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EPISODE ACTIVITIES - After Viewing

Focus Activity - The Age of the Stirrup
Have students create two timelines that show a series of relationships between events in the Mongol Empire and subsequent changes in the West (Europe). Discuss how changes in the East affected the West. Read to students the following quotation from Episode 3:

"The long distance routes made safe by the Mongol peace gave Western travelers their best opportunity for centuries to learn about the civilizations of the East. Eastern goods and know-how opened European minds." Using the following resources from the video, have students find evidence that supports or refutes the videošs claim that the Mongol legacy was the link between East and West.
Resources:
  • Writings of Genghis Khan
  • Map of the Steppelands
  • Quotations from the three herdsmen, the English Monk, and Chang Chun
  • Map of Mongol Empire
  • Poem by Samuel Coleridge
  • Photos of Xanadu
  • Portrait of Kublai Khan
  • Writings of Marco Polo
  • Map of Marco Polo's route
  • Writings of Roger Bacon
  • Text from Canticle to Brother Son by St. Francis of Assisi

Media Literacy Activities
Ask students to think about the history classes theyšve taken and the books they've read about world history. Have their studies of history so far presented Asia as a major influence on Europe, or is Europe generally presented as having influenced Asia? Why do they think this is the case? Then ask students to define the word "Eurocentric." Do they think that world history is generally taught in a Eurocentric manner? Does the Millennium series support the Eurocentric view? Have students examine their textbook or another history book and find at least three examples of Eurocentric history. Ask them to explain how non-European historians might have interpreted these historical events differently. Ask them to make a chart that contrasts the Eurocentric point of view with a possible alternate interpretation of these three historical events or descriptions. Then discuss why there can be many different interpretations of history.

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