6.7 - Interactions Across Eastern Hemisphere

Sixth Grade - Sixth Social Studies - 6.7 - Interactions Across Eastern Hemisphere

From EngageNY

Trade networks promoted the exchange and diffusion of language, belief systems, tools, intellectual ideas, inventions, and diseases.

6.7a The Silk Roads, the Indian Ocean, and the Trans-Saharan routes formed the major Afro-Eurasian trade networks connecting the East and the West. Ideas, people, technologies, products, and diseases moved along these routes.

• Students will create maps that illustrate items exchanged and ideas spread along the Silk Roads, across the Indian Ocean, and on the Trans-Saharan trade routes.
• Students will examine how the location of resources helped determine the location of trade routes and the economic impact of the exchange of resources.
• Students will study interregional travelers such as Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta, Mansa Musa, and Zheng He and examine why they traveled, the places visited, what was learned, and what was exchanged as a result of their travel.

6.7b The Mongol conquests in Eurasia fostered connections between the East and the West, and the Mongols served as important agents of change and cultural diffusion.

• Students will map the extent of the Mongol Empire at the height of its power.
• Students will examine the methods used by the Mongols to enable them to rule over a diverse population, noting how Mongol rule expanded trade.
• Students will examine the spread of the Black Death (Bubonic Plague) as a result of interregional exchange and its effects on various regions within Afro-Eurasia, using a variety of sources, such as maps, poetry, and other primary source documents.

6.7c Complex societies and civilizations adapted and designed technologies for transportation that allowed them to cross challenging landscapes and move people and goods efficiently.

• Students will examine how various technologies affected trade and exchanges. Some examples are types of ships, including junks and caravels; improvements to ships, such as sails and rudders; navigation tools, such as the compass and astrolabe; and gunpowder.