DOCUMENT RESUME ED 368 588 SO 022 834 TITLE Columbus and the Age of Discovery. Activity Guide. INSTITUTION WGBH-TV, Boston, Mass. SPONS AGENCY Xerox Corp., Rochester, N.Y. PUB DATE 92 NOTE 37p. AVAILABLE FROM WGBH, Columbus and the Age of Discovery, Box 2222-CG, South Easton, MA 02375 ($4). PUB TYPE Teaching Guides (For Classroom Use Guides Teacher) (052) EDRS PRICE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Controversial Issues (Course Content); *Instructional Materials; Learning Activities; Political Issues; Secondary Education; Sccial Studies; *Teaching Guides; Television; *World History IDENTIFIERS *Columbus (Christopher); *Columbus Quincentenary ABSTRACT This seven part teacher's guide is designed to accompany the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) television series, "Columbus and the Age of Discovery," and also may be used without viewing the programs. The guide features seven units that reflect the themes of the television series. The units are: (1) "Columbus's World"; (2) "An Idea Takes Shape"; (3) "The Crossing"; (4) "Worlds Found and Lost"; (5) "The Sword and the Cross"; (6) "The Columbian Exchange"; and (7) "In Search of Columbus". The focus of the units is on activities that are related to the subjects covered in the programs. The activities are designed to help students understand the world that produced Christopher Columbus, the cultures that existed in the Western Hemisphere before he arrived, the motivations behind his voyages, the resulting exchange, and the legacy of his encounter. In addition to the scven units and seven activities, the guide offers extensive reading and resource lists and student handouts that support the activities. The National Council for the Social Studies Position Statement on the Columbian Quincentenary also is included. (DB) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** UAL ommurneeNT OF IDUCATION Othm ot Educawnal RmseecIt and wpromeme. EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) t'hse 00Curneof has beim reproduced es I mewed from tho person or orpmszatan empnehfta it 0 MMOr ChtmOss have boon made to prePtove newoduohOn quehty Points 01 umaw os opinions matted in this docu . moot do not neoessanty represont *Mast (*RI toomOon or pato.. "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS IAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY MAT j;Pac QSS TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." if 1)1y,, h\ \X ( .L1 1 I turr I 6. n _ XEROX Dear Educator: Five hundred years ago, Columbus made his historic voyages to the Americas; his experiences continue to fascinate and to enlighten us. This is why Xerox is proud to sponsor two major quincentenary programs: the television series Columbus and the Age of Discovery and the "Seeds of Change" exhibition at the Smithsonian. By combining the informative and entertaining television series Columbus and the Age of Discovery with this Teacher's Guide, we hope that you and your students will relive Columbus's extraordinary encounters in the New it9-1- World. To further your learning about Columbus and the impact of his voyages, we invite you to visit the "Seeds of Change" exhibition, open until May 1993. As the corporate underwriter of these two noteworthy programs, it is our hope that you will use this material to stimulate and encourage your students in their quest for knowledge and the pursuit of new discoveries. VAL) if111--f-S141-1714- J--.1 -. ytcwGiAr- Off-Air Taping Rights Ordering Information a 1, Is's. All programs in this series Additional copies of this may be recorded and shown teacher's guide are available t*.t.A1 Ak for educational use within for $4 (to cover postage and seven days directly after handling). Please send broadcast. Videocassettes are checks payable to WGBH to also availab'.e. For infor- ;SI... WGBH mation about videocassettes, Columbus and the Age contact of Discovery The WGBH Collection Box 2222-CG P.O. Box 2053 South Easton, MA 02375 Princeton, NJ 08543 (617) 963-8666 (800) 828-WGBH -,;i\ ' Fax: (609) 452-1602 For information about the student newspaper The WGBH Collection is supplement. see the distributed for WGBH by Resources section on Films for the Humanities pages 28-29. and Sciences. Columbus wrote this letter to Luis de Santangel, keeper of the privy purse to the Spanish crown, on the return from his first voyage. 3 stalviv Copyright © 1992 WGBH Educational Foundation 0" BEST COPY AVAIF" 12/0wAttrit . *,. 1 Contents Using This Guide Activity:The Faces of Columbus 18 2 Activity:Test Your Columbus IQ Stormy Waters 19 3 Or, Can a Series about Columbus Activity: Mesoamerican Cultures 20 Be "Politically Correct"? Activity: Columbus's Letter (And Does It Need to Be?) 21 Unit 1: Columbus's World Activity: Reading Pictures 22 4 Unit 2: An Idea Takes Shape Activity: Judging Columbus 6 23 Unit 3:The Crossing Activity:Through the Looking Glass 94 8 Unit 4:Worlds Found and Lost Suggested Readings 26 10 Unit 5:The Sword and the Cross Resources 28 17 Unit 6:The Columbian Exchange NCSS Position Statement 30 14 Unit 7: In Search of Columbus 32 Answers to Test Your ColumbLs IQ 16 Credits 33 Replicas of Columbus's three ships, built by the Spanish Royal Navy, sail west. -JJ :IV 4fit _41:5;i1;',1;-ifi8q , At4 Yr: Lty r " ,of". 