Chapter 3

World History Standards for Grades 5-12

OVERVIEW

This chapter presents the Standards in world history for grades 5-12. An overview of the 39 historical understandings for eras 1-8 is presented below, followed by the standards integrating these understandings with the five standards in historical thinking for each era in world history.

Era 1: The Beginnings of Human Society

Standard 1: The biological and cultural processes that gave rise to the earliest human communities

Standard 2: The processes that led to the emergence of agricultural societies around the world

Era 2: Early Civilizations and the Rise of Pastoral Peoples, 4000-1000 BCE

Standard 1: The major characteristics of civilization and how civilizations emerged in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus valley

Standard 2: How agrarian societies spread and new states emerged in the third and second millennia BCE

Standard 3: The political, social, and cultural consequences of population movements and militarization in Eurasia in the second millennium BCE

Era 3: Classical Traditions, Major Religions, and Giant Empires, 1000 BCE-300 CE

Standard 1: Innovation and change from 1000-600 BCE: horses, ships, iron, and monotheistic faith

Standard 2: The emergence of Aegean civilization and how interrelations developed among peoples of the eastern

Mediterranean and Southwest Asia, 600-200 BCE

Standard 3: How major religions and large-scale empires arose in the Mediterranean basin, China, and India, 500 BCE-300 CE

Standard 4: The development of early agrarian civilizations in Mesoamerica

Era 4: Expanding Zones of Exchange and Encounter, 300-1000 CE

Standard 1: Imperial crises and their aftermath, 300-700 CE

Standard 2: Causes and consequences of the rise of Islamic civilization in the 7th-10th centuries

Standard 3: Major developments in East Asia in the era of the Tang dynasty, 600-900 CE

Standard 4: The search for political, social, and cultural redefinition in Europe, 500-1000 CE

Standard 5: The spread of agrarian populations and rise of states in Africa south of the Sahara

Standard 6: The rise of centers of civilization in Mesoamerica and Andean South America in the first millennium CE

Era 5: Intensified Hemispheric Interactions, 1000-1500 CE

Standard 1: The maturing of an interregional system of communication, trade, and cultural exchange in an era of Chinese economic power and Islamic expansion

Standard 2: The redefining of European society and culture, 1000-1300 CE

Standard 3: The rise of the Mongol empire and its consequences for Eurasian peoples, 1200-1350

Standard 4: The growth of states, towns, and trade in Sub-Saharan Africa between the 11th and 15th centuries

Standard 5: Patterns of crisis and recovery in Afro-Eurasia, 1300-1450

Standard 6: The expansion of states and civilizations in the Americas, 1000-1500

Era 6: Global Expansion and Encounter, 1450-1770

Standard 1: How the transoceanic interlinking of all major regions of the world from 1450 to 1600 led to global transformations

Standard 2: How European society experienced political, economic, and cultural transformations in an age of global intercommunication, 1450-1750

Standard 3: How large territorial empires dominated much of Eurasia between the 16th and 18th centuries

Standard 4: Economic, political, and cultural interrelations among peoples of Africa, Europe, and the Americas, 1500-1750

Standard 5: How Asian societies responded to the challenges of expanding European power and forces of the world economy

Standard 6: Major global trends from 1450 to 1770

Era 7: An Age of Revolutions, 1750-1914

Standard 1: The causes and consequences of political revolutions in the late 18th and early 19th centuries

Standard 2: The causes and consequences of the agricultural and industrial revolutions, 1700-1850

Standard 3: The transformation of Eurasian societies in an era of global trade and rising European power, 1750-1850

Standard 4: Patterns of nationalism, state-building, and social reform in Europe and the Americas, 1830-1914

Standard 5: Patterns of global change in the era of Western military and economic domination, 1850-1914

Standard 6: Major global trends from 1750 to 1914

Era 8: The 20th Century

Standard 1: Global and economic trends in the high period of Western dominance

Standard 2: The causes and global consequences of World War I

Standard 3: The search for peace and stability in the 1920s and 1930s

Standard 4: The causes and global consequences of World War II

Standard 5: How new international power relations took shape following World War II

