Unit III: 1450 C.E. to 1750 C.E.

 

What students are expected to know:

 

Major Developments:

1.          Questions of Periodization

              Continuities and breaks, causes of changes from the previous period and within   
              this period

2.          Changes in trade, technology, and global interactions; e.g the Columbian
             Exchange, the impact of guns, changes in shipbuilding, and navigational devices

3.          Knowledge of major empires and other political units and social systems

            a.    Aztec, Inca, Ottoman, China, Portugal, Spain, Russia, France, Britain,       
                   Tokugawa, Mughal,

            b.   Characteristics of African empires in general but knowing one (Kongo,

                    Benin, Oyo, or Songhay) as illustrative

             c.    Gender and empire (including the role of women in households and in
                    politics)

4.          Slave systems and slave trade

 

5.          Demographic and environmental changes:  diseases, animals, new crops, and
              comparative population trends

6.          Cultural and intellectual developments

          a.   Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment

          b.   Comparative global causes and impacts of cultural change (e.g., African contributions to cultures in the Americas)

          d.   Major developments and exchanges in the arts (e.g., Mughal, the Americas)

7.          Diverse interpretations

          a.   What are the debates about the timing and extent of European                                    
                predominance in the world economy?

          b.   How does the world economic system of this period compare with patterns of
                interregional trade in previous period?

 

Major Comparisons and Analyses: Examples

-Compare colonial administrations

-Compare Coercive labor systems:  slavery and other coercive labor systems in the Americas

Analyze the development of empire (i.e., general empire building in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas)

-Analyze Imperial systems:  a European sea-borne empire compared with a land-based Asian empire

-Compare Russia's interaction with two of the following (Ottoman Empire, China,
   Western Europe, and Eastern Europe)

-Compare Mesoamerican and Andean systems of economic exchange

 

Examples of the types of information students are expected to know contrasted with examples of those things students are not expected to know for the multiple-choice section:

 

          Importance of European exploration, but not individual explorers

          Characteristics of European absolutism, but not specific rulers

          Protestant Reformation, but not Anabaptism or Huguenots

          Extent of Ottoman expansion, but not individual

          Relations between Kongo and Portugal, but not individual rulers

          Institution of the harem, but not Hurrem Sultan

          Slave plantation systems, but not Jamaica’s specific slave system

          Tokugawa Japan’s Foreign policy, but not Hideyoshi