The First Global Age
Driving Question: How did the first ongoing connections between the hemispheres promote change both globally and regionally?
Before 1492, complex societies with thriving exchange networks existed in most regions of the world—but they weren’t connected. That changed when Europeans reached the Americas, launching the Columbian Exchange, a global exchange system that moved crops, animals, people, and ideas to new continents. But this exchange also brought long-lasting negative impacts such as disease and slavery, with devastating consequences.
Learning Objectives:
- Evaluate the historical narrative of expanding networks and the formation of a new global age.
- Explain how increasing global connections from 1200 to 1750 affected communities, production and distribution, and networks.
Vocab Terms:
Students may assume globalization is a modern phenomenon. Use this opener to show that the Columbian Exchange created the first ongoing global system, but remind students that this was not the beginning of trade or exchange—regional networks existed across Afro-Eurasia and the Americas before 1492.
Today, we’re used to having toilet paper or batteries delivered to our doorstep with a single click. But how did goods and ideas find their way to people during the First Global Age?
Agree or disagree? Evaluate some statements before you dive into Unit 6—then see how accurate you were when you get to the end of the unit.
Stories of individuals can help students connect with history. The story of Kimpa Vita is a story of one young woman who changed the world, and how her life was tied to the global processes of the Columbian Exchange.
The Columbian Exchange brought the world closer together, but how dramatic were the changes it produced?
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Guiding Questions
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Guiding Questions
How do you “draw the frames”? See what other teachers have to say in this Community Forum thread.
This video and activity will help us use the frames to evaluate the impacts of the first global networks between Afro-Eurasia and the Americas.
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Guiding Questions
This is a good moment to challenge students to move beyond “good or bad” thinking. The strongest responses will show that the Columbian Exchange brought major benefits for some groups while producing catastrophic losses for others, especially Indigenous communities facing epidemic disease, conquest, and enslavement.
Now that you’re acquainted with the transformations of new global connections, it’s time to use the frames as you reevaluate the consequences of the Columbian Exchange.
A great way to improve your writing skill is to evaluate writing samples. In this activity, you’ll evaluate your own writing or a sample essay using the Organization and Language/Style rows of the OER Project Writing Rubric.
