Eurasian Empires Infographic
600 BCE - 600 CE Project
With your group, you will create an info graphic that explains the necessary preconditions that allowed for the rise of your civilization/empire (part I), details the height of your civilization/empire (part II), and details the fall of your civilization/empire (part III).
By examining your civilization/empire through the Classical Era State Model, your infographic should be able to fully address each of the focus questions below.
You will be using the following website to create your infographic - Canva.com. This is a free website.
Focus Questions
1. What were the necessary preconditions that allowed your state to rise to power?
- Is there a centralized state-level government? (Don't just answer yes or no - explain it)
- Are there several small states with no clear dominant state in a region (Is there a power vacuum)? Is there mutual distrust and conflict between those states?
- What military and/or technological advantages does your state have?
2. What was the unifying ideology of the state?
- States succeed in building their power when they have an ideology that promotes personal identification with the state, leaders, and/or the military.
3. Does the civilization/empire display the characteristics of a well-run state?
- Effective infrastructure such as roads, transportation systems, canals, ports, etc. to facilitate trade.
- Cosmopolitan cities - center of art, trade, and education for people throughout the empire
- An effective bureaucracy to ensure communication, collect taxes, oversee coinage, ensure the laws are enforced
- A system of justice and law for the entire empire
- Extending citizenship or rights in some degree to the conquered (need some sort of "buy-in")
4. What are the major results of the state's rise to power?
- Are economic rewards, especially during the early years, redistributed to elite and trickles down to other classes (esp. merchants, scribes, etc.)?
- Is there relative stability and prosperity in the state?
5. Why do empires fall?
- The failure of leadership; they focus on wealth, etc. not the needs of the state
- The empire is stretched out too far (bureaucratic and military resources are strained)
- Move from offensive to defensive (State shifts from conquest to defending previous gains, eroding the economic base and lessening faith in ideology of the empire)
- The state is facing rebellions from within and challenges from without
Project Roles
- Project Manager: You are responsible for making sure stuff gets done. You manage your group's time and schedule. You help out with whatever needs helping with at any given time. (Ex. research at the beginning of the project, layout and art near the end.)
- Graphic Organizer: You organize the layout and create the artistic portions of the info graphic. During the initial research phase, you will help find/create visual representations of the information.
- Researcher: Everyone must participate in researching your empire and in creating your group's comprehension questions.
All group members are expected to participate in the quality inspection of the final product. This means that you are responsible for making sure that your infographic is created at the highest level of quality possible. This includes making sure your research and information is correct; making sure that your layout makes sense and conveys information quickly and clearly; etc.
Daily Schedule
Day One
- Listen as assignment and infographics are explained.
- Join your group and wait to be assigned your topic. Topics include: Qin Dynasty, Han Dynasty, Athens, Hellenistic (Alexander the Great), Rome, Maurya, and Gupta
- Pick a role in your group. Turn in a list of roles by the end of class.
- Research your topic. Use textbooks available (AP or regular), the AMSCO APWH review book, and ABC-CLIO (World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras) to research information. You may also use other scholarly sites if necessary. However, these sites must be approved by your teacher before you rely on them for research.
Day Two
- You should be moving on to researching Part III and should complete the research before class is over.
- The graphic designer should be working on creating the infographic.
The final product is due by 11:55 pm today through email.
Day Three
- Peer evaluation. You will be completing an evaluation on each person in your group. Final grades will depend on how well you fulfilled your assigned role.
- Gallery Walk. The class will view each group's infographic and answer questions on each topic.
How You Will Be Graded
Empire Infographic - 5 Minor Grades
- How well does your infographic consider all focus questions as they apply to your assigned state for this topic?
- How well does your infographic include all information about the rise of your state?
- Does your infographic communicate information quickly and clearly?
Part II: Height of a civilization/empire (50 points)
- How well does your infographic consider all focus questions as they apply to your assigned state for this topic?
- How well does your infographic include all information about the rise of your state?
- Does your infographic communicate information quickly and clearly?
Part III: Fall of a civilization/empire (15 points)
- How well does your infographic consider all focus questions as they apply to your assigned state for this topic?
- How well does your infographic include all information about the rise of your state?
- Does your infographic communicate information quickly and clearly?
Infographic (10 points)
- Does your infographic have appropriate pictures and graphics that add to the information?
- Is the information displayed in a manner that makes it easy for the reader to gather information? (ex. Bullet points)
Your individual grade will be partially determined by the responsibilities you carried out in your group role.