Sample Lesson

Sample Lesson
Welcome to History Alive! World Connections. This document contains everything
you need to teach the sample lesson “Toward a Global Economy.” We invite
you to use this sample lesson today to discover how TCI can bring history alive for
your students.

Contents

Overview: Sample Lesson 13: Toward a Global Economy 2

Student Text 7

Procedures 27

Notebook Guide 33

Teacher’s Guide 37

Assessment 41

Differentiating Instruction 42

Enhancing Learning 43

www.teachtci.com/historyalive-wc www.teachtci.com
1. Watch a lesson demonstration
2. Learn about strategies behind the program
3. Discover the new and improved Teacher
Subscription and Student Subscription

info@teachtci.com | 800-497-6138
Overview

Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
1 Themes of World History 17 Imperialism Throughout the World
2 Era Overview: Foundations of 18 Era Overview: Global Crisis and
World History, Prehistory–300 C.E. Achievement, 1900–1945
3 World Religions 19 World War I
4 Era Overview: Expanding 20 The Russian Revolution
Interactions, 300–1500 C.E. 21 Foreign Influences and
5 The Decline of Feudalism Revolutions in the Americas
6 The Byzantine Empire 22 North Africa and the Middle East
7 The Political Development of 23 The Rise of Fascism and
Imperial China Totalitarian States
8 Ghana: A West African Trading 24 World War II
History Alive! World Connections Empire 25 Forces for Independence and
takes a global approach to the
9 Achievements of the Mayas, Revolution in Asia
study of world history by exploring Aztecs, and Incas 26 Era Overview: The Cold War and
the inter-regional connections and
10 Era Overview: The First Global Age, Beyond, 1945–Present
global themes that connect our
1400–1799 27 The Legacy of Imperialism
world today. Just as a filmmaker
11 Expanding Empires Outside 28 Movements Toward Independence
uses multiple lenses to tell a story,
Europe and Democracy
this program invites students to
12 Transformations in Europe 29 Shifts of Power in the Middle East
begin with a wide-angle view to
examine eras in world history and 13 Toward a Global Economy 30 Contemporary Global Issues
then zoom in to understand the 14 Era Overview: An Age of Global
development of events and interac- Revolutions, 1700s–1914
tions among the world’s people and 15 Political Revolutions and Their
cultures today. Legacies
16 The Industrial Revolution

Sample Lesson:
13 Toward a Global Economy

F R E E 3 0 DAY T R I A L

Test-drive with a 30 Day Trial

With the Teacher Subscription, teachers can get an
entire class interacting with one computer, an internet
connection and a projector. Students thrive on the
immediate feedback they get using the Student
Subscription’s Reading Challenges.

www.teachtci.com/trial

2
Sample Lesson 13: Toward a Global Economy

Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
Students visit a wing of a European museum devoted to the emergence of the first
global age. Sitting in Response Groups, students win points by showing how and why
artifacts led to Europe’s dominance in the first global age.
Below are a sampling of slides from the Classroom Presentation.

Preview: Students show what they know before diving into the lesson.

Vocabulary: Students drag and drop terms and definitions.

3
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
Activity: In a Response Group, students select artifacts from the museum case
and discuss how and why each artifact lead to Europe’s dominance in the first
Global Age.

Activity: In this slide, students discuss how the cannon played a role in
Europe’s dominance.

4
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
Wrap Up: Students match each concept to the correct image.

Processing: Students use their Notebook Guides and rank nine factors in
order of importance and explain why they gave each factor its ranking.

5
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning

2  Toward a Global Economy
Student Text

7
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
Toward a Global Economy 13
What factors led to European dominance in the emergence
of the first global age?

Section 1 Introduction
Themes
Portugal, a small European country bordering the vast Atlantic 
Ocean, sent sailors south in the early 1400s to explore the western  Cultural Interaction European
coast of Africa. Part of their mission was to find West Africa’s fabled  exploration in the Americas and
“River of Gold.” The Portuguese believed that this river was the source  Asia resulted in the interchange
of the gold that trading caravans had, for centuries, carried north  of previously unknown goods
throughout the world. Europe-
across the Sahara.
ans spread their customs and
In the early 1400s, sailing the seas was a dangerous business. 
religion, often forcibly, to the
Sailors had to be tough. But even the toughest Portuguese sailor might 
peoples they encountered.
have trembled to hear the words “Cape Bojador” (boh-juh-DOHR). 
This piece of land bulging out into the Atlantic presented a psycho- Political Structures Europe saw
logical barrier, a barrier of fear. Rumors hinted at the many hazards  the rise of sovereign nation-
that lay beyond the cape. Perhaps, some sailors thought, it marked the  states and the creation of over-
seas empires.
edge of the world.
Finally, in 1434, a captain named Gil Eannes dared to sail past  Economic Structures European
Cape Bojador into the unknown waters to the south. He found out  overseas colonies supported a
why sailors feared to venture past the cape. At that point, a power- mercantilist economic system
ful ocean current drove ships to the south. The winds, too, blew  and aided in the accumulation of
southward. To sail north, back to Portugal, ships had to veer well out  capital.
into the Atlantic to avoid the current. The knowledge and experi-
Social Structures European set-
ence gained by sailing in the open ocean led to improvements in ship 
tlers in Latin America created a
design and navigational tools. These advances would allow Portuguese 
stratified society with those born
sailors to make longer exploratory voyages.
in Europe at the top.
Portuguese sailors eventually found enough gold to make their 
exploration a commercial success. By the end of the 1400s, they had  Human-Environment Interaction
sailed around the southern tip of Africa to India and other lands  Europeans colonized the Ameri-
bordering the Indian Ocean. They called that region the Indies. They  cas and forced enslaved Africans
knew it as the source of spices and other goods prized by Europeans.  to migrate as well. They brought
diseases with them that killed
Reaching the Indies marked an important stage on the road toward a 
many Native Americans.
global economy.

By the early 1700s, Europeans had enough knowledge about the world to create
▲

this detailed world map.

Toward a Global Economy  3

8
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
Section 2 Economic and Political Changes in Europe
nation-state  a politically 
Portugal’s ocean voyaging came less than a century after a catastrophic 
independent state whose people 
event. In the mid-1300s, a disease called the Black Death swept 
have a common culture and 
through Europe. This killer plague sharply decreased populations and 
nationality
damaged economies. Although the Black Death returned periodi-
cally, by 1400 Europe had begun a healthy recovery. Two key changes 
marked this revival. Together, they would help Europeans dominate 
the first global age of world history.

Trade Connects Southern and Northern Europe The first 

change was economic. Trading centers in southern and northern  
Europe, over time, established strong ties with one another.
These two regions had separate patterns of trade. In the south, 
Italian city-states such as Venice and Genoa grew rich from Mediter-
ranean trade with Muslims from the Middle East. This trade brought 
them luxury goods, including silk from China, ivory from East Africa, 
and pepper and other spices from India. In the north, a powerful  
association of trading cities known as the Hanseatic League developed 
Popular market in Naples a secure and profitable commercial network. Its products were mainly 
bulk goods, such as grains, wool, wood, 
fish, and iron. Hanseatic merchants 
also traded furs, beeswax, honey, and 
amber.
Earlier, in medieval times,  
merchants from south and north 
would have come together to trade 
goods mainly at fairs. Fairs were 
regional markets set up from time to 
time in a central location. As economic 
activity increased, Europe’s merchants 
sought more regular trade. By 1400, 
direct trade had largely replaced com-
mercial fairs, as merchant ships carried 
goods back and forth between Euro-
pean port cities in the north and south. 
Direct trade helped unify Europe 
economically.

Nation-States Arise The sec-
ond change was political. Through 
the 1400s and 1500s, unified nation-
states slowly emerged. In Spain, 
Portugal, England, the Netherlands, 
and France, kings secured their politi-

4 Toward a Global Economy

9
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
cal authority by seizing power from local nobles and the Church. 
sovereign  self-governing and 
These newly formed nation-states were sovereign and territorial. That 
independent 
is, they were self-governing and independent, and they ruled over a 
specific geographical area. revenue  income used to fund 
All five of these states had ports on the Atlantic Ocean. That put  a nation’s expenses
them in a good position to take advantage of future long-distance 
bureaucracies  complex 
trading opportunities. It also meant that they would compete with one 
systems of officials and workers 
another to advance their own fortunes.
who manage the activities of a 
Economic competition among European nation-states gave Europe 
government
an advantage over other regions of the world. For one thing, it led to 
innovation. For example, each state sought to build stronger and faster 
sailing ships to outdo its rivals. Those rivals would quickly copy—and 
try to improve upon—any such innovation.
Competition also led governments to seek partnerships with  
private entrepreneurs. States needed the resources of merchants, 
bankers, and investors to succeed with ventures overseas. A sovereign 
national state could help mobilize those resources in a number of 
ways. It could create a national market for the exchange of goods. It 
could standardize weights and measures. It could enact laws to protect 
private property. The state could also ensure the safety of merchants 
traveling within its boundaries. European states did all these things.
Competition among European 
states took military as well as eco-
nomic form. England and France 
had fought off and on from the mid-
1300s to the mid-1400s. After this 
Hundred Years’ War, they remained 
bitter enemies. Warfare pitted Cath-
olic states against Protestant states 
during the Reformation for another 
80 years, starting in the 1560s.
During this time, European 
states underwent a military revolu-
tion. They built up large and power-
ful armies and navies and supplied 
them with top-quality weapons. 
Larger cannons appeared not only on the battlefield but also on ships.  European nations fortified their navies
with powerful weapons, such as
This military buildup took money—lots of money. European states 
cannons.
raised massive amounts of revenue through taxation and borrowing. 
To collect and distribute revenue and otherwise administer the state’s 
affairs, complex bureaucracies arose. Those bureaucracies also man-
aged the voyages of exploration that several nation-states undertook. 
Like the revival of Europe, those explorations would have economic 
and military aspects.

Toward a Global Economy  5

10
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
Section 3 Europeans Look Outward
As early as the 1400s, economic competition led some European 
states to begin looking outward, beyond their shores. They had trade 
in mind. They knew that long-distance trade could bring wealth, and 
with wealth came power. The first of those states was Portugal.
The explorers who sailed south from Portugal along the western 
coast of Africa hoped to find gold, and they did. But some leaders 
and thinkers in Portugal, and in its neighbor, Spain, had a longer-
term goal. They wanted to bypass the Muslim and Italian traders who 
controlled the luxury goods arriving in the Mediterranean from Asia. 
They wanted direct access to that Asian trade. More to the point, they 
wanted the profit from that trade.

Reasons for Exploration The pursuit of profit was the main 

reason for all European exploration. Two related motives, competi-
tiveness and the craving for Asian goods, also played important roles. 
Other factors, too, pushed European states to explore and expand. A 
new type of ship, the caravel, made it possible to sail against winds 
and currents and survive long voyages across stormy seas. Curiosity 
about the unknown world and an adventurous spirit also motivated 
Europeans.
Religion was yet another prime factor. Europeans wished to bring 
Christianity to non-Christians. They believed that doing so would 
save those people’s souls. Christians were also concerned about the 
growing power of another religion, Islam. They had tried, and failed, 
to weaken that power through the Crusades, the religious wars of the 

European Exploration and Land Claims, 1488-1620

H ud
s on, 1 6
10 Cabot, 1497

NORTH EUROPE
,1 609 ASIA
AMERICA H uds o n

da Verrazano, 1524

PA C I F I C
Columbus, 1492–1493
ort
és, 1519 OCEAN
C

Goa
AT L A N T I C (Portugal) Magellan died, 1521
OCEAN Magellan, 1519–1522
AFRICA
Malacca
de

(Portugal)
lC
an

5
1

o(
P iz 2 – 1 5
3

fo

Dias, 1488 521–

SOUTH
a r r 33

o
rM

PA C I F I C
da

2
2

15
INDIAN
ag
Ga

AMERICA 1–
ella 7–14

OCEAN 52
ma

,1
OCEAN
, 14

n)
n),

lla
9
1

e
ag
rM
(fo AUSTRALIA
99
152

o
Mage Can
del
2

llan
Ca

, 15 ra
19
b

– l, 1
50
0–
15

150
22

N 1

W E

S Territory claimed or controlled Portugal’s voyages of exploration

by Portugal by 1600
Spain’s voyages of exploration
Territory claimed or controlled
by Spain by 1600 England’s voyages of exploration
France’s voyages of exploration
Netherlands’ voyages of exploration

6 Toward a Global Economy

11
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
Jesuit missionaries converting Indians
to Christianity

late Middle Ages. By the mid-1400s, a powerful Muslim empire led 
by the Ottoman Turks threatened to overrun Europe. The Ottomans 
would soon control all overland trade moving west into the Mediter-
ranean Sea. By bypassing the Mediterranean gateway controlled by 
Muslims, Christian states in Europe could strike a blow against their 
enemy.

Portuguese Ships Reach India Portuguese explorers had royal 

support. One of the king’s sons personally sponsored the early explo-
rations of the African coast. His name was Henrique, but he became 
known as Prince Henry the Navigator. He did not join any voyages of 
discovery. He did, however, help launch a steady stream of explorers 
who would eventually open a sea route to India.
After sailing past West Africa’s Cape Bojador in 1434, the Portu-
guese kept exploring southward. Along the coast, they traded for gold, 
and they also looked for slaves. At first, the Portuguese raided villages 
in order to capture and carry off Africans. Violent African resistance 
to raiding limited the practice. By 1450, the Portuguese had begun  
actively bartering for slaves. Muslim merchants and local African 
rulers would gather captives taken in raids in the interior. They would 
trade them to the Portuguese, usually for cloth but also for grain, 
silver, and horses.
Profits from the gold and slave trades financed further voyages 
and the establishment of a series of trading posts and forts. In this 
way, the Portuguese worked their way slowly down the western coast 
of Africa. It was not until 1488 that the first Portuguese sailor, Bar-
tolomeu Dias, sailed around southernmost Africa and into the Indian 
Ocean. In 1498, Portugal’s Vasco da Gama reached India, establishing 
what would become a well-traveled route from Europe to the riches of 

Toward a Global Economy  7

12
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
Asia. On a voyage to India two years later, a fleet of ships under Pedro 
Cabral swept far to the west while rounding Africa—and ended up in 
Brazil. Portugal claimed that land.

Early Exploration of the Americas Several years before Da 

Gama reached India, an Italian sailor named Christopher Columbus 
had a bold idea. He knew that the world was round. Instead of sail-
ing east to get to the Indies, he decided 
to sail west, directly across the Atlantic 
Ocean. Based on antiquated maps, he 
believed that Asia was a lot closer to 
Europe than it actually was. He wrote, 
“Between the edge of Spain and the 
beginning of India, the sea is short and 
can be crossed in a matter of a few days.” 
Columbus persuaded Spain’s monarchs, 
Isabella and Ferdinand, to fund a voyage 
westward. Like the Portuguese, they 
wanted access to the silks and spices of 
the Indies without having to go through 
the Muslim middlemen who controlled 
the trade routes from Asia to the Medi-
terranean.
In 1492, Columbus made his first 
This Italian postage stamp celebrated voyage to the Americas. He left Spain in August with three ships—the 
the 500th anniversary of the first Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. Showing his skill as a sailor, 
voyage of Christopher Columbus.
he headed south to the Canary Islands, where he picked up the trade 
winds that blew westward across the Atlantic. On October 12, Colum-
bus reached an island in the Bahamas, which he called San Salvador. 
He later sailed to Cuba and Hispaniola. Columbus called the native 
peoples Indians, because he believed that he had reached the Indies. 
He would maintain that belief through three additional voyages.
Spain claimed the right to trade and settle in the lands Columbus 
had found. The pope, who was Spanish, supported Spain’s claim. He 
granted Spain control of “all islands and mainland found and to be 
found . . . towards the south and west.” This vague language alarmed 
the Portuguese, who wanted to protect their trading rights in Africa 
and along the sea route around Africa. In 1494, the two countries 
Treaty of Tordesillas  negotiated the Treaty of Tordesillas (tawr-day-SEEL-yahs). This 
agreement that split all not-yet-  agreement drew an imaginary line from the North Pole, through the 
explored lands between Spain  mid-Atlantic Ocean, across Brazil, to the South Pole. This “line of 
and Portugal demarcation” gave Spain all rights to lands west of the line and gave 
Portugal all rights to lands east of the line.

8 Toward a Global Economy

13
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
   Following Columbus’s discovery, the Italian merchant and sailor 
conquistadores  Spanish 
Amerigo Vespucci made two trips across the Atlantic, in 1499 for 
conquerors of the Americas
Spain and in 1501 for Portugal. After his second voyage, which took 
him to Brazil, he wrote a number of letters about what he saw. In 
them, he described the western lands as a “new world.” A mapmaker 
in 1507 split the lands into two continents, and he named the southern 
one “America” after Vespucci. The name stuck and was gradually  
applied to both continents.

Spanish Conquests in the Americas Spain continued to send 

explorers to the Americas. In 1513, Juan Ponce de León landed on the 
shores of Florida. The same year, Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed a 
narrow strip of land—the Isthmus of Panama—and came upon a vast 
sea. It was the Pacific Ocean.
To this point, the mission of Spanish explorers was trade and  Francisco Pizzaro led his expedition
discovery. That changed with the expedition commanded by Hernán  through the Andes to reach the Inca
Cortés. Empire.
Cortés had conquest in mind when 
he landed in Mexico in 1519. He and 
his small army of conquistadores, or 
conquerors, marched inland with their 
crossbows, gunpowder weapons, and 
horses. They fought some Indian groups 
and forged alliances with others.
Cortés learned of the dominant Aztec 
Empire, centered in the city of Tenoch-
titlán. He set out for the city, aiming to 
conquer the Aztecs. After a series of nego-
tiations, bloody battles, and retreats, the 
Spaniards and their Indian allies made 
a final assault on the city in May 1521. 
Three months later, they had achieved 
victory, at a cost of more than 100,000 
Aztec lives.
A similar fate awaited another great 
civilization, the Incas of Peru. Weakened 
by civil war, the Incas fell to Spanish con-
quistador Francisco Pizarro. In 1532, with 
a small force of foot-soldiers and cavalry, 
Pizarro captured the Inca ruler. The 
Spaniards later destroyed the Inca capital 
at Cuzco. They looted the city and carried 
away huge amounts of gold and silver.

Toward a Global Economy  9

14
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
Further Voyages of Exploration Spain had a lengthy head 
circumnavigate  travel 
start over its competitors in claiming territory in the Americas. But 
completely around the globe
England, France, and the Netherlands all took an interest in this “new 
world.” Their early explorations focused on North America.
The king of England sent John Cabot, an Italian navigator, west 
across the ocean in 1497. In the North Atlantic off the coast of Can-
ada, Cabot found an abundance of fish, a resource that would attract 
fishermen from England, Spain, Portugal, and France. But Cabot 
failed in his mission to find a route through the Americas to Asia—
what came to be known as the Northwest Passage.
The French mariner Jacques Cartier also sought in vain for a way 
around the American land barrier. In 1535, he sailed up the Saint 
Lawrence River as far as present-day Montreal. Based on Cartier’s 
explorations, France would later claim Canada.
The English navigator Henry Hudson, sailing for the Netherlands 
in 1609, explored the Hudson River, thinking it could be the North-
west Passage. Sailing for England the next year, he searched the shores 
of Hudson Bay. But again he failed to find a way through the  
continent.
Meanwhile, the Spanish mariner Ferdinand Magellan had set out 
in 1519 to find a southern route around the Americas to Asia. He suc-
ceeded in sailing from the Atlantic around the southern tip of South 
America and into the Pacific. Magellan reached the Philippine islands 
in 1521, where he died in an attack by native peoples. The remain-
ing members of his crew continued the voyage westward through the 
Indian Ocean, around Africa, and back to Spain, thus becoming the 
Ferdinand Magellan first reached the
Pacific Ocean in 1520. first to circumnavigate—sail completely around—the globe.

10 Toward a Global Economy

15
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
Section 4 The Atlantic World
European exploration, conquest, and colonization of the Americas 
affected all four continents bordering the Atlantic Ocean. It resulted 
in a distinct Atlantic world, in which European states used the peoples 
and resources of the Americas and Africa to boost their economies. 
Throughout the Americas, the people who came under the domina-
tion of Europeans suffered more from the experience.

American Colonies In the 1500s and 1600s, Spain expanded 
throughout what we today call Latin America. The Spanish Empire 
included the West Indies (the islands of the Caribbean Sea), Mexico, 
Central America, and South America except for Brazil. Spain focused 
on extracting resources from its colonies.
One important resource was silver. From the mid-1500s onward, 
mining—of silver and also gold—became a major industry in Mexico 
and in Peru. These precious metals had to be extracted from the earth 
by hand. For this difficult, dangerous work, the Spanish turned to the 
native peoples, forcing them to labor in the mines. Toiling long hours, 
Indian laborers dug out the metal ore and then carried heavy baskets 
of it to the surface.
The amount of silver that Spain took from American mines far 
outweighed the amount of gold. That silver brought the nation great 
wealth—and great power. King Philip IV of Spain declared, “In silver 
lies the security and strength of my monarchy.” Indians working in the Spanish silver
Spain used some of its enormous supply of silver to buy imported  mines in Mexico

goods, such as grains from 
the Baltic and spices from 
Asia. It also shipped some 
to its colony in the Philip-
pines in order to buy manu-
factured products as well as 
Asian luxury goods. Spain’s 
silver also paid for the series 
of European wars that it 
fought in the 1500s and 
1600s.
A second key resource 
extracted from Spanish 
America was sugar. Sugar-
cane thrived in the soil and 
climate of the West Indies, 
and the worldwide demand 
for sugar kept increasing. 
As a result, Spanish growers 

Toward a Global Economy  11

16
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
established a number of sugar plantations on the islands. As in the 
mining industry, Indians served as forced labor—as slaves—on these 
plantations.
During the same period, the Portuguese colonized Brazil. They 
based their early economy on brazilwood, which they cut and shipped 
to Europe. This wood was a source of red dye (and of the colony’s 
name). Starting in the late 1500s, the Portuguese made far greater 
profits from sugar. Like the Spanish, the Portuguese in Brazil relied 
African slaves are planting sugarcane
mainly on the native population to perform the grueling work neces-
while being watched by a white
overseer.
sary to harvest and process sugarcane. By 1600, Brazil produced more 
sugar than anyplace else in the world. In 1695, a huge gold strike in an 
inland region of Brazil boosted the colony’s economy further.
Spanish and Portuguese success did not go unnoticed by other 
European states. In the late 1500s, the English and the Dutch (people 
of the Netherlands) established a presence in the Americas. First 
they followed the Spanish into the Caribbean, looking for profitable 
ventures. There, Dutch and English pirates attacked Spanish ships and 
stole silver and other precious cargo. Later they set up bases in the 
Caribbean islands to support their attacks on shipping. The French 
did the same.
By the mid-1600s England, France, and the Netherlands were 
competing with Spain on two levels. They were exporting agricultural 
products, including sugar from their own plantations in the Caribbe-
an, to Europe, and they were also providing Spain’s American colonies 
with most of their manufactured goods. At the same time, the French, 
English, and Dutch also had colonies of their own on the mainland 
of North America—in coastal Canada, Virginia, New York, and New 
England.
Many Indians, forced to work in the mines and on the sugar 
plantations, died from accidents and from overwork. But many more 
died from disease. In fact, all over the Americas the native people 
were dying of diseases carried to their lands by explorers and settlers. 
Because they had been isolated from the rest of the world, the Indians 
of the Americas were never exposed to smallpox, measles, and other 
Great Dying  the devastation of  diseases. They had no resistance to them. In what historians have 
American Indian populations  called the Great Dying, these diseases killed many millions of Indi-
by diseases brought over from  ans, perhaps half of all Indians in the Americas at the time of Colum-
Europe bus’s arrival.

indentured servitude  a system  The Trans-Atlantic Slave System As a result of the Great 

by which a European agreed  Dying, the Europeans needed more labor for their plantations. At first 
to work for a period of time in  the British (as they were known after England merged with Scotland 
return for being transported to  in 1707) tried using indentured labor. In the system of indentured
the Americas servitude, a person agreed to work for a period of time, often four to 

12 Toward a Global Economy

17
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
seven years, in return for passage to 
the Americas, food, and a place to 
live.
Indentured servants from Britain 
found the work on West Indies sugar 
plantations to be brutal. Many of 
them died. They had a similar experi-
ence on the tobacco and rice planta-
tions in Britain’s North American 
colonies.
Since 1500, the Portuguese had 
been shipping a limited number of 
enslaved Africans to the Caribbean.  
Africans seemed better able to sur-
vive as laborers than American Indi-
ans. They could do the exhausting 
and dangerous work, and they had a greater immunity to disease. For  These Aztecs died during a smallpox
these reasons, European mine and plantation owners began to import  epidemic, part of the Great Dying.
many more enslaved Africans. Between around 1600 and 1650, more 
than 250,000 Africans were forced to migrate to the Spanish colonies. 
Another 150,000 went to Brazil.
For many years the Portuguese controlled trade along coastal  
Africa. Later, the English, French, and Dutch also established trading 
posts on the Atlantic coast. From there European merchants built 
relationships with African rulers willing to trade slaves. Together they 
set up a system for enslaving Africans and shipping them from Africa 
to the Americas.
The Africans and the Europeans had a fairly equal role in this 
trans-Atlantic slave system. Africans managed the gathering of slaves. 
Slavery was already widespread in African society, and trading in 
slaves across the Sahara had been going on for centuries. Some slaves 
were kidnapped in raids by African slavers. Others were made slaves 
by some legal judgment or to repay a debt. But most slaves were taken 
captive in war.
As European demand for slaves increased in the late 1600s, a few 
states in the interior of Africa began to focus on finding and delivering 
slaves. The production of slaves became their main economic activity. 
Coastal African states tended to serve as middlemen in the slave  middlemen  people who pro-
trade. They established trade routes from the interior to the coast and  vides a service that links two 
handled the exchange with European traders. people or groups
European ships carried the enslaved Africans across the Atlantic. 
The voyage is known as the Middle Passage. It was the middle part 
of the slave’s overall journey—and perhaps the most horrifying. The 
slave ship’s crew packed their cargo of Africans into the hold. Often 

Toward a Global Economy  13

18
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
This deck plan shows how captured they had no room to stand or stretch. To prevent revolts, male slaves 
Africans were forcibly held on slave were often chained in place. The food was limited and of poor quality, 
ships in the 1700s.
and conditions were unsanitary. Disease spread quickly. Many of the 
Africans died on the voyage, which could take from three weeks to 
three months.
Before 1650, Portuguese ships transported most of the enslaved 
Africans heading to the Americas. The majority went to mainland 
Spanish America. After 1650, northern European slave traders took 
over much of the business, and their main destination shifted to sugar 
plantations in Brazil and the West Indies. Later, Britain would domi-
nate the highly profitable slave trade, transporting slaves throughout 
the Americas, including to plantations in their North American colo-
nies. In the 1700s alone, some 6 million enslaved Africans were forced 
to migrate to the Americas.
The transport of slaves to the Americas was just one “side” of what 
triangular trade  a colonial  is known as the triangular trade. In American ports, European mer-
pattern of trade that involved the  chants traded their slaves for sugar, silver, tobacco, and other products 
transport of slaves from Africa  of the mines and plantations. The shipping of those raw materials to 
to the Americas, sugar and other  Europe formed the second side of the triangle. In Europe, they picked 
products from the Americas  up manufactured goods such as textiles and weapons, as well as raw 
to Europe, and manufactured  metal, rum, and tobacco. The third side of the triangle was the voyage 
goods from Europe to Africa to Africa to trade those goods for slaves.

14 Toward a Global Economy

19
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
The Columbian Exchange The trade between Europe and the 
Columbian Exchange  the 
Americas had consequences beyond just boosting European  
transfer of plants, animals, and 
economies. It launched the Columbian Exchange, a two-way distri-
diseases between the eastern 
bution of plants and animals named after Columbus. Until the arrival 
and western hemispheres
of Columbus, the peoples of the Americas were isolated from the rest 
of the world. That isolation meant that they had no immunity to Euro-
pean diseases. But it also meant that many of their plants and animals 
were unique to the Americas.
Europeans took a special interest in American food plants. These 
included maize (corn), potatoes, beans, squashes, pumpkins, peanuts, 
avocadoes, tomatoes, chili peppers, and cocoa. Merchants carried 
these to Europe and, from there, to Africa and Asia. Over time, these 
plants helped increase food production and improve the diets of 
people around the world.
The Columbian Exchange also brought new plants and animals 
into the “new world” from the “old world.” Peaches, oranges, bananas, 
sugarcane, coffee, oats, and wheat all became important crops in 
the Americas. Europeans also introduced beasts of burden and new 
sources of protein in the form of horses, cattle, pigs, goats, and sheep.  These tortillas and salsa are made from
European agriculture and the grazing needs of horses, cattle, and  ingredients that were part of the
Columbian Exchange.
sheep had a great impact on the natural environ-
ment. Much land was converted from forest to 
farm and pasture.
Some historians include people, along with 
their customs and ideas, in the Columbian 
Exchange. Around 1.4 million Europeans and 
more than five times that many Africans had 
migrated to the Americas by 1800.
In Latin America the intermixing of Europe-
ans, Africans, and Indians created a distinctive 
colonial society. That society was stratified, or 
formed into classes, according to place of origin, 
race, skin color, and other factors. At the top of 
the social pyramid stood those born in Europe. 
People of mixed blood stood in the middle. The 
lower classes included Indians and Africans.
A different kind of class structure evolved in 
colonial North America. Its basis was economic, 
with white merchants and planters at the top of 
the social hierarchy. Within the colonies, Indians 
and Africans had little, if any, social prestige or 
political power.

Toward a Global Economy  15

20
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
Section 5 Europeans in the Indies
Starting in 1300, the collapse of Mongol rule in Asia led to the rise of 
large, centrally governed states. In the centuries that followed, Muslim 
empires stretched from India across Southwest Asia and North Africa. 
China moved westward into Central Asia. Russia expanded eastward. 
These powerful states, with much to gain from trade, helped keep 
Asia’s overland trade routes secure.
During the same period, European states pioneered the sea route 
around Africa and then steadily extended oceanic trade throughout 
the Indian Ocean and east to China. Overland routes funneled trade 
goods to dozens of European trading posts planted along the coast. 
For the first time in history, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas 
were directly connected by a global trading network.

Portugal Gains Access to

Asian Maritime Trade The 
great powers of Asia focused on 
expanding their land-based empires. 
They did take part in maritime, or 
sea-based, trade, but they claimed 
no political right of ownership over 
the seas. Europeans were more pos-
sessive. In 1499, Vasco da Gama laid 
claim to the entire Indian Ocean for 
Portugal. The Portuguese set about 
building a trading empire, based on 
territorial rights granted them in the 
Treaty of Tordesillas.
Portugal’s main goal was to sail 
to the Indies, trade for spices and 
other luxury goods, and sail back 
European companies built warehouses
in Canton, China, to make trade easier. home. There was just one problem. The Asians did not need or want 
most European goods. Instead of exchanging products, Europeans 
would have to pay for Asian goods with money—mainly silver.
One option was to take part in the intra-Asian trade. Some mer-
chants began carrying foods and other ordinary goods from one part 
of the Indies to another, making a profit on each trade. Over time, 
they built up cargoes that could be exchanged for the fine spices—
black pepper, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, and cloves—and the 
Indian textiles, Chinese porcelain, and other Asian goods highly 
prized by Europeans.
To conduct trade, Portuguese merchants needed land bases. They 
often used force to get them. By the 1500s, European long-distance 
cargo ships came equipped with cannons. The Portuguese used those 

16 Toward a Global Economy

21
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
guns to attack and take control of key coastal towns. In this way, they 
captured Goa in India, Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, and Malacca on 
the Malay Peninsula. Malacca was the center of the East Indian spice 
trade. It also controlled the narrow Strait of Malacca. This led from 
the Indian Ocean to the Pacific and thus served as the eastern gateway 
to China and Japan.
The Portuguese used their naval advantage to dominate shipping 
in the Indian Ocean. They overpowered Asian merchant vessels and 
stole their cargoes. They blocked access to traditional shipping routes, 
too. One such route carried spices and other luxury goods through the 
Red Sea and across Egypt to the Mediterranean. The Portuguese never 
established a complete monopoly of the coastal trade, because Asian 
merchants fought back. Some armed their ships. Others changed their 
trade routes. Over time, however, the Portuguese gained control of a 
large part of the intra-Asian trade.

The European Model of Expansion By the mid-1500s, the 

Portuguese had established an effective model of expansion into Asian 
trade. The model had three basic parts.
1.  The Portuguese relied on their superior ships, armed with 
gunpowder weapons, to establish land bases and achieve control  
of the seas. These copper coins were issued by the
2. At their land bases they established trading posts, called  East India Company.
factories. These commercial centers managed Portuguese trade  
and finances in the region.
3.  Finally, they built fortresses to protect their factories and the 
small colonies that arose nearby.

By 1600, the Portuguese had a string of more than 50 fortified 
coastal trading posts from East Africa all the way to Japan. To this 
time, the only other European state competing with Portugal in Asia 
was Spain, which controlled the Philippines. Soon, however, Portugal 
had a lot more company in the Indies. In the 1600s,  the Dutch and 
the English, by applying the same model of expansion, would nearly 
eliminate Portugal from the Asian trade.

Competing for the Asian Trade The English, in 1600, and the 

Dutch, in 1602, each formed an East India Company to carry out long-
distance trade with Asia. The government of England gave the English 
East India Company, and only that company, the right to trade in 
Asia. The government of the Netherlands authorized its Dutch East 
India Company not only to conduct trade but also to carry out politi-
cal negotiations and to engage in warfare. The Dutch would fight to 
limit the success of the English in the Indies and to eliminate the 
Portuguese from the region.

Toward a Global Economy  17

22
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
Dockworkers unload tea in London. Like the Portuguese, the Dutch took a military approach to creat-
ing a trading empire in the Indies. They hired experienced naval offi-
cers to help establish and maintain their outposts. Negotiations with 
local Asian officials went much more smoothly when a ship bristling 
with cannons anchored just offshore. The Dutch East India Company 
set up factories in India and Japan and points in between, but they 
focused their efforts on the East Indies.
In the East Indies the Dutch hoped to monopolize the spice trade 
by taking control of the Spice Islands, now part of eastern Indonesia. 
There, most of the world’s supply of nutmeg, mace, and cloves grew. 
First the Dutch wrested control of the islands from the Portuguese. 
Then they used force and threats of force to compel local leaders to 
cooperate. In one group of islands, they slaughtered the native people 
and took over the production of their nutmeg and mace, bringing in 
enslaved Africans to cultivate the trees that yielded the spices. Then, in 
1641, they seized Malacca from the Portuguese.
The English East India Company, at least at first, took a less violent 
approach to the Asian trade. Its traders sought permission before  
locating a factory on foreign territory. Kept out of the East Indies 
by the Dutch, the English focused on trade with India. There they 
negotiated for trading rights with the Mughal Empire and local Indian 
officials.
English merchants followed a fairly standard trading procedure. 
They used silver to buy Indian textiles and then traded the textiles 
in the East Indies for pepper and other spices, which they shipped 
to England. They also carried Indian cotton and indigo, a plant that 
yielded a blue dye, to Europe.
Some 200 years after the Portuguese arrived in the Indies, Euro-
pean merchants were still confined to coastal trading posts and vari-
ous islands. In 1757, however, the British took control of the Indian 

18 Toward a Global Economy

23
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
territory of Bengal after Mughal power collapsed. In the years that 
mercantilism  an economic 
followed, Britain would gain control of all of India and absorb it into 
philosophy that favored self-
its colonial empire.
sufficiency, called for stockpil-
The India trade brought the British great wealth, helping them 
ing gold and silver, encour-
expand into other parts of Asia. Economic power gave them military 
aged exports, and discouraged 
power—the ability to build ships, equip them with weapons, and 
imports
engage them in warfare with their competitors. The British ousted the 
Portuguese from ports such as Hormuz and battled the Dutch off and 
on throughout the 1600s.
In the 1700s, European demand for spices fell, severely reduc-
ing the Dutch East India Company’s profits. The demand for Indian 
textiles, Chinese tea, and other goods rose. The British were well-
positioned to profit from trading in those goods. After the French 
general Napoleon Bonaparte conquered the Netherlands in 1795, the 
British took over most Dutch outposts in the Indies. Great Britain now 
dominated the Asian trade.

