History 5 : Silk Roads / Mongols / Ottoman and Mughal Empires

STEP 1:

Read Chapter 7, especially pages 187-194, and Chapters 11-12 in the textbook.

.

Consider these maps and illustrations as you read:

.

(1)  Alexander the Great's conquests: How do you think Alexander the Great may have contributed to the connections between Europe and China through his conquests after 334 BC? .

 (2) Geography between China and Europe: What are the "steppes"?

 (3) Map of the Silk Roads

FOR YOUR INFORMATION (OPTIONAL):

• Could paper have been more important than silk on the Silk Roads?        

             Read this article, or watch the video of Dr. Hansen's lecture.

             Both are at this link:  “Valerie Hansen Redefines the Silk Road” at             

             http://mongolschinaandthesilkroad.blogspot.com/2014/05/valerie-hansen-silk-road-new-history.html 
.

• This is Dr. Hook's article about the Silk Road in "The Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict" (3rd Edition), that will be published in August, 2020. Please do not forward this or share with anyone outside the class, due to copyright restrictions.

             G. Hook.5.30.2020. Silk Road encyclopedia article.docx  

.

• Watch this short youtube: "Silk Road" Crash Course (10 minutes): 

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfe-eNq-Qyg

.

•  And watch this short youtube about silkweaving in Herat, Afghanistan today (2 minutes): 

          http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-25498546 

         (Herat was a major point on the Silk Road). 

.

• Class, here is a very short video of me at a Silk Museum in Tbilisi, Georgia over winter break.   Please look through the video (be sure to click on "unmute")  and feel free to ask questions or comment on the Discussion Board...
• (PLEASE KEEP IN MIND that I was traveling lightly and it was cold in Tbilisi, so I am layered with borrowed clothes that didn't fit!  haha)   -  Dr. Hook

First, can you find Tbilisi on this map? Tbilisi was a Silk Road city.

Map from  https://www.orexca.com/silkroad/map.htm

STEP 2: The Mongols

FOR YOUR INFORMATION: (Optional) 

Read this short article about the Mongols (especially the captions under the illustrations that talk about Marco Polo): http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-19850234 .   

      Think about these discussion questions:

•       What is the connection between Marco Polo and Khubilai Khan? 
•       What is the connection between Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus?

.

Let's talk more about Marco Polo:

"Marco Polo [1254-1324], the most famous of medieval European travelers. returned to Venice, his hometown, in 1295 after an absence of twenty-five years in the East. He claimed to have spent seventeen years in the service of Kublai Khan, ruler of the Mongols and of the largest empire in the world. He had many stories to tell. These stories were eventually written down by Rustichiello of Pisa, who heard them while sharing a Genoese prison with Polo, sometime after 1298."

         Glance through this translation of Marco Polo's Travels here:

          https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Travels_of_Marco_Polo .

          Which of these stories did you find interesting?

  

..

STEP 3: (Optional)

Read about the documentary, "In the Footsteps of Marco Polo" here (you can watch the entire film here too if you like):         http://www.wliw.org/marcopolo/ 

.

.

STEP 4: Film (Required)

Watch all five parts of this youtube film: "Wild Horses of Mongolia with Julia Roberts" (about 55 minutes total). 

      NOTE: This youtube may not open in Internet Explorer.  Try Firefox or GoogleChrome.  If all else fails, just google "Julia Roberts Wild Horses" youtube.  It should come up. .

.

Wild Horses of Mongolia with Julia Roberts, Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RzVQ988LDQ 

Wild Horses of Mongolia with Julia Roberts, Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE6PZeDLQTw 

Wild Horses of Mongolia with Julia Roberts, Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TybPWqg21c 

Wild Horses of Mongolia with Julia Roberts, Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GLECtFXyRM 

Wild Horses of Mongolia with Julia Roberts, Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKfylXLp3YA 

 

(CLOSED-CAPTIONING: To play the captions, click on the 'CC' button on the toolbar beneath the video, then click 'English' in the pop-up menu.  To resize the captions, view the video in full-screen mode or use the '+' or '-' symbols on your keyboard. 

 If this doesn't work, you can click on this file: 

  Text for Wild Horses of Mongolia with Julia Roberts _1_.docx

 

.

.

       For your information (optional)

         Did the Mongolians invent the stirrup? Here is an elegant example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art:    http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/35172

.

 

.

     An organization that supports pastoral peoples today:   http://www.pastoralpeoples.org/     

    World Bank supports pastoralists in Africa (2014):  http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2014/03/18/world-bank-pastoralists-horn-africa 

.

.

STEP 5: Islamic Empires

Examine this map.  What countries or territories did the Islamic empires conquer?  (This refers to Chapter 12 in the textbook.)     

.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION:

Where is this building?  Where is it on the map?  Which empire was it in?

.

.