In this activity, you’ll apply the knowledge you acquired in the “Regional Trade Networks” article by mapping the networks it describes. This will help you better understand the networks frame and how communities are interconnected through trade and exchange. Mapping skills are important for increasing your geographic literacy and provide a visual representation of historical events and processes over time. Examining history through materials other than just text helps reinforce what you are learning.

Regional trade networks in Afro-Eurasia and Mesoamerica connected societies across both of these areas. The exchange of people, goods, ideas, and diseases created interconnections and set the stage for the global connections that would follow. In this activity, you’ll map these exchange networks in order to create a visual representation of how they connected regions such as Afro-Eurasia and Mesoamerica.

First, your teacher will either hand out or have you download the Mapping Regional Trade Networks Worksheet and the article “Regional Trade Networks.” Then, outline the area and label the following places on the worksheet maps:

1. Mesopotamia (Fertile Crescent) including the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
2. Egypt and the Nile River Valley
3. Indus River Valley including Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro
4. China including the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers
5. Silk Road trade networks
6. Indian ocean trade networks
7. Teotihuacan
8. Olmec society
9. Maya society
10. Mesoamerican trade networks

Next, read the article “Regional Trade Networks” and make a list of the goods traded between these societies. Create categories for your goods (for example, pepper and nutmeg could be categorized as spices), and then create symbols for each of these categories. Place these symbols on the map near where these goods originated. For example, the symbol for the category that obsidian fell into would be near the city of Teotihuacan. You should also create a legend (key) for these symbols.

Now, review the article for other items (tangible or intangible) that traveled across these routes. Create symbols for these additional items that moved across these regional exchange networks and add them to your maps. Be sure to also add these symbols to your legend.

Next, use the information in the article to answer the following questions.

• Why was the Afro-Eurasian network larger than the Mesoamerican one?
• How did these goods move along these routes (human or animal power; if animals, what types?)?
• How did these networks change communities in these regions?
• How did rulers or empires benefit from trade?

Finally, review your maps and answer the following questions:

• What are the similarities and differences between these two regional exchange networks?
• How did these regional networks lay the foundation for the global networks that emerged later in the fifteenth century?
• How do you think these regional networks are both similar to and different from exchange networks that exist in these regions today?

Be prepared to share your answers with the class. Your teacher will collect these completed worksheets and maps to assess your understanding of these historical processes.

Long-distance trade used to be very slow, difficult, and dangerous. Yet complex regional networks connected societies in many parts of Afro-Eurasia and in the Americas. These networks changed the communities with which they came into contact and paved the way for the global networks we have today.

This article will help you analyze how regional trade networks expanded during this era. It will also help you think about long-distance trade from within the frames used in this course: communities, networks, and production and distribution.

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 largest and most active regional trade network in this era? Why was it so active?
2. What are some items that were traded across the Afro-Eurasian trade network?
3. Why was long-distance trade more difficult in Mesoamerica than in Afro-Eurasia?
4. What do obsidian and jade have to do with hierarchy in Olmec society?
5. How did states affect regional trade? Provide two examples of state interaction with regional trade.

Evaluating and Corroborating

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

1. How would a history of long-distance trade look differently when viewed from each of the three frames used in this course—community, networks, and production and distribution? What questions might be asked through each frame?

The Silk Road—which in fact was not one road at all—moved goods, people, ideas, and microbes across vast distances. Although most merchants and travelers didn’t journey across the whole stretch of trade routes, these trade routes, both overland and on the sea, connected people across Eurasia. Silk Road trade completely changed how people made and distributed goods, energized settlements along the trade routes, and spread belief systems like Buddhism.

This video will help you analyze the expansion of trade networks during this era. You can also use material from this video to explain and interpret the spread of shared belief systems and how these beliefs shaped the formation of societies, specifically Buddhism. This will help you begin to think through one of the Era 3 problems: How did the emergence of portable belief systems affect how people lived and support new types of networks among them?

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 was the Silk Road?
2. Why were the nomadic people of Central Asia important for the Silk Road?
3. How did the Silk Road affect towns and cities along trade routes? Give an example.
4. Silk was a luxury good. How did it affect ordinary people?
5. Buddhism was one idea that traveled along the Silk Road trade routes. What are key elements of Mahayana Buddhism?
6. What was one negative effect of the Silk Road?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. Many goods—like silk—were moved across huge distances, like from China to Rome. Were there some goods that were more likely to be traded locally, or across smaller trade networks? Why do you think these goods were traded differently? Use evidence from this video and from other material in this era to support your hypothesis.

This activity asks you to practice your claim- and counterclaim-making skills. This will help you evaluate your ability to make strong, evidence-backed claims, and give you an idea of how well you understand the key features of expanding networks in this era.

Claim testing
In many ways, claim testing is really shorthand for “making and testing claims.” In this activity, you will practice your claim-making skills.

This is a quick activity where you’re asked to make two claims about the relationship between the articles “Phoenicians: Masters of the Sea,” “The Iron Age,” and “The Hittites and Ancient Anatolia.”

First, read the articles (use the Three Close Reads worksheet, if your teacher asks you to). Then, in pairs or small groups, write two claims about why these articles were grouped together in the course. Or, in other words, two claims about how or why the articles relate to one another. For each claim, use course materials—and, if your teacher asks you to, the Internet—to find two pieces of supporting evidence. Once you’ve written your two claims and provided supporting evidence, write one counterclaim, or argument against a claim, that relates to one of them. You should also provide two pieces of evidence to back up your counterclaim.

