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Cultural Consequences of Connectivity

Teacher Resources

Driving Question: How did expanding networks of change affect cultural amalgamation?

The networks of exchange across Afro-Eurasia facilitated not only the movement of goods, diseases, and people, but also the significant transfer of science, technology, and culture. Long-distance travelers like Mansa Musa played a key role in spreading these ideas, with religions expanding and advancements in fields such as astronomy, medicine, and mathematics reaching new regions. These exchanges contributed to the development of a shared global body of knowledge that transcended borders.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Explain the intellectual and cultural effects of the various networks of exchange in Afro-Eurasia from c. 1200 to c. 1450.
  2. Use historical thinking skills and reasoning practices such as sourcing, contextualization, comparison, continuity and change over time (CCOT), and claim testing to evaluate historical events and processes.

Vocab Terms:

  • culture
  • diffusion
  • indigenous
  • migration
  • pastoral
  • syncretism
STEP 1

Opener: Cultural Consequences of Connectivity

It can be hard to fully understand a situation if you don’t have the full picture—literally and figuratively. Contextualizing helps you gather all the surrounding facts and details to ensure you’re not missing anything important.

STEP 2

Trade, Technology, and Religion in Afro-Eurasia, 1200–1450

Meeting new people or coming into contact with new things might make you reevaluate the way you think or feel about things. Certainly, that was the case with all the Afro-Eurasian cultural diffusion going on circa 1200-1450!

STEP 3

Graphic Biography: Rumi

Poetry has the power to communicate in a way that standard writing sometimes cannot. This is certainly the case with Rumi, who affected many with his poetry.

STEP 4

Contextualizing: Mansa Musa

Imagine being one of the richest people who ever lived! What kind of effect do you think you would have on society? Or history? Build on your contextualization skills as you learn about an individual who both shaped and was shaped by his circumstances: Mansa Musa.

Mansa Musa and Islam in Africa: Crash Course World History #16 External link

Increased trade led to various states expanding over new territory. These growing states would greatly influence the powerful trade networks that crisscrossed the African continent.

Key Ideas

As this video progresses, key ideas will be introduced to invoke discussion.
STEP 5

World of Chaco

What are the qualities or conditions that would make an area the center of trade for a region? Chaco Canyon in modern-day New Mexico was one such center—but what about it made it so special?

World of Chaco External link

A thousand years ago, the Ancestral Pueblo made Chaco Canyon the center of their cultural world. Their networks stretched across the vast Colorado Plateau.

Key Ideas

As this video progresses, key ideas will be introduced to invoke discussion.
STEP 6

Closer: Cultural Consequences of Connectivity

Have you ever traveled far from home? Most likely, you kept in touch by calling, texting, or maybe emailing! What did you talk about? Now imagine traveling in the thirteenth century—what would you write home about?