Advice for teachers -
History

Outcome 1

Explain the significant features of an empire and analyse its rise and expansion.

Examples of learning activities

• Develop a glossary of key terms and concepts that relate to the phenomenon of empire (such as: imperial, hegemony, colonisation) as well as specific historical contexts (such as: conquistador, East India Company, Prester John, treasure ships). Construct argumentative sentences using the glossary terms. Exemplary ones are displayed in the classroom.
• Map the territorial expansion of the empire over time, including new colonies. Add overlays that describe goods traded and ports of exchange, and include statistics relating to the expansion of trade, demographics and infrastructure over time. Add to this map throughout the unit, using it to identify reasons for expansion, patterns of change, and shifting power and influence.
• Use material culture, such as artworks, to explore the nature of empire. For example, annotate Vittore Carpaccio’s portrait of the Lion of St Mark in order to see the importance of trade as well as religious and cultural identity to the Venetian Empire; examine Eugène Delacroix’s Return of Christopher Columbus in order to identify the riches of exploration; or analyse the ways in which the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, Pakistan, exemplifies religious and imperial power.
• Use a diamond nine organiser to collate causes of the rise, expansion and consolidation of the empire. Code each cause according to whether they are long-term, short-term or trigger causes. Categorise each factor according to type: social, political, economic etc. Finally, rank each cause in order of importance from 1 to 9.
• Create a historical meme that depicts a technological or scientific innovation of the period. Consider the technology that came before, the potential for the technology to contribute to the expansion of empire, or the thinker or inventor that created the innovation.
• Create a life roadmap in small groups or individually. Each student or group is allocated a key individual from the context studied and a large piece of blank paper. Undertake research on the individual and add the following to the map: important decisions and events that have shaped their life; historical events; goals and motivations; important relationships; and different perspectives on their actions. Students report their findings to the class.
• Complete an alphabet brainstorm to recall as much information as possible about an idea, person, event or concept, starting with a chosen letter of the alphabet. Complete the brainstorm in response to a stimulus such as a primary source, a video or media resource, or a question derived from the key knowledge.
• Conduct research on an allocated individual, event or a technological innovation and produce a single-page sheet of facts grouped under the following headings: Story, Sources and Scholarship. Under 'Story' give a brief chronological overview; under 'Sources' select 2–3 extracts from relevant primary sources; under 'Scholarship' select 2–3 historical interpretations. These fact sheets are then shared and form the basis of a collective encyclopedia.
• 
  Create an evidence log in which to record primary and secondary source evidence in response to a historical question. Use this evidence to construct an extended response or essay.
  
• Create a class poll where students cast a vote in response to a historical question. Each student argues their point of view, drawing on their course knowledge. This can be conducted via technology or in hard copy. An example question is: 'What was the chief motivation for Spanish exploration of the New World?'. The options given could be: 'Economic motivations such as trade'; 'Religious motivations such as the spreading of Catholicism'; 'Political motivations such as competition with Portugal' or simply 'Cultural motivations such as discovering new places'.
• Use a Lotus diagram template to explore the different features of empire. Populate the diagram with the following central themes: physical environment, social structure, economic features, ideas, individuals and cultural expressions. Include key facts, primary and secondary source quotations and short explanations.
• Create a Twitter feed from the perspective of a historical individual during the Age of Exploration: for example, monarchs, military leaders, explorers, religious leaders, philosophers or scientists. Use only 280 characters per tweet to capture the thinking of the individual.
• Undertake a ‘silent talk’ activity to explore the cultural expressions of empire. Print a series of images and text in colour on A3 and place around the room: for example, songs, artworks, works of literature, architecture, fashion and textiles. Use post-it notes to write observations about each print-out. Discuss as a class.
• Play a game of ‘Celebrity Heads’ to guess the name of a historical figure from the Age of Exploration. Only questions with yes/no answers are asked. The student who guesses the identity of their assigned individual with the least number of questions wins.

Detailed example

Evidence log and written response

 

Students:

Create an evidence log in which to record primary and secondary source evidence in response to a historical question. This activity can be conducted across several lessons over the unit. Students can work independently, in groups or as a class.

Teachers:

1. Construct a historical question that requires students to draw upon the key knowledge and skills from the relevant area of study. You may be guided by the framing questions at the beginning of the area of study or you may construct your own question by using the outcome or key knowledge. Examples include:
• How did the geography and environment contribute to the success of empire?
• What caused the rise and expansion of the empire?
• How did technology and science facilitate empire building?
• How did changing ideas contribute to the expansion of empire?
• How did empires benefit from expansion?
• How did the empire maintain control?
• What were the consequences of colonisation for Indigenous peoples?
• Why did the empire’s influence decline over time?
2. Create a graphic organiser, such as the example below, which students populate with their own sources.

