already controlled?
3. What are some examples of ways that military innovations supported trade and other important human activities?

Thinking Conceptually

Do you think there are many civilizations today that would try to conquer neighboring civilizations in order to generate more money and resources for the civilization? Explain your answer and be prepared to discuss with the class.

It’s mind-boggling how quickly change has accelerated from 1492 to the present, or even from 1900 to the present. The Greens point out how our population has soared and technology is advancing at an astronomical rate. However, if we continue at this rate what does this mean for the future?

This video will introduce you to the concept of modernity and prepare you for thinking about how innovation has accelerated due to the interconnection of the world zones and an increase in collective learning.

Preview

In this Crash Course video, the Greens explain how the connection of the four world zones changed the rate of acceleration on Earth and ushered forth the modern revolution.

Key Ideas—Factual

Think about the following questions as you watch the video:

1. Why did European explorations to other areas of the world mark a significant change to collective learning and why did these explorations begin in the mid- to late-fifteenth century?
2. The connection of the four world zones was immediately profitable for Europeans and for us but what were some of the negative effects?
3. How is the Industrial Revolution the result of years of collective learning?
4. How did the Industrial Revolution spark a different kind of adaptive radiation?
5. Why did industrialization begin in Great Britain and not in some other part of the world?

Thinking Conceptually

The video closes by saying that “we are now entering a new era of immense danger.” Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Be prepared to explain your answer to the class.

This game is designed to teach you the importance of living in a world zone with ample resources. You’ll play the game to learn how certain inventions help civilizations grow, while natural and manmade disasters contribute to a weakening of civilizations. The first group to connect all four world zones by successfully acquiring all of the inventions in the game wins.

How to Win!

In groups, you’ll create your own world zone and roll the dice to acquire population, inventions, and Community Chest cards that could either benefit your zone or be disastrous for it! In order to win the game, one team must connect the four world zones by acquiring all of the inventions necessary to explore the world.

Set Up

Your teacher will divide the class into four groups. Each group has 5 minutes to complete the following pregame tasks:

1. Decide whether to create a continent, mega-continent, or island chain.
2. Name your zone.
3. Describe your land.
4. Pick six natural resources. At least two of these resources must be a plant or animal that can be domesticated.

After your group has completed the four pregame tasks, your teacher will assign a value to each group by scoring your resource choices. This total will be added to your population after you roll the population die.

On Your Turn

All groups begin with a population of 10,000. Each group then rolls the population die and adds this number to their population. For example, if a group rolls 5K, that means they have a score of 5,000 from this roll. Add that number to their original 10,000. If a group has a positive total from the pregame set up, the die roll is adjusted accordingly. For example, if Group A rolled a 5K on the population die and added that 5,000 to their starting population of 10,000, they would have 15,000, plus 1,000 from the pregame, for a total of 16,000.

All groups then roll the invention die and add this number to their total from the population die roll. If a group reaches 100,000 or above after rolling both dice, that group gets an invention; however, if the group fails to reach 100,000, play passes to the next group. For example, if Group A rolls the invention die and lands on 20K (20,000), their score after rolling both dice would be 36,000, which would not be enough to earn an invention on this roll.

Once a group earns an invention, they must keep rolling until they accumulate another 100,000 points before they can earn another invention.

After each group has taken a turn, your teacher will ask a student—any student—a Big History trivia question. If the student answers correctly, their group gets to choose a Community Chest card.

The game is over when a group acquires all of the inventions and can thus explore the globe and connect the world zones.

Innovations in transportation and communication made possible the linking of the four world zones after 1400. Before this time, the pace of innovation in each zone varied. Many factors influenced the pace of innovation: population size, diversity, and density were all important, as was access to resources. Differences among the world zones determined the nature of the exchanges and interconnections that eventually developed among the zones.

Why was one world zone able to dominate the others for such an extended period of time? This article gives you some interesting explanations for what happened after the four world zones became connected due to Afro-Eurasian expansion.

Skimming for Gist

In 1400 CE, the world was divided into four distinct zones, each with its own characteristics and history. These world zones differed in many ways, and resources and people were not spread evenly throughout these zones. As a result, when the four world zones were connected after 1400, some were able to use their advantages to dominate others.

Understanding Content

As you read the article more carefully a second time through, think about the following questions.

1. What is a world zone?
2. What advantages did the Afro-Eurasian world zone have over the other world zones?
3. What were some of the disadvantages that the Australasian and Pacific world zones faced?

Thinking Conceptually

How do you think the domination of one world zone over the others has influenced the world today in terms of access to innovation and economic success?