Essential Question
What happened when two worlds that never knew each other suddenly met?
This is the week US History begins. The student studies the moment two worlds that had never known each other suddenly met: Columbus's voyages, the Columbian Exchange, the Spanish conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires, and Magellan's circumnavigation. Turning to North America, they meet the rich pre-Columbian peoples — the mound builders, the Pueblo, the Eastern Woodlands nations — and the first European settlement in what is now the United States. Columbus and the conquest are treated honestly: extraordinary achievement and grave injustice held together truthfully.
Liturgical note: Ordinary Time; the season just before Lent.
Threads at a Glance
Columbus and the Spanish voyages; the Columbian Exchange; the conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires; Magellan's circumnavigation
Manifest Destiny, Texas, Mexican-American War, Gold Rush
Christopher Columbus (a balanced, honest treatment)
The Americas; North and South America, the Caribbean, and the great routes of exploration
Art of the Americas — Maya, Aztec, and Inca art and architecture; the first Spanish colonial and mission art
A meeting of worlds — indigenous American music and the first European sacred music in the New World
St. Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe (1531)
Zeal (missionary love for souls)
YOUCAT — the Ten Commandments (4-5): honor your parents; respect for human life (Q367-Q382)
Capitalization and proper-noun conventions
Expository — explain the Columbian Exchange (cause and effect)
Weekly Writing Assignment
Write an expository essay explaining the Columbian Exchange: the vast transfer of plants, animals, people, and diseases between the Old World and the New after 1492. Explain what was exchanged in each direction and trace at least three important effects (for example: how American crops changed Old World diets and population; how Old World diseases devastated Native populations; how horses transformed Native life). Be accurate and even-handed: the Exchange brought both benefits and catastrophe. Do not argue a side; explain the cause-and-effect connections clearly.
The Week
Close the Week
Add each date to your running timeline notebook — one color for World History, another for US History.
Unit Reading · Renaissance, Exploration & Reformation
by E. L. Konigsburg
A witty, surprising novel that imagines the friendship between Leonardo da Vinci, his mischievous servant boy Salai, and the duchess Beatrice — and the mystery behind the Mona Lisa's smile.
by Robert Bolt
The acclaimed play about St. Thomas More, who would not betray his conscience even when the king demanded it — and paid with his life. A gripping portrait of integrity in the storm of the Reformation.
by Louis de Wohl
A sweeping novel of St. Francis Xavier, the friend of St. Ignatius who carried the Gospel across the seas to India and Japan during the Catholic Reformation. Adventure and holiness on a global stage.
by William Shakespeare
Shakespeare's most famous play: two teenagers from feuding families fall headlong in love, with tragic results. The classic introduction to Shakespeare for ninth graders, full of dazzling language about love, family, and rash choices. (Mature themes — young love and the lovers' suicides — make for rich discussion with a parent.)
by Miguel de Cervantes
An old gentleman reads so many tales of chivalry that he sets off to be a knight himself — tilting at windmills with his loyal squire Sancho Panza. The first modern novel: hilarious, tender, and wise. Best met in a good abridgment at this age. On the Cardinal Newman Society reading list.
by Elizabeth Borton de Treviño
The true-life story of Juan de Pareja, an enslaved man in the household of the great Spanish painter Velázquez, who secretly learns to paint and eventually wins his freedom and friendship. A quiet, beautiful novel about art, dignity, and faith. Listed on the Cardinal Newman Society reading list.