Interactions Across the Eastern Hemisphere

Unit description: Trade networks promoted the exchange and diffusion of language, belief systems, tools, intellectual ideas, inventions, and diseases. In this unit, students will study major Afro-Eurasian trade networks connecting the East and the West and how ideas, people, technologies, products, and diseases moved along these routes. Students will explore how the Mongols served as important agents of change and cultural diffusion and fostered connections between the East and the West. In addition, students will investigate how complex societies and civilizations adapted and designed technologies for transportation.

Download the complete Social Studies Grade 6 Unit 7 framework to customize for your own planning.

Standards

Standards: 2, 3, 4; Themes: MOV, TCC, GEO, ECO, TECH, EXCH

Essential Questions and Big Ideas

• Big ideas of the unit: Trade networks promoted the exchange and diffusion of language, belief systems, tools, intellectual ideas, inventions, and diseases.
• How did location and routes that the Afro-Eurasian trade networks ran upon have an impact?
  • The Silk Roads, the Indian Ocean, and the Trans-Saharan routes formed the major Afro-Eurasian trade networks connecting the East and the West.
  • Ideas, people, technologies, products, and diseases moved along these routes.
• How did the Mongols serve as important agents of change and cultural diffusion?
  • The Mongol conquests in Eurasia fostered connections between the East and the West, and the Mongols served as important agents of change and cultural diffusion.
• What impact did the development and adaptation of technologies have on this time in history?
  • Complex societies and civilizations adapted and designed technologies for transportation that allowed them to cross challenging landscapes and move people and goods efficiently.