AFRICA (W4:D3): Africa in the 1400s – Between 1100 and 1600 AD, “The Golden Age” of trade in Africa, Trans-Saharan Trade was flourishing. African gold was at high demand, and people from around the world came to trade for it. The spread of Islam, throughout Africa, came with much conflict, as the larger Muslim empires would attack a city and then force them to convert. This mostly occurred in Northern Africa and the Eastern Coast. The Nomadic Almohad people invaded Spain in t

ASIA (W4:D2): Ottoman Empire (Middle East: 1299 - 1922) – While the Renaissance was occurring throughout Western Europe, most of the surrounding areas around the Mediterranean, some of the Middle East, and even Northern Africa, was controlled by the Islamic Ottoman Empire. Constantinople was conquered in 1453, Cairo in 1526, and Algeriers in 1528. Suleiman the Magnificent was the longest lasting monarch, during most of the European Renaissance. The Ottomans continued to attac

UNIT #4 – WORLD EVENTS AT THIS TIME… (W4:D1) (search bold words at huntthepast.com to know more) EUROPE: The Medici Family takes over Florence (1512) – The Medici household was a powerful group of people, whose influence was in finance, banking, and politics. They grew in power in the Republic of Florence, which would later merge into the country of Italy. Their influence extended throughout most of Europe, including working with Columbus to finance his journey, through the h

The Spanish Protectors of America (W3:D3) - Queen Isabel recognized all those among the islands as subjects - people under her rule - of her country Castille. She believed that they must be treated with care, and not cruelty, and not enslaved, unless criminal conduct had occurred. She believed also that they should be taught Christian ways, but they should not be forced upon them. She sent protectors - friars, to teach the people, and to report back any instances of mistreatm

The Ignorance of the Tribes: Visitors Arrive (W3:D2) (search bold words at huntthepast.com to know more) You are going about your normal tasks, hunting or harvesting food for your family, when you look upon the horizon over the vast sea and spot clouds low upon the water, coming your way. These are not like any other clouds, but very solid and bright white clouds as the sun beats off them. As they come closer, you see a large canoe traveling underneath them and it is slowly c

UNIT #3: IGNORANCE - “Spanish Protectors” (W3:D1) (search bold words at huntthepast.com to know more) Finding a New Land - Imagine you were an explorer and came upon a land that, to the best of your knowledge, was a specific land you expected to be your destination. The ocean is so vast, and the islands are so spread apart, that - as far as you could see - there was no larger body of land. So you stay close to the land you know. Your ignorance does not stop there. You stumbl

Treaty of Tordesillas (W2:D4) – On Columbus’s return from his first voyage, he stopped by Lisbon, Portugal, to report to King John II that there were more islands west of the Canary Islands. Portugal had no idea Columbus was traveling west and this set off the King, because the treaty they were currently under, he felt, was not being followed with Columbus’s new journey. The Treaty of Alcáçovas, signed in 1479 between Portugal and Castille (Spain), had ended their war and all

Returning to Hispaniola, he found that the men he left were slaughtered by another tribe, Caribs - who were recorded to be cannibals - and that they had abducted Taino women, and enslaved and harvested others. Dr. Diego Alvarez Canca, a physician who accompanied Columbus on this voyage, journaled their visit to a Carib village, likely on the island now known as St. Thomas. He wrote of the horrible things they did to the women and how they cannibalized the bodies of the fallen

Christopher Columbus (Cristobal Colon) (W2:D2) (search bold words at huntthepast.com to know more) Have you heard of Christopher Columbus before? Why is he so important? From what you have learned, was he a cruel man, who imprisoned the natives, or a great man who cared about them? Whatever you heard is probably only partially true. Allow me to shine some light on the matter, and let you decide what you think. Before his voyage – Born in Italy, he grew up working at his fathe

UNIT #2 - DISCOVERY OF THE “NEW WORLD” BREAKING THE MYTHS OF THE PAST (W2:D1) (Search bold words at huntthepast.com to know more) Well before Christopher Columbus, there were people throughout America. Many were nomadic people, who would travel with the changing of the seasons; others were able to build into their surroundings small cities throughout their territory. Many of these tribes worked together to trade or keep to their own areas, while some were war-like, and made