C.C.O.T Essay – Early Empires

Tasks:

  1. Use the primary and secondary sources provided for the empire you selected to answer the associated questions. (see pages 2-3 for links to sources and questions)
  1. Create a 3 panel story-board for the decline and fall of your empire. (Create story-board as if you are a Hollywood producer planning a film on the rise and fall of the empire)
  1. Panel One – Preconditions (how empire rose to power, what empire was like at its height)
  2. Panel Two – Trigger of Change (problems or obstacles that contributed to the decline of the empire)
  3. Panel Three – The Fall (the three reasons empires collapse according to the Conrad-Demarest Model, specific to the empire you selected)
  1. Plan your C.C.O.T. Essay. (rubric on page 4)
  1. Power Words: change, continue, transform, evolved, emerged, now, later, then, gradually, eventually, altered.
  2. Thesis Must:
  3. State Historical Pattern at the BEGINNING
  4. State Historical Pattern at the END
  5. Address the CAUSE of CHANGES during that period
  6. Address a CONTINUITY that occurs during the entire period
  7. Body Paragraphs Must:
  8. Support each change and continuity with at least THREE pieces of evidence.

Han Empire

Primary Sources:

  • Han FeiTzu (Han Feizi), Memorials, c. 230 BCE [
  • Tsai Yen, poetess, “Eighteen Verses Sung to a Tatar Reed Whistle,” 3rd century BCE
  • -- you can find the book authored by Sarah and Brady Hughes Women in World History
  • Letter from Shan-yu (Mo Tun), Ruler of the Hsiung-nu (Xiongnu) to the Han Emperor Wen, 177 BCE and Letter from Han Emperor Wen to Shan-yu (Mo Tun), Ruler of the Hsiung-nu (Xiongnu), 177 BCE
  • Ssu-Ma Ch’ien (SimaQian), The Records of the Grand Historian of China, 110 – 85 BCE [
  • Excerpts from the salt and iron debate, 81 BCE, the learned men [ and Excerpts from the salt and iron debate, 81 BCE, the Minister
  • Emperor Wang Mang, bronze knife coin inlaid with gold, 7 CE [
  • Ban Zhao, Lessons for Women, c 45 – 116 CE [

Secondary Sources:

  • Chinese Agricultural Techniques, 2nd century BCE to 2nd century CE
  • Chart showing Han Chinese gifts of silk to the Xiongnu
  • Diagram of salt mining during the Han
  • The Trung sisters [
  • Illustrations of Chinese houses

Questions:

  1. What policies and actions did Han rulers use to enforce their ideology (political values) and keep themselves in power?
  1. How did their policies and actions affect social and gender structures?
  1. Did their policies and actions change over time?

Roman Empire

Primary Sources:

  • The Twelve Tables, Roman Republic, c. 450 BCE [
  • The Gallic Wars by Julius Caesar, 1st century BCE [
  • Roman coins, early 2nd century CE [
  • Description of the Rebellion of Boudicca by Tacitus, 2nd century CE []
  • Letter of Pliny the Younger, 112 CE; Letter of Emperor Trajan, 112 CE [
  • The Roman Oration, by Aelius Aristides, 155 CE [
  • The Luxury of the Rich in Rome by AmmianusMarcellinunus 5th century CE [
  • Chronicle by Prosper, 455 CE; Biography of Leo the Great by Anonymous, c. 450 CE

Secondary Sources:

  • Martin Gilbert, maps of Jewish Risings Against Roman Rule (66 – 135 CE) [go to and search for The Routledge Atlas of Jewish History By Martin Gilbert]
  • Zenobia (3rd century CE) [

Questions:

  1. What policies and actions did Roman rulers use to enforce their ideology (political values) and keep themselves in power?

2. What are some examples of their policies and actions changing over time?

3. What are some examples of their subjects rebelling? Why did they rebel?

  1. What were the greatest weaknesses of the Roman empire?

Generic Rubric for CCOT and Comparative Essays

Parts of the essay / Points
Thesis: (each of these worth 2 points)
  • address all parts of the question in a generalization about the topic
  • takes a position by answering the question in one sentence
  • provides analytical categories for how the evidence will be organized in the body paragraphs
/ 6
Divides body paragraphs into analytical categories mentioned in thesis (usually 3 categories) and uses those analytical categories to construct topic sentences for body paragraphs / 3
Uses relevant and sufficient evidence (usually six pieces of evidence for a timed essay) / 6
Explicitly connects evidence to relevant analytical category / 3
Analysis: provides explanations for changes and continuities/similarities and differences / 6
Identifies correct global process(es) / 3
Links evidence and analysis to global process / 2
Conclusion: summarizes how evidence proved thesis, makes an additional reference to the global process in the time period of the question or to another region that experienced the global process, or suggests a related question / 1
Total points = / 30

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