4)>. e 71..14*Erith BEST COPY AV LE Using This Guide The Columbus Quincentenary has been met by a host of conflicting voices.The issues raised by the controversy will not be easily resolved. Educators can take this opportunity to let students hear all the voices and discover for themselves the many perspectives on this issue. About the Series designed to help your students under- special have seven-day off-air taping stand the world that produced rights: you can tape the programs and As you can read in the article on the Columbus, the cultures that existed in use them in the classroom within facing page, the producer of Columbus the Western Hemisphere before he seven days after broadcast. For infor- and the Age of Discovery has been arrived, the motivations behind his mation about videocassettes, see the listening to these voices for the past voyages, the resulting exchange, and inside front cover. ten years. The seven-part series that the legacy of the encounter. resulted from his exploration of the About the Guide In addition to the seven activity- topic premiered in October 1991 and based units, this guide offers extensive This teacher's guide is designed to will be rebroadcast this fall. reading and resource lists to guide you work with the three-hour special, the However, before the full series and your students as you dive into seven-part series, and on its own. The sails again, PBS will broadcast a three- sometimes murky water. We have guide is broken up into seven units hour special, Columbus' Magnificent included both traditional and alternative Voyage, on Sunday, October 11, at reflecting the themes of the series. books and organizations. We have also This recut, renarrated Each unit includes a synopsis of the 8:00 P.M. reproduced the Columbian program will take the broad scope of accompanying program with discus- Quincentenary Position Statement from the seven-part series and focus more sion questions. The three-hour special the National Council for the Social closely on Columbus, the world will focus mostly on material from the Studies (NCSS), which offers guidelines around him, and the incredible voyage first four programs. for studying Columbus and the that led to the bringing together of The focus of the seven units is Quincentenary. two very old and very different on activities. These activities are As the NCSS states, Columbus's worlds. related to the subjects covered in the voyage is too significant to be ignored programs, but do not require viewing Following the broadcast of this or to be treated trivially. The world we three-hour special, the original seven- them. If you are viewing the three- know today would not have come to part series will be rebroadcast begin- hour special, you can still use any of be without the chain of events set in ning Thursday, October 15 at 8:00 the activities in the seven units, motion by that initial contact. And P.M. on many public television sta- depending on what subject areas you understanding and dealing with our tions. Call your local public television are studying. Some of these activities common future as a global society station to confirm the broadcast dates are supported by reproducible student and times in your area. Both the begins with understanding what has handouts found on pages 18 through seven-part series and the three-hour happened in the past. 25. In general, the activities are Stormy Waters Or, Can a Series about Coulmbus Be "Politically Correct" (And Does It Need to Be?) by Executive Producer Zvi Dor-Ner ,4.f.7.1112. This opinion is shared by African Columbus and the Age of Discovery is Americans, whose forebears were part of the 500th anniversary of 1 brought initially to the Caribbean, Columbus's arrival on these shores. then to North and South America, as This anniversary is under immense slaves. For them, the Quincentenary political scrutiny. is an occasion to mourn the freedom This is a relatively new phenom- enon. In 1984, when the U.S. Con- that was lost when their ancestors were captured and forced to work on gress appointed a commission to the plantations of the :.meticas. They prepare for what was seen then as a want their suffering remembered. celebration, it was given a long, awkward name that also declared its Columbus and the Age of Discovery has never intendeu to choose among politics. It was called and still is these attitudes. We do not endorse the Christopher Columbus one at the expense of another. The Quincentenary Jubilee Commission. Eight years later, nobody in series tells its stories in many voices public life is sure whether the event and from many points of view, as deserves jubilation, and the press is befits a history that has affected so Executive Producer Zvi Dor-Ner deeply engaged in defining what is many in many different ways. and what isn't "politically correct" In the maritime tradition of keeping a As we produced the series, our about Columbus. Clearly, after 