This quick skill-building activity is intended to help you understand what is being asked of you when you’re presented with historical prompts, particularly those you’ll encounter in assessment prompts such as document-based questions (DBQs) and long essay questions (LEQs).

In this activity, you will revisit the process of how to parse a prompt. Remember, parsing a prompt is the process of analyzing a string of words—that is, trying to figure out what something is saying and asking!

Take out the Question Parsing Tool and write down the following prompt at the top of the tool: Evaluate the extent to which religious responses to wealth accumulation in Eurasia in the period circa 600 B.C.E. to 1500 C.E. differed from state responses to wealth accumulation.

Now, follow the tool directions. Be prepared to discuss your answers with the class!

There are many different stories people tell about the Mongols. These stories are partially true, but also incomplete. While the Mongols were brutal at times and were tough, mobile warriors, they were also incredibly adaptive, tolerant, egalitarian, and creative. With some clever political organization and some quick adaptations along the way, the Mongols were able to build a massive empire. While it didn’t last very long as a unified empire, it certainly had long-lasting effects.

In Era 5, we look at two world systems of trade and exchange. The first of these, at least for Afro-Eurasia, centered on the empire created by the Mongols, who are introduced through this video. In it, you’ll find evidence you can use to contest, support, or extend all three of the course frames. The Mongols are sometimes described as an exception in all three cases. This video introduces evidence to support these claims. You’ll also have the opportunity to evaluate causal arguments, like the argument that Mongols caused trade to expand and therefore caused the plague to spread. Together, these things will help you think through the Era 5 Problem.

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 Mongol migratory patterns affect their production and distribution?
2. Why, according to John Green were Mongols generally more egalitarian than many other societies?
3. Which policies did Genghis Khan use to unite the Mongol confederation?
4. How did adaptability help the Mongols build their empire? Please give at least two examples.
5. How did the Mongol Empire affect trade and exchange across Eurasia (and even parts of Africa)?
6. What was the Yam System?
7. How did the Mongols recruit people to work for them? What world-historical effect did this have?
8. What did the Mongols have to do with the Black Death?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. The Eurasian trading system around 1 CE relied on two poles—Rome and the Han Dynasty—connected to each other by smaller states. How was the Eurasian trading system during the period of the Mongol Empire similar or different?
2. How does evidence from this video contest, support, or extend the networks frame narrative you have been given?

When we think of the Mongol Empire, we often think of men—soldiers on horseback and mighty emperors. Yet, women played an important political role in the creation, preservation, and eventually, the division of the empire. Many royal women used their extensive family ties to exert influence over the empire. Sorqoqtani Beki was one such Mongol woman who used her family relationships and a network of sister-princesses to seize power for her son. In the process, she made an agreement with her nephew that started the division of the empire.

The Mongol Empire reshaped Eurasia, and understanding its organization gives us insight into how trade and politics worked across this vast region. Two conflicting narratives of the Mongols see them as either great administrators or vicious warriors. Both narratives are usually built on evidence surrounding the work of male leaders. However, royal women played a vital role in building alliances, connecting families, and competing for power. The story of Sorqoqtani Beki provides you with evidence to challenge some of the standard narratives about Mongol communities and networks.

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. 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. Who was Sorqoqtani Beki and what was her relationship to the Mongol royal family?
2. What was the cause of Sorqoqtani’s conflict with Oghul-Qaimish?
3. How and why did Sorqoqtani win this conflict?
4. Sorqoqtani’s nephew Batu agreed to support her. What did he get in return, and what was the eventual result?
5. How does the artist use art and design to demonstrate the ways in which competition between women, and their support for each other, helped determine Mongol politics?

Evaluating and Corroborating

In this read, you should use the graphic biography as evidence to support, extend, or challenge claims made in the course.

1. How does this biography of Sorqoqtani Beki support, extend, or challenge what you have learned about the Mongols?

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 document-based questions (DBQs).

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 3.5.

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.

3x5 note cards or cut up paper

Across these sources, we hear about the mysterious Mongols—or the Tatars/Tartars, as they are often called. Both Muslim and Christian sources speak of the Mongols in terms of a calamity or punishment in the earliest sources, while later sources are often more sympathetic—either because they are written from the heart of the empire or because of other political reasons. Some are full of hyperbole (exaggeration), while others present a more measured approach to the early history of the Mongols. Additionally, later sources talk of the recovery of urban areas after the Mongols establish a more permanent presence, describing robust trade networks and tight-knit communities. Because this collection focuses on the establishment of the empire, most of the sources are from the thirteenth century, with a few from later periods. This allows readers to track continuities and shifts not only in the history of the Mongol Empire but in changing attitudes about the Mongols across Eurasia.

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 document-based questions (DBQs).

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 3.5.

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.

