Course Sample
World History: A Two-Thousand-Year Tour
By Tammie Bairen
Introduction
This particular high school world history course is different than many others available. It takes advantage of the students’ ability to research and learn as they are digging into history to find the answers to the discussion questions and to formulate their own opinions. Those students who are not accustomed to researching will, hopefully, gain a new skill that will serve them throughout their lives.
Instead of the typical textbook-style course, students will be directed to specific websites, books, videos, and other media during this course. No extra purchase is required. Many resources will be referenced so that students can use what is available to them. Study should not be limited by the resources provided in the lessons, however. Further exploration is highly encouraged! It is my hope that students will be intrigued by the events that have taken place during the last 2,000 years and the fascinating way in which so many events are connected and will desire to further their understanding of history by reading more, watching more, and listening more.
Though we could begin our study at the very beginning of time as we know it, this course will begin with the establishment of the Roman Republic. We simply do not have enough time in a thirty-six-week course to cover eight millennia, so we will cover slightly more than two. While not every topic will be or can be covered, major events on each continent will be discussed. Some topics will cover more than one week due to their historical importance.
Students should have a globe or a large map of the world to which they can refer. Though many areas of the world have changed drastically over the course of 2000 years, the geographical position of those areas has remained the same. Historical maps will be provided in the lessons as available.
Questions will be scattered throughout the lessons, so I recommend using a notebook or typing your answers on the computer. Remember to save the file.
Answer keys will be provided as a separate download on the site.
Week 1: Ancient Rome – Republic to Empire
In Europe, there lies a country said to be shaped like a boot—Italy. Within this country is a city with an extremely rich and fascinating history—Rome. Many things still in use today are a direct result of Rome’s influence in the world many centuries ago. It is with this city we begin our travel through time.
To establish an understanding of the beginning of the Roman Republic and the events that led to its demise, please explore the following resources and answer the questions that follow.
Websites:
Books:
Videos:
SchoolhouseTeachers.com note: Parents should closely monitor children’s use of YouTube and Wikipedia if you navigate away from the videos and articles cited in these lessons. We also recommend viewing the videos on a full screen setting in order to minimize your students’ exposure to potentially offensive ads and inappropriate comments beside or beneath the video.
Questions:
- When did the country of Italy first appear in written records?
- What was the occupation of most residents of Italy at this time?
- What group of people lived in northern Italy at this time?
- What was the political unit adopted by this group? (If you are unable to determine this from the reading, you can click through the link of the name of the group that answers #3.)
- Who were the seven kings of Rome, and when did they rule?
- With what is Ancus Marcius credited? Lucius Tarquinius Priscus? Lucius Tarquinius Superbus?
- What does the name “Superbus” mean?
- When the last king and his family were exiled from Rome, the city already had a senate and an assembly that served the king. These formed the backbone of the republic. What is a republic?
- What were the two main social classes in Rome, not including slaves?
- What was the highest position in government? What did they do?
- How many men ruled as consul at one time? What would be the advantage of this? The disadvantage?
- How did someone become a dictator?
- Who were the lawmakers of Rome?
- What was the Assembly?
- What was the Forum? (The first image in this lesson is a Roman Forum in ruins.)
- Who elected the Consuls?
- Who else did the Assembly elect? What did they do?
- What would be blamed for the fall of the Republic?
- In at least one paragraph, describe the Conflict of the Orders (aka Struggle of the Orders).
Additional Activities:
- Find at least five countries that have a republic form of government today. There are quite a few.
- Describe some of the differences between the Roman Republic and the United States government.
Moving Forward
We’re going to fast forward a couple hundred years. Quite a bit happens in Rome and its surrounding areas during the ensuing years. There are whole books devoted to the wars in which Rome was engaged during the Republic years. We, unfortunately, do not have the time to devote to all of them. You are encouraged to do your own research if you are interested in learning about these wars (some of the websites listed above have information):
- Latin war (498-493 BC)
- Samnite wars (343-290 BC)
- Pyrrhic war (280-275 BC)
- Punic wars (264-146 BC)
- Gallic wars (58-50)
Besides the conquest and domination beyond the city walls, Rome began to have internal strife. There were a series of civil wars that aided in the weakening and eventual destruction of the Republic.