How did the empire maintain control?
Explanation (including key facts, dates, statistics, events and individuals)	Primary source evidence	Historians interpretations	Significance (How important was this factor in comparison to others? Why is it more/less significant?)

 

Students:
After completing the table, construct a written response to the question, drawing on the evidence collected.

Outcome 2

Analyse the challenges and changes faced by the empire and evaluate the consequences of its imperial encounters in new territories and colonies, and on Indigenous peoples.

Examples of learning activities

• Use a selection of primary sources to compare the perspectives of colonisers and colonised. For example, an extract from the letters of Hernán Cortés could be compared to an Aztec account recorded by Miguel León-Portilla.

• Explore myth vs reality of 'Pirates of the Caribbean' by investigating the use of privateers and pirates by the Spanish, British and French during the Early Modern Period. Consider the challenges that piracy presented for the expansion and maintenance of empire.
• Critique the historical accuracy of a film or series depicting a relevant historical context: for example, Pocahontas (1995).
• Create a Venn diagram to compare the political, social, economic and religious structures of different colonies in the same empire, such as Jamestown and Plymouth.
• Create an infographic that illustrates the different exchanges that took place within the mercantile economy of the empire under study. Evaluate who benefitted most from the exchange.
• 
  Establish criteria for evaluating historical significance. Apply these criteria to a historical question, such as: What were the most significant motivations for the Spanish Conquest of the Americas? What were the most significant impacts of Ottoman rule? What were the most significant gains of the Dutch East India Company? What were the most significant consequences of colonisation in the New World?
  
• Use a graphic organiser to summarise the political, legal, social and economic structures that are imposed in new colonies. Use a grid, a lotus diagram or a mindmap to group the findings.
• Respond to a prompt using the colour, symbol, image protocol. Consider a stimulus such as a historian’s interpretation, a primary source or a media resource. Think about the major ideas presented in the stimulus and complete one of the following: choose a color that you think best represents that idea; choose a symbol that you think best represents that idea; choose an image that you think best represents that idea. Debrief and share the work.
• Individually or in groups, create a news headline that captures motivations for colonisation. Use the headlines for the basis of a discussion comparing and contrasting different ideas about how to exploit and expand the colony.
• Keep a 5x5 journal. At the conclusion of each lesson, record the five most important things learnt. Each week, review the journal and select the top five learnings for the week.
• Create a living graph to illustrate the consolidation of empire over time. On the Y-axis, plot the numbers –5 to 5. On the X-axis provide a relevant date range to the empire being studied. Work in groups to add key events to the timeline, mapping how positive or how negative an event was, using the scale on the Y-axis. Use the living graph to evaluate change and continuity over time, including the extent to which the power and authority of the empire changed or remained the same.
• At the conclusion of the study, write an obituary for the empire. Consider the social, political, economic and cultural legacies and heritages of the empire. Attribute a beginning and end date and explain the cause of the decline.
• Collect a range of sources that include quantitative data to examine the development of the slave trade. Create a portfolio in which to map the routes of the Atlantic trade, create a graph that illustrates the growth of the trade over time, and compare and explain the prevalence of slavery in different locations. This can be conducted in pairs, small groups or as a class.
• Create a list of the impacts of colonisation on the environment and society. Organise the impacts into two categories: intentional and unintentional consequences. Use this list as the basis for a writing activity in response to a prompt such as 'While not all impacts of colonisation were intentional, most were destructive'.
• Complete a rapid-fire writing activity in response to a text or media prompt: for example, 'Colonisation fundamentally changed the environment of the West Indies' or 'Religion shaped the colonies of North America'. Alternatively, watch a relevant short video or read an extract from the work of a historian or a primary source. After viewing or reading the content, follow the protocol: One minute: quiet thought; no writing. Three minutes: write (try to keep writing the entire time). One minute: read and circle three main ideas (words or phrases) from what was written; reread and think but no writing during this time. Two minutes: write. 30 seconds: read and put a square around one word or phrase. One minute: write. Reflect as a class.

Detailed example

Establishing historical significance

A key Characteristics of the Study is to be able to Establish historical significance. Historical significance is the process used to evaluate what was significant about selected events, people and developments in the past. Historians use different sets of criteria to help them make judgments about significance. An important skill in creating historical arguments is being able to articulate why certain phenomena are more significant than others.

An approach to creating whole-class criteria follows.