Be prepared to share your claims at the end of class. Note that most if not all of these claims are comparative claims. Historical claims often relate to historical thinking practices such as causation, CCOT, and comparison. You should consider the types of historical claims you want to make when you respond to a particular type of historical question.

Phoenicians were seafaring people, who ventured out from their coastal cities in the eastern Mediterranean and established trade networks across the Mediterranean and even as far as the Atlantic. These were large networks for their time. Merchants played an important role in their community, government, and system of production and distribution, and they eventually established powerful colonies which supported the Phoenician city-states. Famous for its ships and revolutionary alphabet, Phoenician society seems to have slowly lost power and disappeared, but their legacy far outlives them.

This article will help you understand how Phoenicians participated in expanding trade networks during this era. Using historical thinking skills like comparison, you will be able to see how Phoenician society fits into the narrative of this era and how it compares to other complex societies. You’ll be able to understand how Phoenicians developed a complex society and large network, which had a massive impact on communities far beyond its coastal cities. You’ll also consider the role of belief systems, production and distribution, and networks in this complex society.

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. How do historians know about Phoenician society?
2. What system of production and distribution sustained Phoenician society?
3. What aspects of Phoenician sailing technology helped them become “masters of the sea?”
4. Describe women’s roles in Phoenician society, according to the author.
5. What’s the significance of Phoenician colonies?
6. Where did the Phoenician script come from? What was special about it, and what were its benefits?

Evaluating and Corroborating

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

1. How was Phoenician community organization unique compared to other states during this era? How was it similar?
2. Phoenicia was a complex society, with a state structure, and it arguably even became an empire. But it had an unusual system of production and distribution. How does this fit with the narrative of most complex societies during this era?

While iron may seem commonplace today, iron-smelting technologies actually completely revolutionized the world. People made iron in many different ways for multiple reasons, and the technology had a huge impact wherever it went. It gave some states a ton of power, changed war and agricultural practices, and helped populations boom. Iron users created new social hierarchies, and the production of iron even transformed the environment in drastic ways.

This article will help you use historical thinking skills like causation, comparison, and continuity and change over time to evaluate the narrative presented in this era. You will also evaluate how iron fits into this narrative. It provides evidence to interpret as you investigate the Era 3 Problem: Why did most complex societies develop differing social classes—aristocrats, merchants, artisans, peasants, and slaves—when these categories had not existed earlier?

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 do historians divide early human history using terms like Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age? Does this periodization work all over the world?
2. What made iron both difficult and easy to make?
3. Why was the timing significant, when it comes to the invention of iron-smelting technology? How did some societies benefit from this timing?
4. Which society used iron-smelting technologies extensively first? Where did this technology travel afterward? Did any other societies develop iron-smelting independently?
5. Aside from making weapons, how else was iron primarily used?
6. What does iron have to do with population growth?
7. What environmental impact did iron-smelting technologies have?

Evaluating and Corroborating

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

1. Iron-smelting technologies had a huge impact on social order. Were iron technologies the primary cause for some of these changes? If not, what other factors played a role? Find evidence in support of your claim, from this article and other assets from this era.
2. Can you think of other technologies from this era or earlier ones that completely reorganized communities, networks, or systems of production and distribution?

The Hittites of Anatolia built an empire on the foundation of some key technologies—from horses, to the wheel, to iron tools. Their use of iron helped them build a powerful army and become strong traders, due to more efficient tools and weapons. Evidence suggests they likely had connections to other communities, like the Mesopotamians or the Hattians. But wherever they encountered other societies, their military technology made them fearsome opponents.

This article will help you understand, evaluate, and analyze why certain human communities began to organize into more complex societies, states, and empires. It will also provide evidence to help you track and examine human migration patterns during this era, and explain how cultural interactions highlight societies’ similarities and differences.

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 technologies helped Hittites travel across wide distances?
2. Why were the Hittites “pioneers of the Iron Age,” and how did this help their empire grow?
3. What was the Hittite political structure like?
4. What evidence do historians have that the Hittites were linked to Mesopotamia?
5. Why is the Battle of Kadesh an important “first” in human history?

Evaluating and Corroborating

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

1. Historians use similarities between the Hittites, the Mesopotamians, and the Hattians as evidence that these communities were linked by trade, migration, or conquest. Do you find this analysis convincing? Why or why not? If not, what are some alternative explanations for similarities between the communities?

In this quick activity, you’ll take some time to reflect on what you’ve learned about trade up to this point the lesson. In particular, you will try to create a link between three readings, which will give you the opportunity to see how seemingly unrelated content can actually be connected. This is a great skill to build because using a variety of historical events and processes helps strengthen historical claims.

In this activity, you’ll figure out how the articles “Phoenicians: Masters of the Sea,” “The Iron Age,” and “The Hittites and Ancient Anatolia” are related to one another. (Note: This activity does assume that you’ve already read the articles.)

In thinking about the course frames and the three articles, what is the best historical claim you can make about the three of them? Choose one of the following:

1. Of the three course frames, communities were most impacted by the Phoenicians, the Hittites, and the introduction of iron.
2. Of the three course frames, networks were most impacted by the Phoenicians, the Hittites, and the introduction of iron.
3. Of the three course frames, production and distribution were most impacted by the Phoenicians, the Hittites, and the introduction of iron.
4. The Phoenicians, the Hittites, and the introduction of iron impacted each of the course frames equally.

Now, get into pairs or small groups, take out the Trade Impacts Poll worksheet, and discuss which answer you chose and why. Take 5 to 10 minutes to review any content from the articles as needed and come to a consensus regarding your answer. Also, provide 2 or 3 pieces of evidence to back up your answers. Be prepared to share your answers with the class. Your teacher will run the poll again to see how many of you changed your answers!