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Collapse and Restructuring

Driving Question: How have societies restructured after the collapse of empires?

After the fall of empires like Rome and Han China, the societies they once ruled didn’t collapse, they adapted: rebuilding, restructuring, and even entering new golden ages. This lesson challenges the idea of a universal decline and highlights the resilience of people across the world.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Understand how historians create narratives to explain how societies rise and fall.
  2. Use close-reading skills to evaluate how communities and networks expanded and contracted during this period.

Vocab Terms:

  • collapse
  • continuity
  • decline
  • imperial
  • restructure
STEP 1

Opener: Collapse and Restructuring

STEP 2

Looking Ahead

STEP 3

Collapse and Restructuring

Sometimes endings are really beginnings. Empires come and go, but new societies and authorities emerge.

Regional Webs (200 to 1500 CE): Unit 5 Overview External link

When the Roman and Han empires collapsed, many societies faced chaos—but often, collapse was really a time of restructuring and rebuilding new authority.

Key Ideas

As this video progresses, key ideas will be introduced to invoke discussion.
STEP 4

Frames in Unit 5

The communities and networks frames can help us understand the causes of societal collapse and the ways that communities restructured after.

Frames in Unit 5 External link

When viewed through each of the three frames, the collapse of societies and communities can lead to dramatic changes, but not always in predictable ways.

Key Ideas

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

Closer: Collapse and Restructuring

Extension Materials
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Get out the red pen! Build your understanding of how to write with a strong claim and focus by revising a sample student essay.
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Reviewing for Claim and Focus

By suggesting revisions to someone else’s writing, you’ll get much better at identifying what makes strong writing. Make suggestions for improving claim and focus—and then keep those suggestions in mind the next time you write.