Crusades and Trade

Objectives

Anticipatory Set

Methodology

Materials

Artful Ending

Assessment

Objectives:

1. Map the areas controlled by Muslims and Christians in Europe and Western, Southwestern Asia.
2. List the reasons that Europeans might take part in the Crusades.
3. Generalize about the success of the Crusades.
4. Discuss the impact of the Crusades.
5. Identify major centers of trade in Europe including the Hanseatic League.
6. Diagram the exchange of goods between Europe and Asia

Anticipatory Set

Brainstorm reasons why a European might want to take part in the Crusades (religious wars). Complete on the worksheet on your desk.

Methodology

1. Have the handout for the day's activities on students' desk as they arrive, or in a place where they can get it as they walk in. Students are to complete the journal entry in the corresponding place on their handout.
2. Review people's response to the journal entry. Create a master list of likely responses on the board. It should include, at the very least: religious zeal, adventure, and opportunity to make money or get new land. Students should be copying this list as you make it.
3. Review the history of the Crusades. Point out to students that only the 1^st was successful, and discuss relevant information about the other crusades.
4. Summarize the results of the Crusades for the students.
5. Highlight the new trade routes, as this will help segue into the next activity. Show a map of trade routes between Asia and Europe on the overhead and mark the centers of trade.
6. Show students a picture of the Frost Fair on the overhead. Discuss why merchants would want to sell their goods at fairs, and the role of the fair in medieval life.
7. Students should complete the map on the back of their handout, creating a key for different religions in different parts of Europe.
8. Students will list the different goods being traded between Europe and Asia on the bottom of their handout.
9. For homework, the students will use the list of traded goods to create a billboard advertising a product along a certain trade route. They must identify their audience and the product, and think of a persuasive way to sell it.

Materials

• Crusades/Trade handout.
• European Trade Routes overhead.
• Frost Fair overhead.
• Billboard Homework Assignment.

Artful Ending

Remind students about their homework assignment and ask them to think about why increased trade between Europe and Asia would be important to the future of both areas. Reemphasize that the trade of goods is concurrent with the trade of ideas and that Muslim influence on Europe would bring new scientific ideas and mathematical concepts.

Assessment

• Students will be assessed informally throughout the discussion of the crusades and the growth of trade via teacher's questions.
• Students' maps will show their understanding of connections between geography, religion, and trade.
• Students' billboard assignments will be assessed according to their understanding of the types of goods that would be traded, the audience to whom they would be selling, and their persuasiveness.