Section 6 Transformation of European Economies

In the first global age, the European states that engaged in long- 
distance trade created new economic strategies. Those strategies  
represented early stages in the growth of modern capitalism. The  John Locke believed that gold and silver
made a nation more powerful.
Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, English, and French 
merchants who shipped goods among Europe, 
the Americas, Africa, and Asia were merchant 
capitalists. They accumulated capital, or wealth, 
through trade. Trade made countries wealthier, 
too, and stronger. For this reason, governments 
established merchant-friendly policies.

Mercantilism The philosophy behind those 
policies came to be known as mercantilism. 
Mercantilism evolved out of the intense economic 
competition among European states. A major 
focus of that competition involved trying to build 
stockpiles of bullion—gold and silver. English 
thinker John Locke offered this observation on 
the role of bullion:
Riches do not consist in having more Gold and
Silver, but in having more in proportion, than
the rest of the World, or than our Neighbours, . .
. who, sharing the Gold and Silver of the World
in a less proportion, want [lack] the means of
Plenty and Power, and so are Poorer.
—John Locke, from Lowering of Interest, 1691

Toward a Global Economy  19

24
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
Mercantilists aimed to make their country richer and more power-
ful at the expense of other countries. To increase national wealth, gov-
ernments allied themselves with businesses. They founded colonies to 
supply industries with raw materials and provide a market for finished 
goods—the goal being self-sufficiency. This goal also called for export-
ing as much as possible while importing as little as possible. Exports 
of goods brought gold and silver into a country. Imports sent gold and 
silver to other countries. To discourage imports, states placed taxes on 
them.
Spain and Portugal paid huge amounts of silver and gold for 
manufactured goods from other European nations and their colonies. 
This trade made Dutch, English, and French mercantilists happy. But 
trade with Asia frustrated them, because it drained bullion out of their 
treasuries. From 1600 to 1800, the nations of western Europe shipped 
some 21,000 tons of bullion, mainly silver, to Asia.

capitalism  an economic  Capitalism Mercantilism is often viewed as an early form of 

system in which all resources  capitalism. Like mercantilism, it is a difficult concept to define. In its 
are privately owned and markets  ideal form, capitalism is an economic system in which all resources 
determine how those resources  are privately owned and markets determine how those resources are 
are distributed distributed.
During the mercantilist age, with the steady expansion of trade, 
entrepreneur  a person  several important features of capitalism appeared. One was the profit 
willing to take the risks involved  motive. European states began looking outward in hopes of making 
in starting or running a business profits from foreign commerce. Another was the accumulation of 
capital. By applying mercantilist principles, those states built up their 
stocks of gold and silver. A third feature was financial innovation. The 
Europeans improved credit techniques, finding more efficient ways of 
making capital available to business.
Bank loans funded entrepreneurs, people willing to take the risks 
of starting and running a business. Entrepreneurs launched the East 
India Companies. The English and Dutch East India Companies were 
both founded as joint-stock companies. They raised capital by selling 
stock, or shares of ownership in the company. The owners held the 
stock jointly.
This new form of business organization was a forerunner of the 
modern corporation. The East India Companies were run, not by 
their investors, but by elected directors. They had access to the large 
amounts of capital needed to fund costly long-distance trading voy-
ages. A round-trip to Asia could take three years. The East India 
Companies could afford to wait that long. When such a voyage was 
successful, all the owners profited.

20 Toward a Global Economy

25
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
Major Shift in Demand Black pepper remained a 
highly sought-after item of foreign trade well into the 1600s. 
European consumption of rare spices, indigo, and fine 
Chinese silks also stayed high. In the late 1600s and early 
1700s, however, consumer demand shifted away from luxury 
goods. Europeans imported greater amounts of sugar and 
tobacco from the Americas, tea and textiles from Asia. The 
combination of imported sugar from the West Indies and 
tea and porcelain from China gave rise to a new tradition—
the tea party.
The shift in demand may best be reflected in the flood 
of cotton textiles from India, including cheap calico cloth. 
Not all of the cotton fabric stayed in Europe. Merchants re-
exported much of it to the Americas, Africa, and the Middle 
East. The growing worldwide demand for cotton cloth had 
consequences beyond boosting Asian imports. Competition 
for this market helped trigger a revolution in the way goods 
were manufactured. England’s textile industry, bolstered by 
the mechanization of spinning and weaving, would be the 
driving force in that Industrial Revolution. Calico cloth was printed by hand.

Chapter Summary
Cultural Interaction European colonizers imposed their customs and religion on the native peo-
ples of the Americas and on the enslaved Africans forced to migrate to the Americas. The Columbian 
Exchange involved the distribution of previously unknown foods across the continents. Trade with 
Asia introduced European consumers to new products, such as tea.
Political Structures Sovereign nation-states rose in Europe as kings maintained power over local 
nobles and the Church. Through conquest and trade, several nation-states established empires.
Economic Structures Europeans followed a mercantilist philosophy, which encouraged exports 
and discouraged imports. A state operating under a mercantilist system obtained resources from its 
colonies. Those colonies also served as markets for the state’s manufactured goods. Europe’s increased 
profits from foreign trade led to the accumulation of capital, or wealth. The amassing of wealth was a 
key factor in the expansion of capitalism that took place during the first global age.
Social Structures European settlement in Latin America brought about a stratification of society. 
People born in Europe occupied the highest social class.
Human-Environment Interaction Europeans migrated to and colonized the Americas. The dis-
eases that they brought with them killed a large number of the native peoples. They forced millions 
of enslaved Africans to cross the Atlantic to work on plantations and in mines. Europeans cut down 
forests in the Americas in order to cultivate crops. They greatly expanded pasture land in order to 
feed the cattle, horses, and other domesticated animals that were new to the Americas. Europeans 
also extracted resources from the land through the mining of gold and silver.

Toward a Global Economy  21

26
Procedures

Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
Overview and Objectives
Overview

In this lesson, students visit a wing of a European museum devoted to the emergence of the
first global age. Sitting in Response Groups, they select one of 18 artifacts from the 1600s
and 1700s.

When they successfully discuss how and why the artifact led to Europe’s dominance in the first
global age, they win points. If not, another group can attempt to use their analytic skills to
connect the artifact with history.

Objectives

In the course of reading this lesson and participating in the classroom activity, students will

• analyze major political, religious, cultural, and economic transformations during the
first global age.

• evaluate how individuals and movements have shaped world history.

• evaluate how technology and ideas have shaped world history.

• analyze change and continuity within the first global age.

• understand multiple causal factors of conflicts in world history.

Social Studies Vocabulary

Key Content Terms: nation-state, mercantilism, circumnavigate, capitalism,

indentured servitude

27
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
Preview
Suggested time: 20 minutes

Students watch an audio slideshow and examine historical maps.

Have students think about this era’s Essential Question:

What factors led to European dominance in the emergence of the first global age?

Using their Notebook Guide students will answer the following questions:

1. a. What is missing from the 1489 map?

b. What does that tell us about Europeans’ knowledge about the world then?

2. a. In the 1550 map, why are the labels and images upside down north of the equator?

b. How did the mapmaker show that certain parts of the world were still unknown to him?

3. a. In the early 1700s map, how did the mapmaker show that Europeans had explored
much of the world?

b. Which parts of the world were still unknown to Europeans?

