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Unit Introduction:

Unit 4 Interregional Patterns of Culture and Contact (Europe)

Unit 4 continues a study of Interregional Patterns but with the focus on Europe.

The unit begins with an examination of the economic and social changes that occurred in Western Europe due to new agricultural techniques, such as the three-field system, and the effects of a declining population caused by the Black Death. The Plague led to a social rebellion that saw the demise of serfdom, higher wages, and a more secular outlook on life.

Western Europe also saw a revival of urban growth, trade, and commerce. The return to urban living led to a rise in prosperity, technical innovation, and a reinvigorated civic life. This was especially evident in the Gothic Architecture and cathedrals built during this time.

A revival of learning also took place. With the advent of new universities, learning, writing, literature, and science took on a new focus. First with Scholasticism, and later with a revival of the Classical learning, in a new form known as Humanism.

With the revitalization of trade, came the diffusion of knowledge and technology from Western Europe’s trading partners and ironically, the knowledge that enabled Western Europe to further develop their ability to challenge the supremacy. This would occur in the late 1400’s when Europeans began their voyages of discovery to find an all-water route to Asia to bypass their Muslim trading partners.

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Objectives: What will the students learn….

Students will:

• Explain how the changes in Western Europe affected the growth of cities, trade, the economy, the status of women, and the environment.
• Describe and explain the significance of technological development and urbanization in the latter Middle Ages.
• Explain how Western Europe began its evolution from a feudal system to a centralized monarchy.
• Explain how the Renaissance grew out of the Middle Ages.
• Explain how Greco-Roman art and writings influenced the Renaissance.
• Explain in what ways Muslim and Chinese science contributed to the ideas of the Renaissance.
• Explain how the technological, economic, and social innovations of the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance affected Europe and the rest of the world.
• Understand how the Hundred Years’ War and the emergence of the new monarchies laid the foundation for the modern European state system.
• Compare the motives, technologies, and sailing routes of those who undertook global maritime expansion before 1450 to those of the Portuguese and Spanish explorers of 1450-1550.
• Explain the motives and methods Europeans gained global dominance.
• Understand and explain the reactions of Africans and Asians to Portuguese explorations and colonization.
• Understand and explain how Mesoamericans reacted to the Spanish and explain how the Spanish were able to conquer the Americas.
• Explain why European empire building was more effective in the Americas than in Africa or Asia.

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Readings in the text:

• Chapter 16: The Latin West

Bulliet, Pages 394-416

• Chapter 17: The Maritime Revolution

Bulliet, Pages 418-440

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Pacing Guide:

Example text here…

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Terms:

Latin West	serfs	Three-field system	Black Death
Water wheel	mills	Hanseatic League	Gothic Cathedrals
guild	Renaissance	university	Scholasticism
Humanism	Printing press	Great Western Schism	Hundred Years’ War
new monarchies	Reconquista	Magna Carta	Zheng He
Arawak	Henry the Navigator	caravel	Gold Coast
Treaty of Tordesillas	Bartolomeu Dias	Vasco da Gama	Christopher Columbus
Ferdinand Magellan	Kongo	Malindi	Christian Ethiopia
Malacca	conquistadors	Hernan Cortes	Moctezuma
Francisco Pizarro	Atahualpa

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Unit Assessment:

Example text here…

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