Making of the Modern World - HIST 112 Resource Guide

Events of the year 1500

Great interregional networks of trade, conquests, and exchanges of ideas blurred the boundaries between the major societies in the Eastern Hemisphere, and oceanic travel opened the way for a fully global network

Following Christopher Columbus’s first voyage to the Americas in 1492, a dramatic biological, cultural, and human exchange known as the Columbian Exchange took place between Africa, Europe, and the Americas.

In Russia, the early 16th to the mid-17th century was a time of conflict between the crown and the powerful landed nobility, which was eventually destroyed. This was accompanied by a decline in the influence of the townsmen and a gradual relapsing of the peasantry into serfdom.

Trade – the bartering, buying and selling of goods and services – has been a vital human activity since earliest times. An ancient series of trade routes, designated the 'Silk Road' by a 19c historian, ran from the Mediterranean through Bukhara and Samarkand to Dunhuang and on to Xian (Chang'an) in central China and was used by Alexander the Great to conquer Persia. Silks, spices and perfumes, precious stones such as amber and coral, gold, ivory and other commodities, such as glass, were traded along these routes.

A system of thought, feeling, and action that is shared by a group and that gives the members an object of devotion; a code of behavior by which individuals may judge the personal and social consequences of their actions; and a frame of reference by which individuals may relate to their group and their universe.

The Scientific Revolution is a name given to the change in the nature of intellectual enquiry – of the way in which people thought about and investigated the natural universe – that began in Europe at the end of the 15c and gave birth to science as we know it today.

the second earliest account of the “New World” published in English, A Treatyse of the Newe India (1553), Richard Eden wrote of the natives of the Canary Islands that, “At Columbus first comming thether, the inhabitantes went naked, without shame, religion or knowledge of God.” In the same year, toward the beginning of the first part of his massive Crónica del Perú (1553), the conquistador historian Pedro Cieza de León described the north Andean indigenous peoples as “observing no religion at all, as we understand it (no… religion alguna, à lo que entendemos), nor is there any house of worship to be found.” While both were factually incorrect, their formulations bear witness to the major expansion of the use and understanding of the term “religion” that began in the sixteenth century and anticipate some of the continuing issues raised by that expansion:

HyperHistory is an expanding scientific project presenting 3,000 years of world history with an interactive combination of synchronoptic lifelines, timelines, and maps.

Best of History Web Sites, created by EdTechTeacher Inc, is an award-winning portal that contains annotated links to over 1200 history web sites as well as links to hundreds of quality K-12 history lesson plans, history teacher guides, history activities, history games, history quizzes, and more.

Based on an exhibit at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC, this website explores the European colonization of America