Honors World Affairs Historical Framework
Use the Historical Framework Research Questions require a minimum of one CREDIBLE source each
– annotated bibliographies will be due at the beginning of class on the due date of the section(s)
I.
The First Major Civilizations (3500 BCE)
1.
RESEARCH QUESTION: In the notes, I use BCE and CE instead of BC and AD when writing
dates. What do BCE and CE stand for? Why have they come to be widely used in scholarly work?
2.
Looking at the map, list the major early civilizations along with their relative location. What do most
of them share in common?
3.
How did the first civilizations emerge?
4.
What is the importance of this era?
5.
Despite #3, why won’t we be spending much (if any…) time studying this era?
6.
RESEARCH QUESTION: What are the world’s five “major” religions? Which two of them date
their origins back to this era?
7.
RESEARCH QUESTION: Who is Jared Diamond? Explain the basic idea behind his “Guns, Germs,
and Steel” hypothesis.
II.
The Era of Great Empires (c. 100 CE)
1.
RESEARCH QUESTION: What do the designations “Old World” and “New World” stand for?
2.
What were the three major Old World Empires of this era? What characteristics did they share in
common?
3.
What two major trade networks developed during this period?
4.
RESEARCH QUESTION: The “Silk Road” was not really a single road – what was it? How did
trade occur along it and how did Chinese goods reach Rome (and vice versa) without much direct
contact between the two?
5.
RESEARCH QUESTION: The Indian Ocean trade routes are often referred to as the “Monsoon”
trade routes. What is the monsoon? How did it help to facilitate trade across the Indian Ocean?
III.
The Era of Eastern Great Powers (476-1492)
1.
What event marks the beginning of this period?
2.
What were the major centers of power, wealth, and influence during this period?
3.
Why is this an increasingly important period to study?
4.
RESEARCH QUESTION: What does GDP stand for? What does it measure? Why is it useful (and
most often used) to compare countries’ economies?
5.
RESEARCH QUESTION: What is an “Emerging Economy”? What parts of the world generally fall
under this designation?
6.
RESEARCH QUESTION: What is a “Developed Economy”? What parts of the world generally fall
under this designation?
7.
What does the “Making a Comeback” graph at the bottom of the page show? Based on your research
above, why do you think I included it?
IV.
The Era of European Great Powers (1492-1914)
1.
What two European powers laid the groundwork for this period? What role did each play?
2.
Read the “Columbian Exchange” Article (Article #1) and answer the following questions:
a.
What was the Columbian Exchange?
b.
What gains were realized by the Old World due to the Columbian Exchange?
c.
What losses were suffered by the New World due to the Columbian Exchange?
d.
Why were Old World diseases so devastating when introduced into the New World?
Describe the extent of their impact.
e.
Summarize the “Columbian hypothesis” concerning the origins of syphilis:
f.
Summarize the “pre-Columbian hypothesis” concerning the origins of syphilis:
g.
According to the author, recent scholarship supports the Columbian hypothesis.
Discuss why this is the case:
h.
Summarize Alfred Crosby’s description of the impact of New World crops in the Old
World:
i.
What are some of the New World crops that have become staples of Old World diets?
j.
Why did New World Crops have such a major impact on the Old World?
j.
Describe the importance of the potato in the Old World:
k.
Briefly describe the impact of each of the following New World crops:
1)
The Capsicum Pepper:
2)
The Tomato:
3)
Cacao:
4)
Vanilla:
5)
Tobacco:
6)
Coca:
L.
Why did some Old World crops thrive like never before in the New World?
m.
What is Quinine? Where was it first found? What impact did it have on European
expansion?
n.
Where did the first commercially important rubber originate? Where did Europeans
grow most of the trees to produce it? What impact (positive and negative) did this
have?
o.
Summarize the impact of forced and voluntary migration to the New World as a result
of the Columbian Exchange:
3.
Describe the extent of European control of the world by the end of World War I:
4.
In David Buck’s article, “Was It Pluck or Luck that Made the West Grow Rich?” (Article #2) he
describes three theories on how Europe rapidly (and to much of the world unexpectedly) went from
backwards and poor compared to much of the world to owning much of the world. Summarize each
argument, giving its basic hypothesis and how each author supports that hypothesis:
a.
David Landes’s “European Exceptionalism”:
b.
Andre Gunder Frank’s “Championing of a World Economy Before 1800”:
c.
R. Bin Wong’s “Comparative” Approach:
5.
In what four ways does this European era still impact today’s world?
a.
b.
c.
d.
V.
“The Suicide of Europe” or “Thirty Years War” (1914-1945)
1.
What were the Europeans asking themselves in 1914?
2.
Based on what you learned last year, briefly summarize the three major events that occurred between
1914 and 1945 that crushed Europe’s vision of itself in question #1:
3.
In Charles Emerson’s article “Eve of Disaster,” (Article #3) he states that 1913 and 2013 were not
exact parallels, but offer enough similarities to, as Mark Twain put it, make history “rhyme.”
Compare and contrast the following to help argue his point:
a.
The United Kingdom and the United States:
b.
Germany and China:
c.
The Global Economy:
d.
Technology:
e.
Multi-polarity:
VI.
The Cold War (1945-1991)
1.
Describe the two major defining characteristics of the period:
a.
b.
VII.
The World Today
1.
What happened in 1991? What impact did it have on the United States?
2.
Do you like reading long-winded philosophical discussions of how historians will someday define the
era we live in right now? YOU DO? Hooray!! Here they come……