Grades 9-12 Lesson Plan - Columbian Contexts

Map 1 Main Page

Core Map: Claudius Ptolemy, "World Map" from his Geography (Ulm, 1482). Newberry Library call number: Ayer *6 P9 1842. (Printable PDF version of the Core Map)

Resources related to Map 1.
Curator's Notes for Map 1.

Overview
Using the core map, a modern atlas of history and a history textbook, students will explore the geo-political and economic contexts for the European Renaissance journeys of exploration, including those of Columbus. Students will take what they learn about 1) the religious divisions of western Eurasia and northern Africa, 2) major trading systems, and 3) Renaissance explorer routes and transform them into cartographic symbols and add those symbols to a print-out of Ptolemy's map.

Objectives
By the end of this lesson students are expected to:

1. identify the areas of Latin Christendom, Eastern Orthodoxy and Islam on the core map.
2. identify and plot major trade and explorer routes on the core map.
3. identify the major seaports in 1500.
4. explain the inter-relatedness of the phenomena mapped in 1-3.
5. describe the economic and political contexts that drove Columbus and other European explorers to chart the rest of the world.

Key Terms
The Levant, silk road, Ottoman Turks, projection, Latin Christendom, Eastern Orthodoxy, Islam/Muslim, Renaissance

Materials
computer image or overhead of the core map, uncolored version of core map, access to a modern world atlas and an atlas of world history, a history textbook that includes background readings covering the issues indicated in the objectives above, pencil, markers, protractor, compass, ruler, blank paper

Time
Three hours, plus reading time

Getting Started

1. Display the core map. Discuss with students who made the map and when it was made.

2. Have students identify all major geographic features and the symbols Ptolemy used.

3. Identify the cardinal points of the compass.

4. Point out major place names.

5. Point out and discuss "terra incognita" and "circulus equinoctualis" (click on the terms on the map to get English translations).

6. Discuss the purposes of and information given by the non-geographic features and aids on the map (including decorative elements, the grid lines, and the faces of the winds).

7. Have students compare briefly (for purposes of orientation) the core map to a modern map of the world.

8. Ask students to discuss what is not on the map.

1. On an uncolored version of the core map, have each student color the areas of Latin Christendom, and the areas controlled by the Eastern Orthodox and the Moslems using 1500 as the target date.

2. Have students mark the location of major seaports in 1500 (the names should be included).

3. Students should draw in those major trade routes, including the Silk Road, the trans-Sahara trails and the routes across the Mediterranean used in 1500.

4. Have students mark the ports from which the European explorers, who sailed before 1525, left. The sponsor of each journey should also be marked.

5. Introduce students to the following scenario: Queen Isabella's advisors have been asked to assess Columbus' request for funds to go east by travelling west. One of those advisors has employed you, and your task is to write an economic rationale for funding the trip. The report should include comments about both costs and benefits, especially long term ones, though precise figures are not needed. Include also something about the impact of Turkish conquests on prices of eastern commodities.

For 4 points, the student correctly identifies Latin Christendom, Eastern Orthodoxy, Islam, the Major trade routes, and major seaports of 1500 on the core map and writes a persuasive economic rationale for or against funding Columbus' exploration westward.

For 3 points, the student correctly identifies on the core map most of the following: Latin Christendom, Eastern Orthodoxy, Islam, the Major trade routes, and major seaports of 1500; and writes a plausible economic rationale for or against funding Columbus' exploration westward.

For 2 points, the student correctly identifies on the core map a few of the following: Latin Christendom, Eastern Orthodoxy, Islam, the Major trade routes, and major seaports of 1500; and writes a plausible economic rationale for or against funding Columbus' exploration westward.

For 1 point, the student correctly identifies on the core map a few of the following: Latin Christendom, Eastern Orthodoxy, Islam, the Major trade routes, and major seaports of 1500; and does not write a plausible economic rationale for or against funding Columbus' exploration westward.

For 0 points, the student completes neither of the tasks described above.

Extensions

1. Students in small groups can design and construct poster displays that explore the economic context for the European Renaissance voyages of discovery, including those by Columbus, in light of Ottoman Turkish conquests in the Levant and the cost of overland trade on the Silk Road. The display should be mounted in some public place in time for Columbus day.
2. Each student can write an essay in which he or she compares and contrasts the broad economic contexts for voyages of exploration in the Renaissance and the eighteenth century.