Sub Unit 2: Explorations, Encounters, and Imperialism
Time Frame: 2 1/2 Weeks
Scope / Text
A)Spain and Portugal on the eve of theencounter
1)Human and physical geography
2)Reconquista under Ferdinand andIsabella
3)Expulsion of Moors and Jews
4)Exploration and overseasexpansion
(a)Columbus
(b)Magellan circumnavigates theglobe
B)The encounter between Europeansand the peoples of Africa, theAmericas, and Asia
1)Case study: The Columbian exchange
2)Human and physical geography
3)European competition for coloniesin the Americas, Africa, East Asia,and Southeast Asia—The “oldimperialism ”
4)Global demographic shiftsCase study: The triangular trade and slavery
5)The extent of Europeanexpansionism
6)European mercantilism
7)Spanish colonialism and the introductionof the Encomienda systemto Latin America
8)Dutch colonization in East Asia(Japan and Indonesia)
9)Exchange of food and disease / CH 14.1 15.1, 15.2, 15.3, 15.4, 15.5
Themes
  • Movement of People and Goods: How did global trade patterns change between in the late 1400 and the 1700s
  • Science and Technology: What types of technology allowed western Europeans to explore the oceans?
  • Interdependence: What motives did Europeans have for establishing colonies between 1500 and 1700?
  • Change: What major changes did the European expansion bring to peoples around the world?

Key Questions
  • Are conflicts between nations and/or people inevitable?
  • What assumptions do different groups hold about power, authority, governance, and law?
  • How does technological change affect people, places, and regions?
  • What impact do regional and global trade networks have on world cultures?
  • What defines a turning point?
  • How do physical and human geography affect people, places and regions?
  • How do the movements of people and ideas (cultural diffusion) affect world history?

Vocabulary and Key People
Terms:
  • astrolabe
  • caravel
  • cartographer
  • colony
  • Columbian Exchange
  • conquistadors
  • creoles
  • encomienda
  • joint stock companies
/
  • magnetic compass
  • maritime trade
  • mercantilism
  • Mercator projection
  • mestizos
  • Middle Passage
  • molasses
  • mother country
  • mulattoes
  • peninsulares
/
  • sextant
  • slavery
  • sugar
  • the West Indies
  • Treaty of Tordesillas
  • triangular lateen sail
  • triangular trade
People:
  • Bartholomeu Dias
/
  • Bartolome de las Casas
  • Christopher Columbus
  • Ferdinand and Isabella
  • Francisco Pizarro
  • Henry the Navigator
  • Hernan Cortes
  • Magellan
  • Vasco da Gama,

Focus Questions
  • What was the Reconquista? What prompted it?
    What were its political, social, cultural, and economic consequences?
  • What impact might the fall of Constantinople in 1453 have had on the Reconquista?
  • How did Jews, Muslims, and Christians view the Reconquista?The Inquisition?
  • Why did Ferdinand and Isabella adopt the policy to expel Jews and Moors from the Iberian Peninsula? What were the consequences of this policy?
  • What were the political, economic, and social consequences of the expulsion of the Jews and Muslims for Spain?
  • What were Spain and Portugal like on the eve of the Encounter?
  • What kinds of encounters were made as a result of the initial Spanish and Portuguese voyages of discovery?
  • As a result of the Encounter, how did the standard of living in Europe, Africa and the Americas change?
  • Why do different interpretations of the Encounter exist?
  • What trading networks already existed in the Indian Ocean before the Portuguese intervened? How did this intervention change this trade?
  • What changes occurred in colonial South America in terms of governing and religious practices? What other political and cultural changes followed. What is the legacy of these changes?
  • What was the connection between the European discovery of the Americas, and later Portuguese claims in East Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and Asia?
  • In addition to geographers and historians, why do biologists and immunologists also regard the Encounter an important topic to explore?

Primary Sources/Resources
The Iberian Peninsula in the time of Ferdinand and Isabella

Reconquista

Columbus


Magellan

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Timeline of Art History

Teacher Created Lesson Plans/Lesson Ideas
The Role of the Reconquista in the Expansion of Spain
The Expulsion of Jews From Spain
Available inPDF-WORD-HTML
Handout 1 -PDF, Handout 2 -PDF,
Handout 3a -PDFHandout 3b -PDF
Assessments
NYS Thematic:
  • Human Rights 06.09 – Encounter
  • Human Rights Violations 01.07 – Encounter
  • Movement of People & Goods: Trade 08.06 – Triangular Trade
  • Change 06.04 – Turning Points
  • Change: Turning Points 08.01 – 1492
  • Science and Technology 08.00 – Astrolabe
  • Justice and Human Rights 06.00 – Treatment of Native Americans
/ NYS DBQ:
Migrations of People 08.08 – Slavery (3 Documents)
Economic Systems 06.07 – Mercantilism (3 Documents)
Conquests 01.05 – Spanish Empire (3 Documents)
Epidemics 08.04 – Encounter & Disease (3 Documents)
Turning Points 06.03 – The Age of Exploration (4 Documents)
Mass Migrations 08.02 – African Slavery (1 Document) / Other: