Tuesday, September 08, 2020

The Silk Road and World Trade: What Led to the Rediscovery of the Americas?

 Assessment Time

Map of the Silk Trade Route

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Silk_route.jpg

Marco Polo's Route

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Travels_of_Marco_Polo.svg

Voyages of Zheng He

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Zheng_He.png


The trade routes that we collectively refer to as the Silk Road started as far back as 2,200 years ago. Although the types of trade goods were varied, it is called the Silk Road because of the demand created for silk from China. 

While we may tend to emphasize the economic implications of these trade routes including cities created as stopping points that became wealthy, a much more important trade was taking place throughout this period, the trade of culture. Languages, mathematics, literacy and religion were all shared throughout large areas of the world because of these trade routes. 

Essential Question: What led to the rediscovery of the Americas and its colonization?

Engage: 

  • We know that Columbus 'rediscovered' the Americas, but what events led to the need for this exploration?

Explore:

Explain:

  • Why did I include the time stamp for the questions on the video questions?
  • What can you tell from the time stamps?
  • How can you use this information to inform how you approach questions over audio/videos?
  • How did trade drive the sharing of culture?
  • Why did Columbus look west for a route to India?

Evaluate:

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