9th Grade

Subject: Global History and Geography I

Unit 10: Interactions and Disruptions
Efforts to reach the Indies resulted in the encounter between the people of Western Europe, Africa, and the
Americas. This encounter led to a devastating impact on populations in the Americas, the rise of transatlantic
slave trade, and the reorientation of trade networks.
Content Framework:
9.10a: Various motives, new knowledge, and technological innovations influenced exploration and the
development of European transoceanic trade routes.
9.10b: Transatlantic exploration led to the Encounter, colonization of the Americas, and the Columbian
Exchange.
9.10c: The decimation of indigenous populations in the Americas influenced the growth of the Atlantic
slave trade. The trade of enslaved peoples resulted in exploration, death, and the creation of wealth.
9.10d: European colonization in the Americas and trade interactions with Africa led to the instability,
decline, and near destruction of once-stable political and cultural systems.
9.10e: The Eastern Hemisphere trade networks were disrupted by the European development of new
transoceanic trade across the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans. Shifts in global trade networks and
the use of gunpowder had positive and negative effects on Asian and European empires.
Compelling Question:
How did technology influence trade during the time of the Age of Exploration?
Content Outline:
Age of Exploration
1. Explorations and Imperialism
a. By the High Middle Ages (1000-1300), Europeans had come to form strong nation-states
controlled by powerful monarchs. Nation-states are regions that share a government and that are
independent of each other. Between the late 1400s and 1700s, Western Europeans:
i. Benefitted from technology in mapmaking, navigating, shipbuilding, and weaponry
ii. Found new sea routes and dominated trade in Asia, Africa, and the Americas
iii. Competed with each other to establish profitable colonies and spread their faith
iv. Began global interactions that greatly affected people around the world
b. The Iberian countries of Spain and Portugal took the lead in global exploration, looking for new
routes the riches of Asia. Both had the technology, resources and political stability to support sea
travel; both had also struggled with Muslim rule in their countries and had created Christian
kingdoms. Spains rulers, Ferdinand and Isabella, had just completed the Reconquista
(reconquest) of Spains last Muslim areas, reuniting the country under Christian rule in 1492. In
the same year, they expelled all Muslims and Jews. Through overseas exploration, Spain hoped
to further Christianity and glorify the country. Beginning in 1420, under the sponsorship of
Prince Henry the Navigator, Portuguese fleets began probing southward along the western coast
of Africa.
c. Imperialism: domination by one country of the political and/or economic life of another country.
Europes activities in Asia, Africa, and the Americas from 1500s through the 1700s
foreshadowed the major era of European imperialism in the 1800s.
i. Reasons for European exploration
ii. Imperialism in Africa
iii. Imperialism in Asia
iv. Imperialism in the Americas: The Encounter

2. The Commercial Revolution (1600-1750)

a. The creation of colonial empires and the rise of strong national monarchies also had a startling
effect on the economies of Europe. The fastest growing part of the economy was now in trading
goods, especially from Asia and the Americas. The Commercial Revolution marked an important
step in the transition from the federal, local economies of the Middle Ages to a truly global
economy.
i. Mercantilism
ii. Capitalism
3. The Atlantic Slave Trade (1500-1750)
a. Causes of the Slave Trade
i. A trade in sub-Sahara Africa slaves dated from the Roman Empire and had been
lucratively developed by Arab merchants from the 700s. Muslims owned and traded
slaves from the earliest days of the Islamic religion. Their trade in slaves included Africa,
Southeast Europe, Arabia, and the Indian Ocean. Islamic law governing the treatment of
slaves made the practice relatively humane slaves were used more frequently for
domestic service than for hard labor. By the 1500s, Europeans came to view enslaves
Africans as the most valuable African trade goods. At that time, Europeans began buying
large numbers of Africans to satisfy the labor shortages on American sugar, tobacco, and
cotton plantations, or large estates. The slave trade eventually grew into a huge and
profitable business. The trade that involved Europe, Africa, and the Americas was
sometimes referred to as triangular trade because the sea routes among these three
continents formed vast triangles.
4. The Middle Passage
a. The voyage from Africa to the Americas on the slave ships was called the Middle Passage.
Conditions were terrible on these ships. Hundreds of people were crammed onto a single ship. In
fact, millions of Africans died on the way from disease, brutal mistreatment, or suicide. Those
who survived were forced to work on plantations in the American colonies. The slaves often
fared poorly on the sugar plantations of the Caribbean and Brazil, where owners often believed it
was cheaper to work them to death and buy replacements rather than to feed, clothe, and house
them adequately to sustain life. In North America, where planters encouraged reproduction, they
often fared better.
5. Effects of the Slave Trade
a. By the 1800s, when the slave trade ended, an estimated 11 million Africans had been sent to the
Americas. The slave trade caused local wars to develop in Africa. Slavery was a big business in
some African states. Europeans lacked the military strength, the immunity to disease, and the
knowledge of the terrain to enter the interior of the continent. They stayed on the coast, while
Africans captured the slaves and brought them to be purchased. As a result, traditional African
political structures were undermined. Through slavery, many African societies were deprived of
the talents of strong, intelligent people. West Africa especially lost many young men and women.
Some societies and small states disappeared forever.
6. Colonial Latin America
a. During the 1500s, the Spanish empire in the Americas stretched from California to South
America and brought great wealth to the nation. The Spanish rapidly colonized Central America,
the Andes Mountain regions, and the Philippines. In return, the Spanish brought their
government, religion, economy, and culture to the Americas. Wars against the Ottomans and the
Protestants would eventually bankrupt even the silver-rich treasury of Spain.
i. Extent and Administration
ii. Religion

iii. Encomienda System

iv. Culture and Social Classes
Essential Questions:
How did the Transatlantic exploration begin?
What technological innovations occurred during the Age of Exploration?
What were the social, political, and economic implications of the Age of Exploration?
Student Objectives:
Students will be ale to explore the relationship between knowledge and technological innovations.
Students will be able to examine the routes used during the Age of Exploration.
Students will be able to determine how the triangular trade impacted Europe, the Americas, and Africa.
Students will be able to explain how trade interactions spread over time.
Process:
Students will develop historical thinking skills through the use of: students generate timelines, graphic
organizers, and the reading of primary and secondary sources.
Assessment:
Students will have formative and summative assessments based on the New York State Standards and
Common Core Standards.
Common Core Standards:
RH.9-10.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary
describing political, social, or economic aspects of history/social science.
RH.9-10.7: Integrate quantitative or technical analysis (e.g. charts, research data) with qualitative
analysis in print or digital text.
RH.9-10.8: Assess the extent to which the reasoning and evidence in a text support the authors claims.
WHST.9-10.2: Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events,
scientific procedures/experiments, or technical processes.
WHST.9-10.4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are
appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.