Big History 5: Understanding Trade
Understanding Trade is a broad-scope study of ancient times and the empires and rulers that significantly affected trade. It starts with the minor trade routes between tribes and looks at how empires evolved from them. We will follow the Persian conquerors, the armies of Alexander the Great, and the Roman Empire's rise and fall. We will look at how people started thinking differently about religion at the time, how the Jesus movement spread across Europe, and why the church grew in power. Our Big History course examines humanity over long, contextualized timeframes from the Big Bang to the dawn of trade on the silk road. These modules can be used on their own, or as a precursor for our world studies.
Learning topics for Understanding Trade:
This book will focus on how economics became the driving force behind trade, politics and warfare between civilizations and it shaped the world as we know it today. Topics include:
From Survival to Prosperity
Prosperity to Social Significance
The Market Place by 1,000 BC
The Bronze Age Collapse
The Assyrians
Trading Faiths
The Iron Age
The Persians
The Scythians
Greek Stoicism
Persia Invades Greece
Greece Looks East
Mauryan Empire
The Buddhist Rennaisance
Ancient China
China Looks West
The Silk Roads
The Spice Roads
The Incense Roads
The Indian Ocean Slave Roads
The Rise of the Latins
The Punic Wars
The Fall of Carthage
The First Triumvirate & The Great Roman Civil War
Caesar Invades Gaul
Caesar Invades Britain
Hadrian’s Wall
The Second Triumvirate
The Roman Empire Begins
The Jesus Movement
Trade in the Roman Empire
Roman Paganism
Early Christian Converts
Nero
Domitian
Christianity Grows
Constantine
Byzantium
The Power of the Church Grows & Splits
Rome Weakens
The Goths Sack Rome
The Anglo-Saxons Take Britain
The Vandals Sack Rome
Atilla the Hun
The Roman Empire Falls
The Power of the Church Grows
The Church Reforms
Medieval Villages
Medieval Shipping Routes