Standard 6: Promises and paradoxes of the second half of the 20th century

Era 1

THE BEGINNINGS OF HUMAN SOCIETY

Giving Shape to World History

So far as we know, humanity's story began in Africa. For millions of years it was mainly a story of biological change. Then some hundreds of thousands of years ago our early ancestors began to form and manipulate useful tools. Eventually they mastered speech. Unlike most other species, early humans gained the capacity to learn from one another and transmit knowledge from one generation to the next. The first great experiments in creating culture were underway. Among early hunter-gatherers cultural change occurred at an imperceptible speed. But as human populations rose and new ideas and techniques appeared, the pace of change accelerated. Moreover, human history became global at a very early date. In the long period from human beginnings to the rise of the earliest civilization two world-circling developments stand in relief:

• The Peopling of the Earth: The first great global event was the peopling of the earth and the astonishing story of how communities of hunters, foragers, or fishers adapted creatively and continually to a variety of contrasting, changing environments in Africa, Eurasia, Australia, and the Americas.
• The Agricultural Revolution: Over a period of several thousand years and as a result of countless small decisions, humans learned how to grow crops, domesticate plants, and raise animals. The earliest agricultural settlements probably arose in Southwest Asia, but the agricultural revolution spread round the world. Human population began to soar relative to earlier times. Communities came into regular contact with one another over longer distances, cultural patterns became far more complex, and opportunities for innovation multiplied.

Why Study This Era?

• To understand how the human species fully emerged out of biological evolution and cultural development is to understand in some measure what it means to be human.
• The common past that all students share begins with the peopling of our planet and the spread of settled societies around the world.
• The cultural forms, social institutions, and practical techniques that emerged in the Neolithic age laid the foundations for the emergence of all early civilizations.
• Study of human beginnings throws into relief fundamental problems of history that pertain to all eras: the possibilities and limitations of human control over their environment; why human groups accept, modify, or reject innovations; the variety of social and cultural paths that different societies may take; and the acceleration of social change through time.

What Students Should Understand

Standard 1: The biological and cultural processes that gave rise to the earliest human communities

A. Early hominid development in Africa [RELATED]

B. How humans populated the major regions of the world [CORE]

Standard 2: The processes that led to the emergence of agricultural societies around the world.

A. Establishment of settled communities and experimentation with agriculture [CORE]

B. The development of agricultural societies worldwide [RELATED]

STANDARD 1

Students Should Understand: The biological and cultural processes that gave rise to the earliest human communities.

Students Should Be Able to:

1A Demonstrate understanding of early hominid development in Africa by:

5-12 Inferring from archaeological evidence the characteristics of early African hunter-gatherer communities, including tool kits, shelter, diet, and use of fire. [Interrogate historical data]

7-12 Describing types of evidence and methods of investigation that anthropologists, archaeologists, and other scholars have used to reconstruct early human evolution and cultural development. [Interrogate historical data]

7-12 Tracing the approximate chronology, sequence, and territorial range of early hominid evolution in Africa from the Australopithecines to Homo erectus. [Establish temporal order in constructing historical narratives]

Grades 5-6 Examples of student achievement of Standard 1A include:

• Having studied historical evidence, describe a day in the life of an early African woman or man in a hunter-gatherer group. For which parts of your description was the most, and for which the least, evidence available? How would you account for the differences in the availability of evidence? How does your description differ from a fictional account?
• From historical evidence describe in drawing and writing the ways in which hunter-gatherers lived together in communities. What do we know about early humans' "lifestyle"? How do we know it? How reliably do we know it?
• Locate the Rift Valley and Ethiopian Highlands on a map of Africa and read about the archaeological discoveries of Louis, Mary, and Richard Leakey and those of Donald Johanson. How do skeletal remains of Lucy (Australopithecu) compare with the structure of students' own bodies?

