Concepts and Themes

  • What role did the Byzantine empire play in the transmission of knowledge to Europe through and after the middle ages? How did the Byzantine empire affect the impact of Islam upon Europe?

  • The events that lead up to European contact with the New World through Colombus can be envisioned in terms of causes, the general forces that contributed to the mileu of the times, and triggers, specific historical events that spurred people into action. Divide what you know of this era into these two categories.

  • When Europe came into contact with the New World it was not a completely new experience for them. Think about previous contacts that Europeans had with people throughout the world and how these experiences shaped what they expected and how they dealt with the people of the Americas.

  • New World peoples encompassed a wide variety forms of economic, political and social organizations. Consider the complexity of different New World peoples, contact between peoples of other regions and different forms of subsistence. Specifically compare major complex civilizations of the New World for attributes (such as history, politics, economy, religious activity) that they all shared and ways in which specific civilizations were dissimilar.

    Terms

    The "One Drop" Rule Paleoindian Guacanagari Corn/Beans/Squash
    Clovis Archaic Cahokia Mound Building
    Mesoamerica Olmec Aztec Maya
    Teotihuacan Tenochtitlan Hopewell Mississippian
    Inca Complex Society Ascribed Status Social Stratification
    Ottomans Sir John Mandeville Marco Polo Mongol Empire
    Grand Khan Byzantine Constantinople Ptolemy
    Monasticism Henry the Navigator Grenada Moors
    Reconquista "Causes" vs. "Triggers" Palos Bartolome de las Casas
    Paolo Toscanelli Fernao Dulmo Martin Behaim Azore Islands
    Canary Islands Taino Carib Guanahani
    Arawak Cipangu (Zipango)

    time lines slide

    Mesoamerican complex societies are shown above in red. Andean complex societies are shown below in blue. The complex societies of North America emerged a few hundred years B.C. and reached their most elaborate expression in the Mississippian period, roughly A.D. 900-1350.

    world map with areas

    This map shows the extents of the Byzantine Empire (red) and the Islamic world (green) by around A.D. 800. It also shows the extent of the Roman Empire (blue) around A.D. 400. Three areas of complex societies in North America are shown in yellow, and areas of Central and South American complex society -- Mesoamerica and the Andes -- are also shown.

    comments to Wilson or Lovata
    Created 8/21/98, modified by SMW 9/30/98