500 weather eye, here are the feelings fascination with Columbus increased. but about Columbus we see coming over years, Columbus is sailing again He was a man of obsessive energy the horizon. this time into stormy political waters. and drive, a marvelous sailor and a The most common attitude in rotten administrator, a man who Columbus and the Age of Discovery North America is still jubilation and was inspired by con-7oversy. In 1982 accidentally brought vast continents I read about a United Nations debate admiration. In this view, Columbus into painful conflict and a fragile is transformed into the archetypal unity. It is ironic that Columbus will on a proposal from the Spanish delegation to name the next decade in be both blamed and admired, glorified American a successful entrepreneur and a magnificent salesman, whose wit honor of Christopher Columbus. and vilified, for deeds he neither intended nor understood. and knowledge overcame ignorance A host of objections was raised even then. There was a disagreement and inertia. At the same time, we feel great Auother view is that often held between the Spanish and the Italians empathy for the Native Americans about the division of national honors by Hispanic Americans. For them, and African Americans. They paid for Columbus's deeds. The Scandina- Columbus's arrival here was the the heaviest price in this chapter of beginning of a monumental encounter history. And we are awed by the vians suggested that if anyone should that benefited both the Americas and be celebrated for discovering America, forces unleashed by the encounter it should be Eric the Red. Europe. They point with pride to the between the continents the ex- Delegates from African countries introduction of Christianity, for change of disease, for example, whose thought the idea of honoring a rank example, and the creation of impact on history we are just begin- la raza, a colonialist outrageous. And delegates new people. For them, this is an event ning to understand. worthy of commemoration, if not an from Caribbean nations repeated a by- All of these attitudes are repre- now familiar line: How could Colum- outright jubilee. sented in the series. The story of bus have discovered America? The A very different view is held by Christopher Columbus is formidable people in the Caribbean knew where Native Americans in both North and and larger-than-life, a story of adven- they were it was Columbus who South America. They hold that ture and misadventure which in some Columbus started an invasion that way has touched the lives of everyone was lost. destroyed much of their culture and in the world. subjugated their people. 3 BEST COPY AVAILME . 1 Columbus's World The series begins with Columbus's youth in the bustling commercial center of Genoa.The first episode traces the life line of European trade, showing how Asian goods and technology became essential to Europe's wealth, and how the rise of Islamic power threatened to cut Europe's and travelers like access to the East.The contributions of Arab mapmakers, European mariners, Marco Polo toward refining the medieval conception of the world is examined, and the program not the Arabs or the Chinese poses the tantalizing question of why it was the Europeans who used this information to initiate the Age of Discovery. This late.fifteenth-century Centers of Commerce manuscript illumination Despite the fact that half the depicts various aspects of globe was still unknown to banking in the late Middle them, Europeans, Africans, Ages: counting and ledger- Arabs, and Asians partici- keeping, the repayment qf pated in far-flung networks of trade. Students may want debt, and the delivery of to discuss the topograpkkal money or gold for deposit. features that contributed to the roles of these cities in the fifteenth-century economy. Genoa A mercantile empire with bases in Spain, North Africa, the Acgean, 2nd the Black Sea, Genoa's networks stretched from Portugal, England, and Flanders to Persia, India, and China. Cairo The most advanced city of its time, unparalleled in Malacca wealth, splendor, and The greatest trading center scholarship. European in the East. Philippine gold, mer-chants came here to buy goods from West Chinese silks and porcelain. and Moluccan spices were Africa and the East. exchanged at this Malaysian Timbuktu Constantinople (Istanbul) port. No Europeans were One of the richest commer- The gateway between allowed to trade here, Europe and Asia. Its fall to cial cities in Africa, and a center ofMoslem learning, the advancing Turkish Empire in 1453 forced Ivory, slaves, and gold from European merchants the south were traded for salt, cloth, and copper froni the to seek sea routes to Africa north. Unable to find the city and the East. until 1824, the Portuguese 7 had to tap into trade networks 4 downstream. Activities one to support or refute in an essay. population size or some other charac- Then have students discuss their 1 To help students grasp the problem teristic besides political boundaries. arguments with the class. Why do Have each team display its map and of