Grades 7-8 Examples of student achievement of Standard 1A include:

• Assume the role of a carbon 14, fluorine, or DNA analyst and explain to a class on a field trip to your lab how this dating technique works. How have these techniques helped us understand early human biological or cultural development?
• Write job descriptions for an archaeologist, geologist, and anthropologist who might be working on a team on hominid evolution in East Africa. How do these scientists help us to understand earliest human history?
• Draw upon pictorial evidence of human remains to construct a time line showing a possible chronological sequence of human biological and cultural development. Compare your sequence with others that have been proposed by scholars.

Grades 9-12 Examples of student achievement of Standard 1A include:

• Draw on scholarly evidence and debate the qestion: Were early hominid communities in East Africa hunters, scavengers, or collectors?
• Classify pictures of skeletal remains such as skulls, jaws, and teeth as nonhominid primate, hominid, or Homo sapiens. Cite reasons based on evidence, and place them appropriately on a time line. How may such evidence assist us in understanding human evolution?
• Write a plan to study a newly discovered site of hominid remains, explaining who would join your team and how and why various investigative techniques are to be used. In what ways do newly-discovered sites affect the ways in which we study and understand our earliest history?
• Compare the inferences that could be made based on examination of a week's worth of household garbage about your own way of life, with those that can be made based on examination of the remains associated with an early human hunter-gatherer community. What types of inferences can you draw from common refuse?
• Using archaeological evidence, map the distribution and dates of Australopithecine, Homo erectus, Neanderthal, and the earliest Homo sapiens sapiens remains, along with the major features of flora, fauna, and climate associated with them. Based on this in formation, draw conclusions about the adaptability and success of hominids.

Students Should Be Able to:

1B Demonstrate understanding of how human communities populated the major regions of the world and adapted to a variety of environments by:

7-12 Analyzing current and past theories regarding the emergence of Homo sapiens sapiens and the processes by which human ancestors migrated from Africa to the other major world regions. [Evaluate major debates among historians]

5-12 Comparing the way of life of hunter-gatherer communities in Africa, the Americas, and western Eurasia and explaining how such communities in different parts of the world responded creatively to local environments. [Compare and contrast differing behaviors and institutions]

7-12 Assessing theories regarding the development of human language and its relationship to the development of culture. [Evaluate major debates among historians]

5-12 Inferring from archaeological evidence the characteristics of Cro-Magnon hunter-gatherer communities of western Eurasia including tool kits, shelter, clothing, ritual life, aesthetic values, relations between men and women, and trade among communitie s. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships and multiple causation]

7-12 Analyzing possible links between environmental conditions associated with the last Ice Age and changes in the economy, culture, and organization of human communities. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships and multiple causation]

Grades 5-6 Examples of student achievement of Standard 1B include:

• Using available resources such as The Days of the Cave People, The Mammoth Hunt, Maroo of the Winter Caves, and material from Timeframe (Time-Life series), compare and contrast life in hunter-gatherer communities in Africa, Eurasia, and the Americas. How were earliest human communities and their life similar in different areas of the world?
• Create a Paleolithic tool kit and explain the possible uses of each implement. In what ways did humans develop tools to help control their environment?
• Using sources such as Timeframe (Time-Life series), describe the Shanidar Cave in present-day Iraq and other such discoveries to understand the Neandrthal culture and community life.
• Develop a set of criteria that establishes what factors made a particular geographic location an advantageous place for hunter-gatherers to settle. How do geography, climate, and other natural factors affect human life?

Grades 7-8 Examples of student achievement of Standard 1B include:

• Examine illustrations of Late Paleolithic cave paintings found in Spain or France and discuss the possible social and cultural meanings of these paintings. Can we infer the existence of religious beliefs from the evidence of these cave paintings?
• Analyze the story of the Piltdown Man hoax. Why did people at first believe that the Piltdown Man fossils were genuine? What methods did scholars use to expose Piltdown Man as a hoax?
• Using maps, pictorial evidence of art forms, and other evidence, explain why Cro-Magnon and other early human groups were nomadic.
• After reading historical accounts, explain the ways in which hunter-gatherers may have communicated, maintained memory of past events, and expressed religious feelings.

