Civilizations of the Americas
This Mesoamerican civilization used careful observations of the sky to help track time and seasonal changes.
The Maya
A merchant traveling across the Sahara with valuable salt and gold would be participating in this trade network.
Trans-Saharan trade
These two valuable Chinese products were traded across Asia and beyond, increasing China's commercial importance.
Silk and porcelain
In medieval Europe, these agricultural workers farmed the land and owed labor or goods to a lord.
Peasants or serfs
A student finds a dramatic website about ancient civilizations but cannot identify its author. This missing information makes it harder to evaluate this aspect of the source.
Credibility or author expertise
The Aztec created productive farmland in a lake environment by constructing these raised agricultural plots.
Chinampas
These African coastal communities became prosperous by connecting inland African goods with merchants traveling across the Indian Ocean.
The Swahili city-states
This Chinese dynasty experienced major economic and cultural growth, including expanding trade and technological development.
The Song dynasty
A European lord granted land to a warrior in exchange for military service and loyalty. This illustrates this system.
Feudalism
A historian discovers an ancient artifact and a modern scholarly article about it. The artifact belongs to this category of historical evidence.
Primary source
Rather than collecting money as taxes, this Andean empire required people to contribute labor to government projects.
The Inca Empire (mit’a system)
The enormous stone walls of this southern African trading center suggest that its society possessed these two characteristics.
Skilled construction techniques and the resources or organization needed for large building projects
This Muslim-ruled state governed much of northern India and contributed to religious and cultural exchange in the region.
The Delhi Sultanate
These Japanese warriors served powerful military leaders and landholding elites.
Samurai
A student argues that trade helped civilizations grow and provides two distinct reasons explaining how. This is stronger than a simple description because it contains this.
A defensible thesis or historical argument
An Inca official examining a series of colored cords and knots would most likely be doing this government task.
Keeping records of resources, population, or labor obligations
Merchants traveling between Africa and the Middle East helped spread this religion through commercial and cultural connections.
Islam
In medieval Japan, this military leader exercised political power while the emperor retained symbolic authority.
The shogun
An Inca ruler orders communities to build roads and bridges. Explain how this could strengthen imperial authority.
Improved transportation, communication, and movement of soldiers and resources throughout the empire
A student claims that trade promoted cultural exchange but only discusses the prices of goods. Explain what is missing from the reasoning.
Evidence or explanation showing how trade spread beliefs, ideas, or cultural practices
Identify one major challenge the Spanish faced when conquering the Aztec or Inca, and one factor that helped them succeed.
Challenge: large indigenous empires or unfamiliar terrain. Advantage: indigenous alliances, disease, or military technology.
A ruler of Mali traveled to an important religious city and distributed extraordinary amounts of gold. Name the ruler and explain what this journey demonstrated.
Mansa Musa; his Muslim faith and Mali's great wealth
Explain how trade networks could make a civilization more prosperous even when it did not conquer new territory.
By exchanging goods, accessing new markets, and spreading technology and ideas
Medieval European knights and Japanese samurai lived in different regions but served similar purposes. Identify one shared responsibility.
Providing military service or protection to powerful lords in exchange for support or status
A student argues that rulers maintained control through different methods. Compare one method used by the Inca with one used by medieval Japanese rulers.
The Inca used required labor to support imperial projects; Japanese shoguns relied on samurai military service and loyalty