envisioning a world that is only they think the NCSS chose these partly explored, have them take on the discuss its features. Then have the class seven statements? Has the NCSS's compare the various maps. What is the role of medieval mapmakers. Divide focus added to their understanding of purpose of each map? What world students into teams, based on the the period compared with what they directions from which they come to view does each represent? Which map learned about Columbus when they school. Appoint one student in each do they think is most accurate? How were younger? Would they add any team as mapmaker. Have that student have social, technological, and histori- other statements? What do they think cal changes affected the way we interview another team about the is most important for people to know routes they take to school, and draw a represent the world on paper? about Columbus and this period? map based on their answers. 3 Explore the role of the artist in Have students present their maps shaping our perceptions of history. Discussion Questions to the class. How accurate is each Photocopy and distribute The Faces 1 Fifteenth-century Genoa was an map? What landmarks does it include? of Columbus on page 18 and discuss ambitious mercantile city that thrived What landmarks does it omit, and the different portraits. What kind of on sea trade. What values might the why? What problerns did the person does Columbus seem to be in young Columbus have absorbed in mapmakers face in integrating differ- each picture? What means does the this environment? ent accounts? To what extent are the artist use to convey a particular maps purely geographical documents, impression? If the picture shows more and to what extent do they reflect the than one person, how does it depict mapmaker's values? the relationships between them? What Otial4 do you think each artist was trying to accomplish by depicting Columbus? What does each portrait tell us about the artist's attitude toward Columbus? To what extent is the artist's role similar to that of the historian? Why does each age "repaint" Columbus? Genoa as it appeared in the fifteenth century. 4 To give students a grasp of the 2 China and the Arab world had both interplay between Asian, Arab, the means and the opportunity to sail African, European, and American cultures in Columbus's time, divide across the ocean to the Americas (just students into five groups representing as the Mayan Empire had the naviga- OcaUtt+ tional know-how to sail east). What each of these world civilizations. Ask each group to research the principal motives did the Europeans have that The "T-0" snap, published as late as 1472, events and developments in that the Chinese and the Arabs did not? was bawd on the notion that Jerusalem lay at the culture from 1450 to 1550. Have each T. buersection qf the 3 Europe gained access to enormous team present its findings in the form of a timeline. Pos the timelines across 2 To trace the evolution of our wealth as a result of Columbus's the blackboard and have students voyages. What did this new wealth conception of the world, divide the discuss how each culture's history allow Europe to do? How did it class into teams. Ask each team to interacted with the others. change Europe's role in the world? study a particular map of the world. Examples of different types of maps 4 Technology pioneered by the 5 Help students appreciate the include the medieval T-0 map, maps historical setting for Columbus's Chinese played a critical role in by Ptolemy and Martin Behaini, the Europe's evolution. How did the voyages as well as their lasting impact. standard Mercator projection, the The National Council for the Social compass, gunpowder, paper, and Robertson projection, the new Peters Studies published a position statement printing contribute to Columbus's projection, and maps that reflect about the Columbian Quincentenary enterprise? To what extent did in October 1991 (included on pages Columbus owe his success to the 30-31). Copy the seven statements achievements of other cultures? that the NCSS has highlighted as important to a basic understanding of this period, and have students choose 5 An IdeaTakes Shape This episode traces the development of Columbus's dream.The program recounts the reconstruc- tion by the Spanish Navy of the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. It follows Columbus to Portugal, where he spent years honing his skills as a sailor and mapmaker and gathering evidence to support his growing conviction that he could reach the Orient by sailing west.The episode details his long battle to win first Portuguese, then Spanish sponsorship for such an expedition, and depicts the Spanish monarchs' struggle to centralize their power through the reconquista, the Inquisition, and the expulsion of the Jews. In building the replica vessels, traditional methods were used as much as possible. A 3,000 132-35 B.C. A.D. A Japanese fishing Jews fleeing Roman expedition is blown off persecution may have course and lands ir Ecuador. sailed to the Americas. Who's on First? Evidence: Pottery fragments Evidence: Hebrew inscrip- Christopher Columbus was not the first outsider to reach the unearthed there are remark- tions similar to those on Americas. Indeed, some historians and archaeologists speculate that ancient coins are found in ably similar to pots made peoples from around the world may have arrived in the Americas on the Japanese island of a Tennessee burial mound. as far back as 3,000 B.c. Kyushu. 