Grades 9-12 Examples of student achievement of Standard 1B include:

• Explain what scholars have learned about the Neanderthals and assess theories about the biological and cultural relationships between this hominid and Homo sapiens sapiens.
• Based on the evidence of Neanderthal burials on the one hand and Cro-Magnon carvings and paintings on the other, infer answers to such questions as: Were both these groups religious? How reliable is nonverbal evidence for peoples' thoughts and feelings?
• Construct an account based on archaeological evidence of what differences would most strike a girl from a fishing camp who found herself in a mammoth hunters' camp. What features of everyday life and relations between people were influenced by climate, geographic location, and economic specialization?
• Summarize the evidence in favor of and against the proposition that Mesolithic peoples, such as lake-dwelling Maglemosians, were pioneer innovators taking advantage of opportunities offered by changing climate, rather than its victims.
• Hypothesize reasons why language developed as a way for humans to communicate. How would language be useful to naming and classifying tools help in spreading technology from one community to another? How would language have helped communities make complex rules governing social relationships between men and women or adults and children?

STANDARD 2

Students Should Understand: The processes that led to the emergence of agricultural societies around the world.

Students Should Be Able to:

2A Demonstrate understanding of how and why humans established settled communities and experimented with agriculture by:

5-12 Inferring from archaeological evidence the technology, social organization, and cultural life of settled farming communities in Southwest Asia. [Draw upon visual sources]

9-12 Describing types of evidence and methods of investigation by which scholars have reconstructed the early history of domestication and agricultural settlement. [Evidence historical perspectives]

9-12 Describing leading theories to explain how and why human groups domesticated wild grains as well as cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs after the last Ice Age. [Evaluate major debates among historians]

7-12 Identifying areas in Southwest Asia and the Nile valley where early farming communities probably appeared, and analyzing the environmental and technological factors that made possible experiments with farming in these regions. [Incorporate multiple causation]

Grades 5-6 Examples of student achievement of Standard 2A include:

• Define wild and domestic plants and animals and draw charts illustrating differences between wild and domestic crops during the early agricultural period.
• Draw upon resources such as Skara Bare by Oliver Dunrea, the story of a prehistoric village in Scotland, in order to create illustrations or dioramas of early farming villages. Dioramas can include cultivated fields and domesticated animals. How did the practice of agriculture influence patterns of human settlement?
• Create a "you are there" travel brochure for the early agricultural era. Include information on geographic sites, food production, shelter, specialization, government, and religion.

Grades 7-8 Examples of student achievement of Standard 2A include:

• Write an account comparing the daily life of a hunter-gatherer and of an early farmer. What problems and benefits are associated with each way of life?
• Analyze illustrations of some of the new tools and other objects, such as sickles, grinding stones, pottery, blades, and needles, that appeared in the early era of agriculture. In what ways are these objects likely to have affected daily life in early farming settlements?
• Use a source such as Richard Leakey's Dawn of Man to determine how human communities might have unconsciously domesticated wheat.
• Draw upon evidence developed by scholars to describe the role of fishing as a sedentary but nonagricultural way of life.

Grades 9-12 Examples of student achievement of Standard 2A include:

• Drawing evidence from scholarly sources, debate the questions: Did human beings invent or discover agriculture?
• Examine archaeological reconstructions of hunter-gatherer and agricultural sites, including objects found there. Compare and contrast these sites posing questions such as: Is the presence of permanent structures evidence for an agricultural community? Is the presence of tools such as grinding stones or sickles evidence for an agricultural society? Is a spear an indication of a hunter-gatherer society? What kind of evidence would reliably distinguish a hunter-gatherer from an agricultural site?
• Debate questions such as: What do historians mean by the "Neolithic revolution" and is the term "revolution" used here in a valid way? What does the term "Neolithic" mean? Is this term adequate to explain the complexities of early farming life?
• Hypothesize ways in which hunter-gatherer societies could try to gain control over food supplies (such as fertility and hunting magic, protection of self-sown seeds, or confinement of a herd). What part did the ability to store, as well as to control food supplies, play in the "Neolithic revolution"? Were gourds, baskets, and pottery integral or peripheral to the shift toward settled agriculture?
• Construct historical arguments to assess the interconnection between agricultural production and cultural change (such as division of labor, change in concept of time, gender roles).
• Based on scholarly accounts, construct a hypothesis to explain the development of wild grain husbandry in Southwest Asia.

