Unit 2: The Global Tapestry
1200 – 1450 CEWelcome to the year 1200 CE, a time of sprawling trade routes and mighty empires. A diverse collection of societies linked huge world regions across a web of interconnections.
Afro-Eurasia

Lesson 2.2
Introducing Afro-Eurasia
Africa, Europe, and Asia were connected by land and sea routes for millennia. These linkages produced a world of surprising commonalities across vast continents. Let’s take a tour of the peoples and places of Afro-Eurasia.

Lesson 2.3
Dar al-Islam
Muslim rulers controlled vast territories from West Africa to Indonesia, spreading a faith that united many very different cultures. Studying the Islamic world in this period makes for a perfect introduction to an era of empires.

Lesson 2.4
The Mongol Empire
The Mongol Empire was the largest land empire in history. How did they conquer and rule such a vast territory? And how did their rule shape our world?

Lesson 2.5
The Silk Roads
If the world is indeed a tapestry, then the Silk Roads were the threads that wove it together. See how the merchants who roamed these routes moved goods, ideas, and diseases across continents.
Americas and the Pacific

Lesson 2.6
Communities in the Americas and Oceania
The societies of the Americas and Oceania were separated from Afro-Eurasia by vast oceans. How did cultures in places like the Aztec Empire and Polynesia compare to those of Afro-Eurasia?

Lesson 2.7
Long-Distance Trade in the Americas
The American continents make up nearly a third of the Earth’s landmass, and just as in Afro-Eurasia, they were threaded with trade networks that moved trade goods and new ideas wherever humans settled.
Consequences of Connectivity

Lesson 2.8
Cultural Consequences
Wherever cultures intersected, innovation thrived. But these transformations sometimes produced dire consequences for individual communities and whole regions.

Lesson 2.9
The Black Death
The Black Death killed tens of millions of humans in the fourteenth century. History’s worst pandemic spread across Afro-Eurasia like a wildfire, leaving ruin in its wake. Where did it come from? How did it change the world?
Teaching This Unit
Reading Guide
Explore the types of texts in OER Project.
Vocabulary Guide
Strategies and routines for building vocabulary.
Writing Guide
Strategies for instructing and supporting both formal and informal writing.
Data Literacy Guide
Clear, concise strategies to help teach data literacy and build student confidence with data visualizations.