Teaching Latin

AmericaPhillip O’Brien

Minaret College

pobrien@minaret.vic.edu.au

Year 8 History: The Ancient to the Modern World (c.650-1750)

Key Concepts: Evidence Continuity and Change Cause and Effect Perspectives Empathy Significance Contestability

Year 8 History: The Ancient to the Modern World (c.650-1750)

Key Inquiry Questions: How did societies change from the end of the

Ancient Period to the beginning of the Modern Age?

What key beliefs and values emerged and how did they influence societies?

What were the causes and effects of contact between societies in this period?

What significant people, groups and ideas from this period have influenced the world today?

Depth Study Options Expanding Contacts:

Mongol Expansion (c.1206-c.1368)

OR

The Spanish Conquest of the Americas (c.1492-c.1572)

OR

The Black Death in Asia, Europe and Africa (14th Century Plague)

Why Latin America? Seven Good Reasons:

1. The Columbian Exchange2. Parallels with Indigenous Australian history3. Variety – new horizons4. Testing skills with new material5. Context for understanding the modern world6. Reinterpreting history7. Lessons ‘not’ learnt – the Colonial experience

Teaching Unit Eight Lessons, including assessment Unit Plan as attached Extension possibilities A range of text, source material and

video to keep things lively.

National Curriculum1. Pre-Columbian life in the Americas, including social organisation,

city life and beliefs.

2. When, how and why the Spanish arrived in the Americas, and where they went, including the various societies and geographical features they encountered.

3. The nature of the interaction between the Spanish and the indigenous populations, with a particular focus on either the Aztecs OR Incas.

4. The impact of the conquest on the Aztecs OR Incas as well as on the wider world, such as the introduction of new diseases, horses and gunpowder in the Americas, and new foods and increased wealth in Europe.

5. The longer-term effects of colonisation, including slavery, population changes and lack of control over resources.

The Pre-European Americas

Pre-European Society Origins Everyday Life

Food Crime & Punishment

Warfare Mythology & Religion Agriculture

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngWBddVNVZs

Sources Archaeological Evidence Codices Accounts Genetics

Finding the New World

What was Columbus seeking?

Sailing into the Unknown….

First Contact

“They are not heretics nor do they bow to false gods, they believe that power and good comes from the heavens and the firmly believed that I along with my ships and crew came from the sky as well, they had the same belief everywhere I went…”.”They collected and manufactured only the native gold. They liked gold not for its value, but because it was shiny”.

- Columbus, October 12th 1492

“If Your Highness wishes we could bring them all back to Castellon or keep them as slaves on their island”.

- Columbus to the King of Spain, October 14th 1492

“They … brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks’ bells. They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features…. They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane… . They would make fine servants…. With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want”.

- Columbus reflecting on the native Arawak people of Haiti in 1494

Hernan Cortes

Tenochtitlan and Montezuma

What happened to Montezuma?

The Treaty of Tordesillas

Impacts The Columbian Exchange Slavery Population Change

Legacies Dominance of Spanish language Loss of indigenous cultures and

languages Massive population loss Blurring of indigenous cultures ‘New World’ wealth fuelled Spain’s

economic growth Establishment of Catholicism across the

Americas

Extension Possibilities in the ‘New World’ The Portuguese in Brazil The British in Jamaica and the Caribbean The Dutch in Surinam The French in Haiti and the Caribbean The Spanish in Cuba and in South

America

Back to the Future…. ‘Re-thinking’ Columbus – reassessing

the historical narrative

The impact of contact on newly-discovered peoples

Reviving endangered languages