The World in 1500Mrs. Chen’s 8th grade U.S. Histroy

Geography Do Now1. What are the coordinates(longitude & latitude) of

Boston, MA?

2. What is the difference between absolute and relative location?

3. Describe the relative location of your home.

4. How might the physical characteristics of a place influence its human characteristics?

5. Look at the illustrations on pages 4-5. How might Boston’s location on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean have affected its economic development?

6. Judging by the illustrations, how would you answer the question: “What was Boston like?”

Map Basics With your elbow partner, use the map of the “War of

1812” on page 7 to answer the following questions:

1. What do the lines and arrows labeled “A” on the map stand for?

2. What symbols are used to represent British and American victories?

3. What does a red arrow represent?

4. What does the orange color on the map indicate?

5. Find other maps about the War of 1812 in your textbook and create a T chart identifying the similarities and differences between the maps.

The Americas

By 1500, Native Americans were divided into hundreds of cultural groups, each adapted to its own environment.

Quick facts: over 2000 languages, some were nomadic hunter-gatherers, many Southeast tribes were matrilineal, slash-and-burn agriculture, spiritual beliefs based on nature

The Iroquois League: In the late 1500s, 5 northern Iroquois nations formed an alliance bringing a long period of peace.

Remember the Aztecs: List 5 facts you remember about the Aztecs

Native: Originally from an area

Nomadic: Traveling from one place to another, not settled

Matrilineal: Societies in which ancestry is traced through the mother

Slash-and-burn agriculture: a farming technique in which farmers chop down and burn the vegetation of a plot of land, the ashes enrich the soil, when the land is worn out, it is abandoned.

Alliance: Groups who form a larger pact

West Africa

Africa is the world’s second largest continent

Ghana became the first West African kingdom to grow rich through trade(gold and salt).

North African traders brought Islam to Ghana and many became Muslim

By the 1200s, Mali replaces Ghana. Mansa Musa was a great Mali king who helped the spread of Islam

Songhai ruled next, but was conquered by North Africans

In the late 1400s, the Portuguese set up a trade center near Benin City. Soon after, Europeans began to trade for enslaved Africans

Continent: Any of the world’s main continuous expanses of land (there are 7)

Islam: A religion that follows the example of the prophet Muhammad

Muslim: A believer and follower of Islam

Portuguese: Neighboring European kingdom to Spain on the Iberian Peninsula and leaders of exploration during the 1400 and 1500s

Benin City: A great capital trade city located in the delta of the Niger River.

Europe

By the 1500s, Europe was transitioning from a feudal society to wealthy nations; Dark Ages to Renaissance

The Crusades re-opened trade with the East.

The printing press revolutionized education, dissemination of information, and launched the Reformation of the Roman Catholic Church.

The Enlightenment sparked ideas of nationalism and new governmental structures, such as democracy.

Feudal society: A society based on the relationship between a lord and vassal

Renaissance: A time in Europe of rebirth of classical learning and flourishing of art

The Crusades: A series of wars fought between Christian Europe and Muslim Turks for the Holy Land (Jerusalem)

Printing press: invented by Johann Gutenberg, to copy written works faster

The Reformation: A major split of the Roman Catholic Church led by Martin Luther

Nationalism: The idea/feeling of belonging to a government structure.