EXPLORATION, ENCOUNTER, EXCHANGE IN HISTORY
did the Erie Canal increase encounters and exchanges between different areas within the United States? Once the interstate
highways were built, how did they affect travel in the United States?
Exploration does not need to be literal—think of exploration as a new idea, concept, or theory that is tested. This idea can
come from the fields of politics, economics, or military science. Consider the ways that political campaigns explored the use of
radio, and later television and the internet, to introduce candidates to the public. How did the economic theory of mercantilism
drive the exploration of the Americas and exploitation of the resources found there? How did new advancements in both
strategy and technology influence the outcome of the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II?
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Encounter
xploration, of course, almost always leads to encounters—with different peoples, unfamiliar environments, and new ideas.
Encounters are often unexpected and unpredictable, and they reveal much about those involved.
When Meriwether Lewis and William Clark began exploring western North America in 1804, Americans knew little of the vast
territory west of the Mississippi River. The explorers’ encounter with that region, however, was shaped in part by individuals
like Sacagawea, a Shoshone woman who understood the land and its inhabitants, and served as a guide and translator for
Lewis and Clark. How did she influence the expedition’s encounters with other Native Americans? With the plants and animals
they encountered along the way? How did Lewis and Clark’s notes and drawings of the geography, wildlife, and inhabitants
influence the encounters of later Americans?
Many times encounters involve peoples, plants, and animals that have not previously interacted. How did Matteo Ricci’s efforts
at understanding Chinese culture affect his encounter with the Chinese intelligentsia? Consider the major effects on world
history resulting from the Columbian Exchange, when people, plants, microbes, animals, food, religions, and cultures moved
across continents.
Often exploration leads to occupation or subjugation of other groups of people. Consider the encounters between the Romans
and the Germanic tribes of Europe. How did the Mongols, Aztecs, or Incas interact with their neighbors? What factors influence
whether a new encounter is seen as a positive exchange or as a disastrous occurrence? Consider the event from both sides and
analyze the perspectives of both the conquerors and the conquered.
Encounters also occur between familiar parties. How did the political, social, and cultural differences between the Athenians
and the Spartans, differences with which each side was familiar, affect the way the Peloponnesian Wars were waged? How do
military encounters differ from environmental and cultural encounters in their consequences? How have these encounters
remained the same across time, and how have they varied with changing historical circumstances? How did the horrific
encounter with trench warfare in World War I lead to new strategies ranging from bombing campaigns to blitzkrieg?
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Exchange
t is impossible to make a journey of exploration, encounter new ideas, and not have some ideas exchanged between the
groups of people.
Encounters can lead to many types of exchanges, whether it be goods, food, ideas, disease, or gunfire. The Silk Road, a series
of ancient routes connecting the lands bordering the Pacific Ocean to those of the Mediterranean Sea, formed a means of
exchange between European, Eurasian, and Asian peoples for more than a thousand years. The Silk Road brought gunpowder,
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