Students Should Be Able to:

2B Demonstrate understanding of how agricultural societies developed around the world by:

5-12 Analyzing differences between hunter-gatherer and agrarian communities in economy, social organization, and quality of living. [Compare and contrast differing behaviors and institutions]

5-12 Describing social, cultural, and economic characteristics of large agricultural settlements such as Catal, Huyuk or Jericho. [Obtain historical data]

7-12 Analyzing how peoples of West Africa, Europe, Southeast Asia, East Asia, and the Americas domesticated food plants and developed agricultural communities in response to local needs and conditions. [Compare and contrast behaviors and institutions]

7-12 Assessing archaeological evidence from agricultural village sites in Southwest Asia, North Africa, China, or Europe that indicates the emergence of social class divisions, occupational specialization, and differences in roles between men and women. [Hold interpretations of history as tentative]

7-12 Assessing archaeological evidence for long-distance trade in Southwest Asia. [Draw upon visual sources]

9-12 Assessing archaeological evidence for the emergence of complex belief systems, including worship of female deities. [Interrogate historical data]

Grades 5-6 Examples of student achievement of Standard 2B include:

• Locate on a map the site of the ancient town of Catal Huyuk and describe the natural environment surrounding this town. Construct a model or illustration of Catal Huyuk and describe daily life in the community. What problems needed to be solved that resulted from large numbers of people living together on a permanent basis?
• Formulate evidence for the comparative lifestyles of hunter-gatherers, fishermen, and farmers. What tools would these different groups need to make a living? How would they make these tools and where would they find materials for manufacturing them?
• Explain the development of tropical agriculture in Southeast Asia. What role did bamboo play as a major tool in this area?

Grades 7-8 Examples of student achievement of Standard 2B include:

• Construct a map demonstrating possible long-distance trade routes in Southwest Asia. How does archaeological evidence support the routes in this map? What is obsidian, and why was it such an important item of trade?
• Make a time line tracing the emergence of agriculture worldwide up to about 4000 BCE, and identify on a world map both the major areas of agricultural production and the distribution of human settlements. Why was it in these areas rather than elsewhere that agriculture became a way of life? What connections are there between the practice of agriculture and the pattern of settlement?
• Make a chart comparing the positive and negative effects of agricultural life compared to hunter-gatherer life and debate the following question: Did the emergence of agriculture represent an advance in human social development? What criteria would you use to evaluate whether or not it was an advance?

Grades 9-12 Examples of student achievement of Standard 2B include:

• Analyze pictures of hunter-gatherer sites in places such as Danube fishing villages, the Lascaux caves in France, and hunter sites in northern regions. Contrast these with agricultural sites such as those found in Jericho, Catal Huyuk, Banpo village in North China, and the Tehuacan Valley in Mexico. How do hunter-gatherer sites differ from agricultural sites?
• Chart the probable differences between a hunting/gathering community of a few dozen people, a village of a few hundred, and a town of several thousand in relation to storage needs, sanitation, social hierarchy, division of labor, gender roles, and protect ion. Find evidence for your hypotheses.
• Map the distribution of sites where each of the following kinds of communities was found in the period of about 10,000-4000 BCE: hunter/gatherers; wheat/barley/cattle/sheep farmers; millet farmers; yam farmers; rice farmers; maize/squash farmers. List possible explanations why some groups developed or accepted completely sedentary agriculture, while others partly or fully kept to earlier patterns.
• Make inferences based on scholarly evidence to explain the level of social specialization and political organization in such sites as Catal Huyuk and Jericho. How might the development of patterns for layout, fortification, and standardization transform human culture?
• Analyze scholarly evidence to explain the varied methods of crop cultivation. How were methods of agriculture different in Southwest Asia as compared to West Africa and Southeast Asia?