1. Lesson 1 Unit 4: Classical Traditions and Major Empires (Era 3)
From Early Civilizations to Empires…
The transition from Era 2 to Era 3

2. What did it take in Era 2 to form an agricultural village?
Previously on- The world in Era 2… ancient river valley civilizations in a period of growth and expansion
Use your prior knowledge from the last unit to Turn and Talk in response to this question:
What did it take in Era 2 to form an agricultural village?
Think about resources, technologies, and institutions.
Provide a specific example you remember from Unit 3.

3. What does it take to form an agricultural village?
Argument Formation Note Tracker
What does it take to form an agricultural village?
Things people need to have or do to change from foraging to agriculture:
Examples / Evidence:
Unit 2
Geographic Luck – access to plants and animals that can be domesticated
Temperate climate
Enough people to populate a village
The ability to communicate and learn from each other
Catal Hoyuk, the village in present day Turkey... an early agricultural village
There were humans living as foragers in the area
They had access to several types of grains
The climate there is mild

4. What do you know about “empires”?
List-Group-Label
What do you know about “empires”?
Working in a small group, LIST everything you think you know about empires in 3 minutes (Yes… you can mention Star Wars).
Now, put all of these ideas into groups that make sense to your group.
Next, give each group a name, a label, and be ready to share your group labels with the class.

5. City-state
Early empires emerged from city-states, such as Ur, a large city in the region of Mesopotamia (Sumer).
Turn and Talk
What do you think a city-state is?
Why would empires grow out of city-states?

6. Era 3… 1000 BCE to 500 CE
What makes Era 3 different from Era 2 is the way that human societies organized and interacted.
In Era 2, many (but not all!) people began to live in civilizations. City-states began to develop.
In Era 3, many people were still living in civilizations. But something changed for some of these civilizations.

7. Turn and Talk:
What do you notice?
What is different?
What was the big change between Era 2 and Era 3?
ERA 2
ERA 3

8. Demonstrating a Think Aloud:
“The shift from Era 2 to Era 3 was a TURNING POINT in history.”

9. Do a Think-Aloud with your partner about the sentence below:
Important agricultural civilizations changed and became EMPIRES.
Student think-aloud prompts:
What do you think it means that civilizations became empires?
What is an empire anyways?
How did this change happened?
What would a civilization have to have to become an empire?

10. Driving question: What does it take to become an empire?
Argument Formation Note Tracker:
Location of the Information
Things a society needs to have or do to become an empire
Examples / Evidence
What I think right now (at the beginning of Lesson 1) after I have studied agricultural civilizations.

11. Need to have arrows in the middle timeline showing

14. 35 million people
2,000 miles wide
Largest empire the world had ever seen

15. Ruins of Persepolis… one time capital of the Persian Empire

18. Rome over time… 390 BCE 100 BCE Turn and Talk: What changes over time?
What do you notice?
50 BCE

20. Turn and Talk: What seems to be the pattern of change during this time period?

22. So… what makes an empire?
List of criteria:

23. Militarism… Turn and Talk: What do you think militarism is?
What does militarism have to do with empire?
Could you have an empire without militarism?

24. The Big Story Empires rose and fell during Era 3.
The centers of power shifted, but the same areas were fought over and ruled by different groups.
New empires often conquered and/or absorbed existing ones… they didn’t start from scratch (for example, Persia conquered Assyrian territory; Alexander conquered Persia, and Rome briefly controlled parts of the old Persian Empire).
Over time, the center of power in Afroeurasia shifted westward with the Roman Empire.
Other parts of this story included the development of more trade and exchange, the mixing of societies, and cultural diffusion of beliefs, values, and religions.

25. Feedback Loop of Empire…
More people and more resources
Need for central control and government
Development of armies, government systems, taxes, etc.
Need for more people and resources to maintain army and power
Conquest and trade
At what point might this cycle break down?
Why would an empire fall? What problems might develop?

26. Exit Pass:
So… what DOES it take to become an empire?