0:0 1000 A.D. Leif Ericsson established 458 A.D. The Buddhist monk a colony in North America Hui-Shen sailed from but abandoned it in the China on an evangelical face of Native American mission. He returned 40 resistance. Evidence: years later and described Archaeological remains of in detail his travels in a a Viking settlement have fabulous land that could been unearthed in New- possibly have been the west foundland; the venture was coast of the United States recorded in oral histories. and Mexico. Evidence: Traces of Buddhist thought and Chinese art are found in many Central and South 9 American cultures. MI COPY AVAILABLE 6 Activities Discussion Questions slaves, cloth, figs, salt, copper, silk, and 1 What aspeas of Columbus's Have students test their knowledge porcelain. Have them exchange goods 1 about Columbus by distributing the along overland and sea trade routes. personality contributed to his success? quiz on page 19, Test Your Colum- Ask what would happen if any of Which characteristics got him into bus IQ. Then have students correct these routes were cut off. trouble? their quizzes as they watch the series 4 If the Americas had not existed, 2 Why did Portugal refuse to sponsor (or distribute the answers on page 32). Columbus would have starved long Columbus's expedition? Why did before he ever reached Asia. The land Spain consent? What motivates mass of Asia was not nearly as large as societies to sponsor explorations and he thought, and the circumference of build empires? the globe was not nearly as small. Students familiar with geometry can 3 On what grounds did Ferdinand attempt to correct Columbus's and Isabella refuse Columbus's calculation by using the same method proposal the first time? the second? the ancient Greeks used. Based on the evidence they had, what In the third century B.C., the decision would you have made in philosopher Eratosthenes was the first their place, and why? person to calculate the circumference of the earth. The only information he used was that at noon on a given day Co lumbus's first voyage is shown in red. The the sun cast no shadow from a stick small arrows represent the major wind currents, placed in the earth at the city of whik the large arrows indicate ocean currents. Syene, while at the same time on the 2 To help students learn about the same day in Alexandria, 500 miles wind patterns and ocean currents that away, the sun's rays struck the stick at helped Columbus sail west, have them a 7° angle. (See diagram.) Ask students form groups to study specific latitudes how he could deduce from this that in the Northern and Southern Hemi- the earth was round. (The two sticks spheres. Have students tape arrows on were not parallel, so the surface of the a globe to show wind currents in their earth must be curved.) See if they can group's region. Ask them to describe figure out how he calculated the any patterns that they notice. How did circumference of the earth. (Accord- wind currents such as trade winds and ing to basic geometry, if two parallel Thisffieenth-century gold coin depicts Ferdinand monsoons affect patterns of explora- straight lines are transected by a third and Isabella. tion, trade, and settlement? line, the alternate interior angles are Students can follow up by equals angle angle equal If the A B 4 What were the motives for expel- . researching ocean currents. Have shadow length in Alexandria is 7°, ling the Jews and later the Moors from them tape arrows on the globe to Syene must therefore be 7° away on Spain? How might the decision to indicate these currents, and then the circumference of the Earth. Seven sponsor Columbus's expedition have discuss how ocean and wind currents degrees is about I /50 of 360°. If the reinforced these goals? affect the weather in their region. distance between Alexandria and Syene is 500 miles, 500 miles x = 5 At the time of Columbus's journey, 3 Students can learn about fifteenth- 25,000 miles.) Eui ope was a collection of fragmented century trade networks by studying ani shifting kingdoms. How did his individual European, Asian, or African enterprise contribute to the formation cities. Assign each student a city and Parallel Stin Ikays of the modern nation-state? have him or her research the goods that were traded there, where they came from, and where they went. Then have students use chalk to sketch out a map on the floor or outdoors on blacktop and locate their city on it. (To make a giant map, sketch a grid over a small outline map and then make a large grid on the floor. Copy the map onto the large grid square by square.) Use props to represent important fifteenth-century 1 0 commodities such as spices, gold, 7