In this online lesson, students are introduced to resources that will help them better understand the effects and implications of the reopening of the ancient Silk Road between Europe and China, including Marco Polo's travels and the location of his routes.

This resource examines Britain's involvement in the transatlantic slave trade using records from the National Archives.

Students explore the cultural exchange that ocurred between America and Japan in their initial encounter in 1853. Students will view visual images and read and analyze narrative accounts. They will also complete several webquests to collect data and inform their analysis and response to a historical question.

This exhibition selects four British battles from a period of almost 100 years and, using documents, pictures, and text, describes how and why Britain was at war.

The British empire was one of the most important developments in world history. The empire was huge, it lasted a long time, and it brought tremendous changes to many parts of the world. This resource examines how and why the British empire made Britain so important.

This lesson examines resistance among enslaved Africans in the Caribbean, including in Haiti and Barbados.

This resource explores the history of the British Caribbean through government documents, photographs, and maps dating from the 17th century to the 1920s.

Welcome to "Conquistadors," an Online Learning Adventure from PBS. This innovative educational resource has been created for middle and high school classrooms to learn about the Spanish Conquistadors in the New World and the legacy of their contact with Native Americans. There are extensive lesson plans for teachers and in-depth online content for students available in both English and Spanish. *Four units of study can be found on site--each relating to a different aspect of the Spanish Conquistadors in the New World. 1. Cortes and the Aztecs 2. Pizarro and the Incas 3.Orellana and the Amazon 4. Cabeza de Vaca

The mass movement of people is a phenomenon that has profound impact on both the losing and gaining areas as well as on the people involved. The purpose of this lesson is to acquaint students with several different diasporas throughout history and give them the opportunity to explore and analyze another diaspora and prepare a presentation on that topic.

This article explains the period of discovery from the latter half of the fifteenth through the sixteenth centuries which is generally referred to as the Age of Exploration. It discusses important explorers and innovations during this historical period.

With this digital collection, students will review documents that survey the many parts of the world swept up in French imperialism during the early modern period (1500–1800), and the many ways the French empire influenced their histories. Students will consider the following essential questions as they review the documents: 1. What were the motivations behind France’s presence in different parts of the world? How did French motives change from place to place, and over time? 2. How did French colonists see native peoples in North America, the Caribbean, and Africa? How did these peoples interact with the French? 3. How did the pieces of France’s empire fit together? Were they a single, coherent system?

In these units, students can discover the Spanish and Mexican roots of American cowboy culture in this set of four lessons, divided into grades K–2, 3–5, 6–8, and 9–12. The youngest students look for the Spanish origins of cowboy words (lasso from lazo, for example). Older students do a bit of translation work: they compose a rhyming cowboy ballad based on a Mexican corrido.

Galileo has long stood as an emblem of intellectual freedom and the triumph of truth over superstition. Yet his achievements can also help students recognize the contingency of even the most inevitable-seeming historical developments and how the consequences of historic turning-points extend into our lives today.

This article examines European exploration in the Americas. During the earliest years of European expansion onto the American continents, the search for gold was one of the driving factors in the exploration and colonization of the vast lands

This inquiry provides students with an opportunity to evaluate the relationship between the dramatic increase in European sugar consumption in the 18th and 19th centuries and the reliance on the labor of enslaved persons to produce sugar in the Western hemisphere. Students explore the environmental, economic, and social consequences of increased sugar production. Students work with featured sources focused on sugar production and the treatment of enslaved workers on sugar plantations.

In this activity, students will be able to represent the numerous outcomes of the Columbian Exchange on both North America and Europe. This activity will require students to research the goods, ideas, people, diseases, and animals that were exchanged between continents during the Age of Exploration. By using a T-Chart, students will compare the Exchange from the perspectives of both continents, and define the outcome of the exchanges, e.g. increased caloric intake, increased Native American mortality rates, advancement in agricultural methods.

Students will learn basic information about the Incan empire and its downfall through selected readings and discussion activities. Students will futher their understanding regarding the clash of Spanish and Incan society by creating newspapers detailing the events, people, and places during the Spanish conquest of the Incan Empire.

The Indian Ocean Trade network has been a conduit for goods and culture for thousands of years. This lesson will teach students key concepts of cultural diffusion, and diasporic communities.

 Overview of how decolonization has led to modern day problems throughout formerly colonized countries. Students will see decolonization, the neo-colonialism that followed, and how that affected the former countries. 

In this lesson, students will link what they already know about Aboriginal Australians to the new topic, identify basic and clear differences between modern society and Aboriginal living, and identify what they would like to learn more about Aboriginal Australians.