1. Conduct a whole-class brainstorm on the concept of 'significance'. Students consider what might make one event, person or phenomena more important when considering a historical context.
2. Introduce students to several different models of significance for consideration and debate their merits. Two examples for discussion follow.
• Partington’s Model: Importance – to people living at the time; Profundity – how deeply peoples’ lives were affected by it; Quantity – how many lives were affected; Durability – for how long peoples’ lives were affected; Relevance – the extent to which the event has contributed to an increased understanding of present life.
• The 5R’s:
• Remarkable: The event was remarked on by people at the time or since.
• Remembered: The event/development was important at some stage within the collective memory of a group or groups.
• Resonant: People like to make analogies with it; it is possible to connect with experiences, beliefs or attitudes across time and place.
• Resulting in change: It had consequences for the future.
• Revealing: It revealed some other aspects of the past.
3. Using a think, pair, share protocol, students consider which of the criteria they consider essential; they share and debate with a partner, then give feedback to the class and the brainstorm is recorded (for example, on the board).
4. The recorded ideas are used as a basis for reaching student consensus. Aim for between four and five key criteria. Students might complete a survey in order to select these.
5. Once the criteria are established, they should be made visible and easily accessible (for example, displayed on a poster or Learning Management System).
6. Students use the criteria at relevant stages in the course when referring to a historical question, such as: 'What were the most significant impacts of colonisation in the New World?', 'What were the most significant challenges in consolidating the Empire?', 'What were the most significant consequences of interactions between colonisers and Indigenous peoples?', 'What were the most significant motivations for the Spanish Conquest of the Americas?', 'What were the most significant impacts of Ottoman rule?', 'What were the most significant gains of the Dutch East India Company?', 'What were the most significant consequences of colonisation in the New World?'
7. Students use the criteria to complete a ranking activity such as a ladder of significance: draw a ladder, compile a list of factors, and rank them from most to least significant, based on the class criteria.
8. Students justify their ranking to a partner, small group or the class.
9. This activity can be the basis for the writing of an extended response. Students can use their ranking to develop an argument around the significance of particular events, individuals or ideas.

Books

Aldrich, R 2020, The Age of Empires, Thames and Hudson

Blanning, T 2008, The Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648–1815, Penguin

Cameron, E 2012, The European Reformation, Oxford University Press

Cliff, N 2012, The Last Crusade: The Epic Voyages of Vasco Da Gama, Atlantic Books Ltd

Dalrymple, W 2019, The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company, Bloomsbury Publishing

Dardess, JW 2011, Ming China, 1368–1644: A Concise History of a Resilient Empire, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Del Castillo, BD 2003, The Conquest of New Spain, Penguin UK

Diamond, JM 2005, Guns, Germs, and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies, Norton

Ferguson, N 2008, Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World, Penguin UK

Fidler, R 2017, Ghost Empire – A Journey to the Legendary Constantinople, Pegasus

Frankopan, P 2016, The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, Bloomsbury Paperbacks

Hobsbawm, E 1987, The Age of Empires: 1875–1914, Weidenfeld and Nicholson

Levy, B 2009, Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs, Bantam

Richards, JF 1995, The Mughal Empire, Cambridge University Press

Siepel, KH 2015, Conquistador voices: The Spanish Conquest of the Americas as recounted largely by the participants, Spruce Tree Press

Strathern, P 2019, Rise and Fall: A History of the World in Ten Empires, Hodder & Stoughton

Tanner, HM 2010, China: A History (Volume 1): From Neolithic Cultures through the Great Qing Empire, (10,000 BCE–1799 CE). Hackett Publishing

Taylor, A 2002, American Colonies: The Settling of North America (The Penguin History of the United States, Volume 1), Penguin

Tharoor, S 2018, Inglorious empire: What the British did to India, Penguin UK

Wiesner, ME 2005, An Age of Voyages, 1350–1600, Oxford University Press

Wiesner-Hanks, ME 2006, Early Modern Europe, 1450–1789, Cambridge University Press

Websites

Asia for Educators

The Avalon Project

Babur, Akbar, and the Mughal Empire 
Teaching with Primary Sources, PBS LearningMedia

EuroDocs
Online Sources for European History

French and Dutch exploration in the New World
 (article) Khan Academy

History Sourcebooks Project

Motivation for European conquest of the New World
 (article) Khan Academy

Slave Voyages

Spanish Conquest, Contact, American Beginnings: 1492-1690
Primary resources in U.S. History and Literature, Toolbox Library, National Humanities Center (no date)

The transatlantic slave trade: introduction

World History Archives

Podcasts, film and media

1619 – The New York Times

Colonialism as mitosis – the rise and fall of empires, rendered as cell division
Aeon videos

Early Modern Europe 1450–1789
by Merry E Wiesner-Hanks

Empires of History Podcast: The Ottoman Series

Origins of the European Financial Markets/Historical Association

William Dalrymple on the ruthless rise of the British East India Company
Conversations – ABC Radio