KEY IDEA: BELIEF SYSTEMS: RISE AND IMPACT: The emergence and spread of belief systems influenced and shaped the development of cultures, as well as their traditions and identities. Important similarities and differences between these belief systems are found in their core beliefs, ethical codes, practices, and social relationships.

CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING: Belief systems developed beliefs and practices to address questions of origin, the requirements to live a good life, and the nature of the afterlife.

CONTENT SPECIFICATION: Students will identify the place of origin, compare and contrast the core beliefs and practices, and explore the sacred texts and ethical codes for Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Confucianism, and Daoism.

CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING: Belief systems were often used to unify groups of people, and affected social order and gender roles.

CONTENT SPECIFICATION: Students will examine similarities and differences between Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Confucianism regarding their effects on social order and gender roles.

​KEY IDEA: CLASSICAL CIVILIZATIONS: EXPANSION, ACHIEVEMENT, DECLINE: Classical civilizations in Eurasia and Mesoamerica employed a variety of methods to expand and maintain control over vast territories. They developed lasting cultural achievements. Both internal and external forces led to the eventual decline of these empires.

CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING: Geographic factors encouraged and hindered a state’s/empire’s expansion and interactions.

CONTENT SPECIFICATION: Students will examine the locations and relative sizes of classical political entities (Greece, Gupta, Han, Maurya, Maya, Qin, Rome) noting the location and size of each in relation to the amount of power each held within a region.

CONTENT SPECIFICATION: Students will investigate how geographic factors encouraged or hindered expansion and interactions within the Greek, Roman, and Mayan civilizations.

CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING: Empires used belief systems, systems of law, forms of government, military forces, and social hierarchies to consolidate and expand power.

CONTENT SPECIFICATION: Students will compare and contrast how the Mauryan, Qin, and Roman civilizations consolidated and increased power.

CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING: A period of peace, prosperity, and cultural achievements can be designated as a Golden Age.

CONTENT SPECIFICATION: Students will examine the achievements of Greece, Gupta, Han Dynasty, Maya, and Rome to determine if the civilizations experienced a Golden Age.

CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING: Political, socioeconomic, and environmental issues, external conflicts, and nomadic invasions led to the decline and fall of Classical empires.

CONTENT SPECIFICATION: Students will compare and contrast the forces that led to the fall of the Han Dynasty, the Mayan civilization, and the Roman Empire.

KEY IDEA: RISE OF TRANSREGIONAL TRADE NETWORKS: During the classical and postclassical eras, transregional trade networks emerged and/or expanded. These networks of exchange influenced the economic and political development of states and empires.

CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING: Afro-Eurasian transregional trade networks grew across land and bodies of water.

CONTENT SPECIFICATION: Students will identify the location of the transregional trade networks noting regional connections between the Indian Ocean complex, Mediterranean Sea complex, Silk Roads, and Trans-Saharan routes.

CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING: New technologies facilitated and improved interregional travel during this era by allowing people to traverse previously prohibitive physical landscapes and waterways.

CONTENT SPECIFICATION: Students will examine the technologies that facilitated and improved interregional travel along the Indian Ocean and Trans-Saharan networks of exchange.

CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING: Interregional travelers, traders, missionaries, and nomads carried products and natural resources, and brought with them enslaved people and ideas that led to cultural diffusion.

CONTENT SPECIFICATION: Students will identify and explain the importance of at least two key resources and/or products and/or luxury items vital to exchanges along the Indian Ocean complex, Mediterranean Sea complex, Silk Roads, and Trans-Saharan routes.

CONTENT SPECIFICATION: Students will identify trade networks involved in the exchange of enslaved people and explore the nature of slavery during this time period.

CONTENT SPECIFICATION: Students will examine the diffusion of religious ideas along the Indian Ocean complex, Silk Roads, and Trans-Saharan routes.

CONTENT SPECIFICATION: Students will examine the travels of Zheng He, Ibn Battuta, and Marco Polo and the influence of their journeys.

CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING: Control of transregional trade and economic growth contributed to the emergence and expansion of political states.

CONTENT SPECIFICATION: Students will examine the emergence and expansion of political states along the Mediterranean Sea complex (the Byzantine Empire and rise of the Ottoman Empire) and Trans-Saharan routes (Ghana and Mali).