28
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
Vocabulary
Suggested time: 25 minutes

Key Content Terms: nation-state, mercantilism, circumnavigate, capitalism,

indentured servitude

Vocabulary

1. Have your students get in pairs and sit close to the projected slide.

2. Project the slide with five images, five Key Content Terms and five definitions.

3. In pairs students will quietly discuss how to match the images, terms and definitions.

4. Call on pairs to match the image, term, and definition by having students approach the slide
and drag and drop the correct answers into place.

5. Continue until all images, terms, and definitions have been correctly matched.

29
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
Response Group: Reading
Suggested time: 10 minutes

Have students read Sections 2 through 6 in the Student Text. If you do not have individual com-
puter devices, have students complete reading for homework the night before. Every student
should have a copy of the Notebook Guide.

Have students follow the directions in the Notebook Guide to create a note-taking outline that
summarizes the main ideas in each section.

Their outline should include

• a roman numeral (I–IV) for each section title.

• an uppercase letter (A–D) for each subhead.

• numbers for the main ideas under each subhead.

Follow the outline model in the Notebook Guide.

30
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
Response Group
Suggested time: 90 minutes

Students will visit a wing of a European museum devoted to the emergence of the first
global age.

Students will be assigned to a small group. Each group will select one of 18 artifacts from the
1600s and 1700s from behind a glass case.

In their group, students will discuss how and why the artifact led to Europe’s dominance in the
first global age. Each group can win points.

Activity Directions

1. Have students get into groups of four. There are 18 artifacts. For a class of 36 students, each
group can take two turns.

2. Call the first group to the slide to choose an artifact.

3. The students will click on the image to examine the artifact. Give the group a few minutes to
develop their responses. Have one student from the group give the response.

4. The group can earn one gold coin each time it does the following:

• Connect its explanation to an answer given by a previous group. If it is the first

group to go, it will automatically earn a gold coin.

• Describe how the artifact connects to the concepts the group has read about in the
Student Text.

• Explain how the artifact contributed to European dominance.

5. At the end of the game, the group with the most gold coins wins.

Activity Wrap-Up

Students will match each concept to the correct image by dragging the
concept to the image. The students should be able to explain why they chose the
particular image.

31
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
Processing
Suggested time: 10 minutes

In the Notebook Guide is a list of nine factors that contributed to European dominance in the
world during the first global age.

Have students rank these factors in order of importance. Then explain why they gave each factor
its ranking.

advanced weaponry

caravel

Christianity

conquistadores

Great Dying

mercantilism

Middle Passage

sugar

trade

32
Notebook Guide

Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
N O T E B O O K G U I D E

Toward a Global Economy

What factors led to European dominance in the emergence

of the first Global Age?

P R E V I E W

Carefully watch the Preview and be ready to answer the following questions:
1. a. What is missing from the 1489 map?
b. What does that tell us about Europeans’ knowledge about the world then?
2. a. In the 1550 map, why are the labels and images upside down north of the
equator?
b. How did the mapmaker show that certain parts of the world were still un-
known to him?
3. a. In the early 1700s map, how did the mapmaker show that Europeans had
explored much of the world?
b. Which parts of the world were still unknown to Europeans?

R E A D I N G N O T E S

Key Content Terms Section 2 through 6

As you complete the Reading Notes, use these
As you read Sections 2 through 6, summarize
terms in your answers.
your reading by creating a note-taking outline.
nation-state Your outline should include
mercantilism • a roman numeral (I–IV) for each section
circumnavigate title.
capitalism • an uppercase letter (A–D) for each subhead.
indentured servitude • numbers for the main ideas under each sub-
head.
Follow the model shown on the next page.

© Teachers’ Curriculum Institute, Inc. Toward a Global Economy 1

33
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
N O T E B O O K G U I D E

Model outline
I. Economic and Political Changes in Europe
A. Trade Connects Southern and Northern Europe
1. Trade in the south. . .
2. Trade in the north. . .
3. They came together when . . .
B. Sovereign National States Arise
1. One advantage . . .
2. Another advantage . . .
II. Europeans Look Outward

P R O C E S S I N G

Review this list of nine factors that contributed to European

dominance in the world during the first global age. advanced weaponry
caravel
Rank these factors in order of importance. Then explain why you
Christianity
gave each factor its ranking.
conquistadores
Great Dying
mercantilism
Middle Passage
sugar
trade

© Teachers’ Curriculum Institute, Inc. Toward a Global Economy 2

34
Spanish Notebook Guide

Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
G U Í A D E E S T U D I O

Hacia una Economía Global

¿Qué factores llevaron al dominio europeo en el surgimiento de la

primera Edad Global?

V I S T A Z O P R E V I O

Mira el Vistazo Previo atentamente y prepárate para contestar las siguientes preguntas:
1. a. ¿Qué falta en el mapa de 1489?
b. ¿Qué nos dice eso sobre el conocimiento del mundo que tenían entonces los europeos?
2. a. En el mapa de 1550 ¿por qué están a revés los rótulos y las imágenes al norte del ecuador?
b. ¿Cómo indicó el cartógrafo que ciertas partes del mundo aun eran desconocidas para él?
3. a. En el mapa de comienzos de los años 1700, ¿cómo indicó el cartógrafo que los europeos
habían explorado buena parte de mundo?
b. ¿Qué partes del mundo seguían siendo desconocidas para los europeos?

N O T A S D E L A L E C T U R A

Palabras Clave Secciones 2 a 6

A medida que completes las Notas de la Lec-
A medida que lees las Secciones 2 a 6, resume
tura, usa estos términos en tus respuestas.
lo que lees haciendo un esquema con tus
estado-nación apuntes. El esquema debe incluir:
mercantilismo
• un número romano (I-IV) para
circunnavegar el título de cada sección
capitalismo • una letra mayúscula (A-D) para
servicio por deuda cada subtítulo
• números para las ideas principales
bajo cada subtítulo

Sigue el modelo que aparece en la próxima

página.

© Teachers’ Curriculum Institute, Inc. Hacia una Economía Global 1

35
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
G U Í A D E E S T U D I O

Modelo de Esquema
I. Cambios económicos y políticos en Europa
A. El comercio conecta al norte y sur de Europa
1. Comercio en el sur…
2. Comercio en el norte…
3. Se juntaron cuando…
B. Surgen estados nacionales soberanos
1. Una ventaja…
2. Otra ventaja…
II. Los europeos miran hacia afuera

P R O C E S A R

Repasa esta lista de nueve factores que contribuyeron al dominio

europeo en el mundo durante la primera Edad Global. armamento avanzado
carabela
Clasifica estos factores en orden de importancia. Luego explica
cristianismo
por qué le diste a cada factor su clasificación.
conquistadores
Gran Mortandad
mercantilismo
Paso Intermedio
azúcar
comercio

© Teachers’ Curriculum Institute, Inc. Hacia una Economía Global 2

36
Teacher’s Guide

Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
T E A C H E R ’ S G U I D E

Toward a Global Economy

Use this guide to help check your students’ answers in the Museum.

Popular market at Naples

As European demand for luxury goods grew, merchants sought
more opportunities for regular trade. Increased trade contributed
to European dominance because it made European nations rich
and powerful.

Cannon, an example of advanced gunpowder weaponry

Europeans built up large armies and navies and supplied them
with top-quality weapons, such as cannon. Cannon contributed
to European dominance because it gave European nations the
power to conquer new territories and protect their trade.

Caravel
The caravel made it possible to sail against winds and currents
and survive long voyages across stormy seas. The caravel contrib-
uted to European dominance because it allowed Europeans to
pursue trade and conquest in distant lands.