Read about the Civil War between Marius and Sulla that took place between 87 and 82 BC.
Toward the end of the Republic, some new characters come on the scene: a politician—Marcus Licinius Crassus, a statesman and general—Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey), a young lawyer—Marcus Tullius Cicero, and a young Senator—Gaius Julius Caesar. Using the following resources, learn about these famous people and the roles they played in the death of the Republic and answer the questions that follow.
Read the section titled Comprehensive World History: Italy which follows this lesson.
Pompey:
Crassus:
Cicero:
Caesar:
Questions:
- How were Pompey and Sulla connected?
- Describe Pompey’s role in the spread of Rome’s territory.
- What is a praetor? (You may need to refer to a dictionary.)
- What is a triumph?
- What is a quaestor?
- What position did Pompey hold even though he was too young? Who did he share that with?
- What was Julius Caesar able to achieve through his alliance with Crassus and Pompey at the age of 41?
- What did Caesar’s co-consul do? What was the result of that?
- What is the First Triumvirate?
- How do the relationships between those involved in the First Triumvirate disintegrate?
- Detail Julius Caesar’s rise to power.
- What changes did Julius Caesar make while he was dictator?
- What are ides? When did Caesar die?
- Describe the Julian Calendar.
- Upon the death of Julius Caesar, who rose to power? What happened to the Republic? What did Rome become?
Now, go to https://www.studenthandouts.com/world-history/ancient-rome/pictures/map-of-the-roman-empire-after-the-death-of-julius-caesar.htm and view the map. This depicts the reaches of the Roman Republic at the time of Caesar’s death in 44 BC.
Watch: “The History of the Romans: Every Year” from the beginning until 2:48 to see the growth of the territory of Rome during the Republic and the beginning stages of the Empire. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5zYpWcz1-E)
Journal Entry: What did you find the most interesting about the time of the Roman Republic?
Essay Option: Write a two-page essay describing the events during the time of the Roman Republic, including the main characters. Typically, an essay would be in either Times New Roman or Courier New size 12 font, double spaced. Be sure to include a reference list at the end of your essay. Do not plagiarize! Do not copy and paste but use your own words to describe these events.
Additional Information: Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, is about the death of Julius Caesar at the hands of Brutus and Cassius. If you have time and are so inclined, go ahead and read it.
SchoolhouseTeachers.com note: Parents should closely monitor children’s use of YouTube and Wikipedia if you navigate away from the videos and articles cited in these lessons. We also recommend viewing the videos on a full screen setting in order to minimize your students’ exposure to potentially offensive ads and inappropriate comments beside or beneath the video.
SchoolhouseTeachers.com note: the following is an excerpt from A Comprehensive Outline of World History by Jack E. Maxfield, licensed under a Creative Commons 2.0 license and used with permission. The entire text can be downloaded for free at http://cnx.org/content/col10595/1.3/. However, the original text contains numerous references that are offensive to the Christian worldview of this course, and reading the unabridged original is not recommended.
A Comprehensive World History:
Italy As the century opened there was still some indecision as to the actual scope and power of Rome over the remainder of the Italian peninsula. In 91 B.C. there was one final war between Rome and her neighbors over the idea of a united Italy and the scope of the rule of the Roman Senate. It ended by the practical surrender of the Senate to the concept of reform which allowed thereafter all Italians to become Roman citizens by decree. The classical Latin language emerged about 100 B.C. after some imprints from the languages of Asia Minor, the Balkans and Greece and this classical tongue then held sway for about 300 years.