One of the most powerful advisers of the Ilkhan Ghazan (r.1295–1304), Rashid al-Din wrote one of the first histories of the world in order to establish the power of his patron. The history aimed to justify and support the rule of the Ilkhan over a diverse empire. This book, the Jami’ al-Tawarikh, is viewed as a monumental intellectual work.

What are the consequences of a connected world? Afro-Eurasia was crisscrossed by networks in the period c.1200-1450, and never more so than when the Mongols ruled the central region. These connections led to a great cultural flowering as ideas and art moved back and forth. Rashid al-Din was an advisor of the Mongol Ilkhan Ghazan. In the late thirteenth century, he was asked to produce a history of the world. That history tells us a lot about the power of the Ilkhan, but also the way in which his state brought together culture from across a vast region.

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. 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. Who was Rashid al-Din?
2. According to the author, what was the difficulty of ruling the Ilkhanate?
3. What does the quote from Rashid al-Din’s book, shown in the top panel, tell us?
4. How does the artwork in the Jami’i al-Tawarikh demonstrate this diversity?
5. How did the artist of this biography try to demonstrate the connections of the Ilkhanate to other regions in the top panel?

Evaluating and Corroborating

In this read, you should use the graphic biography as evidence to support, extend, or challenge claims made in the course.

1. How does this biography of Rashid al-Din support, extend, or challenge what you have learned about connections and networks in Mongol society and in this era?

One of the most influential poets in history, Rumi lived a life and preached a philosophy that transcended borders. He believed that universal love—expressed in poetry, dance, and music—was a path to God. His poetry and teachings rejected divisions based on ethnicity and religion.

Rumi believed that universal love could cross all ethnic divisions and borders and bring people together. This may seem like a very modern idea, but Rumi expressed it in poetry in the thirteenth century! His biography provides evidence to help you to understand this era not only as a period of military conflict, commercial rivalry, and state expansion, but also intellectual and artistic flowering that connected people across borders.

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. 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 did Rumi live as a young man, and what was his home city like?
2. How did meeting Shams Al-Dīn transform Rumi?
3. What did Rumi teach and write about?
4. What is the meaning of Rumi’s poem about a reed, shown around his body in the biography?
5. How does the artist’s design reflect the theme of crossing or transcending borders?

Evaluating and Corroborating

In this read, you should use the graphic biography as evidence to support, extend, or challenge claims made in the course.

1. How does this biography of Rumi support, extend, or challenge what you have learned about this period in world history?
2. What did you find surprising or significant about Rumi’s life and 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 Era 5 Problem: “How did the first ongoing global connections among the hemispheres promote change both globally and regionally?”

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 Mongols and Comanche created empires that seemed to defy some of the traditional characteristics of empires in this era. Locating the Mongol 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 be asked to compare the Mongol and Comanche empires with the other empires of this era as you try to determine the context and conditions that led to the creation and expansion of the Mongol and Comanche states.

In this activity, you will use the event cards on the Mongol and Comanche Empires to complete the Contextualization Tool. Then, you’ll use the information from your completed tools and evidence from the Crash Course video on the Mongols and the Comanche Empire video to answer a prompt about these empires. By contextualizing the time, place, and culture that surrounded these empires, you’ll 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 – Mongol and Comanche Empires worksheet. By now you should be becoming more familiar with the Contextualization Tool (incorporated into the Contextualization – Mongol and Comanche Empires worksheet). Remember that contextualization is often about situating an event in its temporal (time period), spatial (location), and cultural setting. 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 either have you work in pairs or small groups to complete the tool for the Mongol 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 that. 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 and information from the videos to individually write a multi-paragraph response to the following question:

What historical context related to the time period, location, and culture of the Mongols 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.

The Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Empires emerged out of a Mongol-dominated Eurasian zone—and they all had Turko-Mongolian origins. Led by Muslim rulers that reigned over diverse regions, each of these empires adapted to local conditions. Though they had some similarities, like the use of gunpowder, some historians question whether the term “Gunpowder Empires” is accurate.

This video highlights similarities and differences between the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Empires. By giving you a sense of the Eurasian system prior to the Columbian Exchange, it also helps you think through the Era 5 Problem: “How did the first ongoing global connections among the hemispheres promote change both globally and regionally?”

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. Who ruled the major political states in Asia around 1300? Which states do they rule?
2. What was the devshirme system?
3. What role did enslaved people play in these empires? In what context did this arrangement develop?
4. What are some commonalities among the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Empires?
5. Why do some historians call these three empires “Gunpowder Empires?” Why might other historians disagree with this label?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. The leadership of each of these empires had gunpowder and firearms. The leadership of each of these empires practiced Islam. Do you think it is more likely that they each developed around these technologies and belief systems independently? Or do you think it is more likely that they diffused from one region to another? What does your answer tell you about the importance of innovation vs the importance of diffusion in this region and time?