Now that you have a grip on the different—and similar—ways the world’s empires have risen to prominence, we’ll make a more detailed comparison of two representative examples. One is often referenced in film and literature in the United States: the Roman Empire. The other is a big deal in China: the Han dynasty. They were connected to each other despite thousands of miles between them, but they remained pretty different…
In this video, we discuss how although empires may seem strong and domineering because they are large and expansive, they are actually pretty delicate.
|
Driving Question: What is an empire, and why is it a unique kind of state?
|
In today’s video, we’ll consider the idea of syncretism. Syncretism is the process by which belief systems meld with each other and change to suit new places, people, and traditions.
|
Driving Question: Can we compare and contrast belief systems, and what would we learn if we did?
|
Humans have generally sought answers to big questions about life, the universe, and everything. They often do this through the use of different belief systems. In the past these tended to be regional, but more recently belief systems have included portable and universal elements that can spread widely.
|
Driving Question: What’s the big deal about portable belief systems?
|
In today’s video, we explore cause and effect relationships. We examine this largely in relation to Era 3, including causation as it relates to portable belief systems and empire.
|
Driving Question: What is cause and what is effect in the great transformations of Era 3?
|
The modern world is full of nation-states, also known as countries, but they are mostly less than three centuries old. Ancient societies often grew into states, once their ability to farm and store food made cities possible. They created rules to live by, authorities to follow or worship, and society began to stratify along class and economic lines. Today we focus on why these states developed.
…
Humans were mostly foragers for the first 245,000 years of our existence. But when cities began to form about 5,000 years ago, it had everything to do with making the switch to farming. In some areas, the shift to farming led to two new structures—cities and states. Not all agrarian societies developed these structures, and certainly not all states or cities were organized in the same way. By studying them, however, we…
As farming societies around the world grew into cities, people became more connected—to other city folks, to the farmers outside the city, and even to people in other cities as larger networks began to enable long distance trade. In Rome, a passion for silk clothing made by people in China five thousand miles away helped create the “Silk Road”. It wasn’t just cloth that traveled on it—people, ideas, beliefs, and knowledge…
Today, we learn about how farming made villages possible. Being able to store extra food allowed humans to do other things, like build houses, build roads to go visit people in other houses, invent cooking tools, weapons, and more. Even so, there were many people at the same time who got their food without planting anything because they were foragers, pastoralists, or nomads.
Driving Question: How…
As foragers became pastoralists and farmers, they also became village dwellers and city-builders. They built larger and larger trading networks and grew into complex societies. Systems were constructed to help manage the problems—and opportunities—of bigger populations and more complex lifestyles.
Driving Question: As societies became more complex and interconnected, did people’s lives…
The Agricultural Revolution is widely considered to be a key turning point in human history. Agriculture popped up in different areas around the world independently. It’s easy to forget how significantly the introduction of agriculture changed both humanity and the planet.
Driving Question: How did farming change the way we organize ourselves as humans?
Before farming and writing developed, humans were predominately foragers. They hunted and gathered the resources they needed to survive while roaming in small family units. There were benefits and challenges to the foraging way of life. Despite the gradual and significant rise of farming, there are still foraging communities that exist to this day.
Driving Question: How were foraging communities…
In this video, you’ll be introduced to the idea of historical periodization This approach to history, which divides time into distinct and identifiable periods, not only helps frame different accounts of the past and highlight important points in history, but serves to obscure others.
Driving Question: How do chronology and periodization help historians tell the story of humans?
Evidence of how the earliest humans lived is pretty scarce. We know they were nomadic and moved around, and then after 245,000 years of gathering food by foraging, many early humans switched to farming. We have some educated guesses about why this transition happened, but we don’t really know why.
Driving Question: Why did we shift from foraging to farming?
Historians study the past using different scales of both time and space. In this course, we start history from the very beginning of time as we know it—this approach is often referred to as Big History.
Driving Question: Why begin a human history course before humans even existed?
Production is how we make and use things. Distribution refers to how we share, sell, trade, and otherwise move those things within our communities and across networks. This video helps us explore how this frame helps orient us to the present and prepares us for the future.
Driving Question: How do we make and distribute the stuff we need and use?
Word of the Day: Production
In this video, we’ll think about the networks frame and how over the course of history, our world has become increasingly interconnected. Our current networks are global and expansive, and we’ll think about how these networks have impacted the spread of COVID-19.
Driving Question: How is our world interconnected?
Word of the Day: Networks
Trying to learn about the history of the world is a lot. A LOT. In this video, we’ll learn about how frames can help us narrow our focus so we can understand and create historical accounts in a more manageable way. This course has three frames, communities, networks, and production and distribution. This video discusses frames generally, and the communities frame more specifically.
…
History is often presented from one person’s viewpoint, which makes it seem like there is only one story to tell. In this video, we’ll discuss why relying on only one view of history can be problematic.
Driving Question: How might a single story be dangerous for history?
Word of the Day: Stereotype
This video introduces the World History Project course and your host, Wood Boyles. You’ll be given a driving question to explore, a word of the day to think about, and video to watch. Finally, you’ll make your first entry in your historian’s journal.
Driving Question: How are you part of history?