On the government scene, while Sulla was in Asia Minor and the Balkans, the consuls Cinna and Marius had instituted a reign of terror, dissolved the Senate and ruled with “iron hands” until Marius’ death. When Sulla returned he made himself a dictator and while restoring law and order and the Senate to power, he desolated large parts of Italy, executing over 5,000 people. He tried to establish a permanently aristocratic constitution but this was followed by all sorts of complications. Among these was the revolt of the slaves under Spartacus in 73 B.C., just after Sulla’s death. The slaves held out in southern Italy, using Vesuvius’ crater for a time as a fortress but when they were at last captured after two years by Crassus and Pompey some 6,000 were crucified along the Appian Way. The two generals, former cronies of Sulla, had risen to power through separate and originally conflicting ways. Gnaeus Pompeius, after prevailing upon Sulla to give him the title of Magnus (The Great), won prominence by subduing the traitor Quintus Sertorius, who as a governor of Spain had attempted to set up a separatist regime of his own in that province. Crassus, in addition to his victory over the slaves, had made himself fabulously wealthy through various and sundry unscrupulous deals and now the two men united to undue Sulla’s constitution and had themselves elected consuls in 70 B.C. This was the era of Marcus Tullius Cicero, a lawyer who had as his fondest desire to be accepted into the inner circle of the Senatorial class and his whole career was geared to that aim. By prosecuting one of the corrupt provincial governors Cicero gained a praetorship and a rise to power. Meanwhile Pompey gained still more esteem by conquering the Cilician and Cretan pirates who had been preventing normal sea commerce in the Mediterranean and disrupting the great slave emporium at Delos. Soon, therefore, with Cicero’s help, Pompey was given absolute power over both land and sea forces through the entire empire. It was then that he went to reorganize the entire Near East. When he returned after several years involvement in the Mithridatic wars, organizing Asia Minor and Syria and conquering Jerusalem he allegedly brought back some two million slaves.
Gaius Julius Caesar was the youngest ruler of the late Republic. By 58 B.C. he had been a high priest, staff officer, finance minister, military governor, senator and consul. He had married three times, had countless love-affairs, led campaigns and been involved in various intrigues 8. As he ascended the ladder of political power his offices entailed enormous expenses and this got him involved with the multi-millionaire, Crassus, from whom he had to borrow large sums of money. After a period as governor of Spain, Caesar returned to Rome to join the power group of Crassus and Pompey.
Although meeting some opposition in the Senate led by Cato the Younger, a follower of Greek ideals and standing for an honest financial policy in government, Caesar, Crassus and Pompey formed an extra-legal coalition called “the First Triumvirate.” Each soon went his separate way, however, with Caesar conducting his victorious campaigns in Gaul9, Germany and Britain, then returning to take control of Rome, over Pompey’s objections. This was followed by a victorious trip to the Middle East in Syria and Egypt. When Caesar then returned to Rome there was great inflation and the “Annona,” or free grain distribution from the public granaries was excessive. Even by 71 B.C. some 40,000 adult male citizens had been receiving free grain, and in the next decades it increased greatly so that Caesar thought he did well to cut back to 150,000 freeloaders.
Meanwhile Crassus had obtained command of the eastern forces and prepared to emulate the glories of Lucullus and Pompey in Asia Minor and Armenia, but Crassus ran into the Parthians. These fierce Iranians, perhaps with Turanian Mongolian mercenaries, killed 20,000 Roman soldiers along with Crassus and captured 10,000 more at the Battle of Carrhae (53 B.C.) in Syria. The hold of the Romans on Mesopotamia was never very secure.
After Crassus’ death Caesar and Pompey faced each other as antagonists and as the months went by definite lines of battle and forces were drawn up and actual civil war followed. Caesar soon won control of all Italy and gained Sardinia, Sicily and North Africa. After defeating Pompey’s forces at Ilerda in Spain he returned to Rome to be made dictator. Pompey fled to the east where he built up a loyal military establishment but all for naught as Caesar caught up to him in Thessaly in 48 B.C. and defeated him. Pompey fled to Egypt only to be assassinated by the teenaged Ptolemy XIII. After having been made dictator “for life” by the Senate in 45 B.C., Caesar was assassinated by “friends” to whom his divine aspirations were intolerable.
© 2001- 2023 SchoolhouseTeachers.com All Rights Reserved.