Missionaries converting Indians to Christianity

Europeans wished to bring Christianity to non-Christians. They
believed that doing so would save those people’s souls. Religion
contributed to European dominance because it motivated Euro-
peans to explore and colonize Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus sailed west from Spain in search of India,
but he landed in the Bahamas instead. Columbus contributed to
European dominance because Spain claimed the right to trade
and settle in the lands Columbus had found.

© Teachers’ Curriculum Institute Toward a Global Economy 1

37
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
T E A C H E R ’ S G U I D E

Francisco Pizzarro, a conquistador, in Peru

Conquistadores were conquerors who sought to take control over
lands in the Americas. Conquistadores contributed to European
dominance because they defeated Indian empires and secured the
land for Spain.

Magellan’s first view of the Pacific

Ferdinand Magellan sailed around the southern tip of South
America into the Pacific Ocean. Although he was killed during
his journey, Magellan contributed to European dominance be-
cause his crew became the first to circumnavigate the globe.

Indians working in a Spanish silver mine

Spain focused on extracting resources such as silver from its
colonies. Silver contributed to European dominance because it
brought Spain great wealth and great power.

Planting sugar cane in the Americas

Spain focused on extracting resources such as sugar from its
colonies. Sugar contributed to European dominance because it
brought Spain great wealth and great power.

Countless Indians perish in the Great Dying

During the Great Dying, about half of the Indians of the Ameri-
cas died from European diseases. The Great Dying contributed
to European dominance because it reduced Indian resistance to
European control in the Americas.

© Teachers’ Curriculum Institute Toward a Global Economy 2

38
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
T E A C H E R ’ S G U I D E

A diagram of enslaved Africans in the hold of a slave ship

Europeans imported slaves to work in the plantations and mines.
Slave traders used ships to transport enslaved Africans from Af-
rica. The slave trade contributed to European dominance because
it provided forced labor for European plantations and mines.

ie
s 60°W
50°N
50°W

(sug
40°W

ar, t
oba
cco)
30°W 20°W 10°W EUROPE
Enslaved Africans endure the Middle Passage
on eria
ls

NORTH ol 40°N
raw
mat

The Middle Passage was the voyage of enslaved Africans to the

N
s)
c

10°E
AMERICA
pon

0°
sh

iti E
wea

W
Br 20°E
es,

S
Slav

textil

30°N

ATLANTIC

Americas. It was part of the triangular trade. The triangular trade

es,

Gulf of
oods (

OCEAN
s

Mexico
uga

W
manufactured g

ES AFRICA
r

20°N T I
ND

contributed to European dominance because it gave European

Caribbean Sea
IE
S

70°W
Sla 0 500 1,000 miles
ves
10°N
0 500 1,000 kilometers

SOUTH Mollweide Projection

nations more economic power.

AMERICA

Triangular Trade and the Enslavement of Africans

Foods involved in the Columbian Exchange

The Columbian Exchange was a two-way distribution of plants
and animals named after Columbus. The Columbian Exchange
contributed to European dominance because European diseases
killed large numbers of Indians, while American plants gave
Europeans a better diet.

Warehouses of several European countries in Canton, China

As trade within Asia increased, Europeans wanted to build ware-
houses and shipping ports. They often used force to gain control
of enough land to build them. These land bases contributed to
European dominance because they gave Europeans control over
territories in Asia.

Currency issued by the English East India Company

The English and the Dutch each formed an East India Company
to carry out long-distance trade with Asia. The English East India
Company contributed to European dominance because it gave
the English the economic and military strength to gain consider-
able power in India.

© Teachers’ Curriculum Institute Toward a Global Economy 3

39
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
T E A C H E R ’ S G U I D E

Dock workers unloading crates of tea in London

The demand for tea rose in the 1700s, and the British were well-
positioned to profit from the tea trade. Tea contributed to Euro-
pean dominance because it gave Britain more economic power.

Increasing amounts of gold

A major focus of mercantilism involved the stockpiling of gold
and silver. Mercantilism contributed to European dominance be-
cause European nations competed against each other to acquire
gold and silver. The country that had the most wealth was the
most powerful.

Printing Designs on cheap calico cloth

In the late 1700s, merchants began importing and re-exporting
cheap calico cloth from India. The trade in cotton cloth contrib-
uted to European dominance because it helped trigger the begin-
ning of the Industrial Revolution in England.

© Teachers’ Curriculum Institute Toward a Global Economy 4

40
 Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
Assessment
To protect the integrity of assessment questions, this
feature has been removed from the sample lesson.
These videos will help you learn more about our print and
online assessment tools.

Creating Printable Assessments (2:33 min)

Creating Online Assessments (2:25 min)

41
Differentiating Instruction

Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
English Language Learners

Support the Response Group Activity Review the first two or three artifacts as a class.
Go through each step in the process together, and make sure students understand what to do
before they work in groups of three on the remaining artifacts.

Learners Reading and Writing Below Grade Level

Outline the Main Ideas Have students identify the main ideas of Sections 2-6. You may have
them do this online by using the Highlight tool in the sections, or you may choose to print the
sections out and have students use highlighter pens to identify the main ideas. Then have
students create an outline from their highlighted main ideas using the instructions given in the
Reading Notes.

Learners with Special Education Needs

Teach the Lesson as a Visual Discovery Instead of conducting this activity as a competition
among groups of students, lead students through the activity as a class. Select 6 out of the 18
artifacts to streamline the lesson. (You may wish to choose artifacts A3, B1, B3, D1, D3, and E2
to cover the main ideas of the lesson.) Ask spiraling questions to help students analyze the
images and connect them to the main ideas of the lesson.

Advanced Learners

Conduct a Debate Modify the Processing assignment by having students debate this resolution:
Trade was the most significant factor that contributed to European dominance in the world
during the first global age. Divide students into an “Affirmative” team and a “Negative” team.
After allowing each team to prepare its arguments and counterarguments, follow this structure
to run the debate:

1. Opening speeches by Affirmative team and Negative team (If teams have more than three
students, consider having more than one opening speech each.)

2. Rebuttal speeches by Affirmative team and Negative team (Teams may respond only to
material introduced by other speakers.)

3. Closing speeches by Affirmative team and Negative team. Have the rest of the class score
each team on how well it presented its arguments and responded to the other team’s
assertions.

42
Enhancing Learning

Overview | Student Text | Procedures | Notebook Guide | Teacher’s Guide | Assessment | Differentiating Instruction | Enhancing Learning
For Further Reading
The following books offer opportunities to extend the content in this lesson.

An Economic and Social History of Later Medieval Europe, 1000–1500 by Steven A. Epstein
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009)

Contours of the World Economy, 1–2030AD by Angus Maddison (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2007)

Global Interactions in the Early Modern Age, 1400–1800 by Charles H. Parker (New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2010)

Global Political Economy: Evolution and Dynamic by Robert O’Brien and Marc Williams
(Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004)

Silver, Trade, and War: Spain and America in the Making of Early Modern Europe by
Stanley J. Stein and Barbara H. Stein (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000)

The Atlantic World: 1450–2000 by Toyin Falola and Kevin D. Roberts, eds. (Bloomington,
IN: Indiana University Press, 2008)

The Atlantic World: Europeans, Africans, Indians and Their Shared History, 1400–1900 by
Thomas Benjamin (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009)

Toward the Setting Sun: Columbus, Cabot, Vespucci, and the Race for America by
David Boyle (New York: Walker & Co., 2008)

43