Ethnocentrism

(conceptual lens)

Motivations

Explorers/conquis
tadors
o Greed
o Adventure
o Hubris
Rulers
o Land
o Influence

The Fallacy of the Age

Of Discovery

Religion

Catholic vs.
Protestant
competition

Unit Overview
Triangular Trade
In the 15th century Europeans began to
Mapping
develop worldwide empires.
Explanation
In this unit we will explain why it is
a fallacy to call this period an Age
Population
of Discovery.
Define ethnocentrism
Migration
Introduction of explorers
Settlement
Resources in the New
patterns
Countries of origins
World
Cultural diffusion
Motivations
New World
Social classes in
Religious intolerance
riches
colonies
European attitude of superiority

Effect on Old
Competition between Protestants
and Catholics
Columbian Exchange
Population concerns as impetus for
conquest.
Impact on native
What was the Columbian exchange and
populations
how did it affect the natives?
What was the Triangular Trade?
How did the wealth of the New World
change Europe?
Enduring Understandings
Guiding questions

Motivations
1. The motivations of nations and people can be less
than honorable.
2. Ethnocentric attitudes can lead to oppression.
Population
3. Migration of people to other populated regions
leads to conflict.
4. Cultures tend to view others through the lens of
their own values.
Columbian Exchange
5. Interactions between differing cultures can lead to
profoundly negative outcomes.
Religion
6. Competition between cultures can lead to conflict.
Resources
7. Oppressors benefit materially as a result of their
oppression of others.

1. What were the motivations of the individual

explorers during the Age of Discovery?
2. What were the motivations of the rulers of the
explorers nations?
3. How did population pressure influence the decision
making processes of the leaders?
4. How did social classes develop in the colonies?
5. What was the rationale for the treatment of the
natives in the colonies?
6. How did religious attitudes color the perceptions of
Europeans regarding the natives?
7. How did competition between Protestants and
Catholics affect European imperialism?
8. What was the Columbian Exchange? How did it
facilitate European colonization in North and South
America?
9. How did slavery arise in the colonies?
10.What was the Triangular Trade?
11.How did the plunder taken from the colonies
change Europe?

AC = Assessment Code

Critical Content and

Skills

Q=Quizzes
T=Tests

O=Observations
WS=Work Samples

Students will know

1. Names and national origins of
major explorers
Their goals and
motivations
2. Rulers of major colonial
powers.
Their goals and
motivations
3. Migration and settlement
patterns of major colonial
powers
4. Information on the Columbian
Exchange
Impact on native
populations
5. Religions of major colonial
powers.
6. Conflicts between colonial
powers
7. Origins of triangle trade
8. What resources Europeans
took from colonies
9. How these resources changed
Europe

P=Prompts

AC
WS

WS
Q
D

Q
D
WS
D

Key Skills
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.

D=Dialogues

AC
SA=Student Self-Assessment

Read maps, locate places

Evaluate behavior objectively
Recognize ethnocentrism
Read and analyze text.
Express personal

perspectives.
F. Read and interpret graphs

WS
D
O
Q
SA
Q

What: Investigate
The European Age of Discovery, through the cultural lens of ethnocentrism

Why: In order to understand that

Attitudes of cultural superiority fueled the Age of Discovery and that those same attitudes can continue to be seen
when a textbook uses the term Age of Discovery to characterize a period when Europeans discovered places
that were already occupied with thriving cultures.

How:
After reading the text relating to the initial discovery and colonization of the New World, the class will participate
in an activity wherein one group of students will play the parts of a previously unknown, fictional nation that
discovers the United States. The rest of the class will be the American population, business leaders and
government officials. This unknown nation will have far superior technology and very different cultural dynamics.
The newcomers will colonize the United States, destroy the existing governmental systems, subjugate the American
population, exploit the natural resources of the U.S., and begin the process of forcibly converting the American
population to their new and presumably superior religion and cultural values. The Americans will discover that their
new overlords have not only brought never before seen animals and food stuffs but also a new strain of chicken pox
to which the American population had not previously been exposed thus causing a massive epidemic. This
activity will be followed by a discussion of how analogous this situation is to what the natives in the New World must
have experienced when the Europeans arrived.

Chris Brown