Visualizing State-Building in the Americas

Discussion of visual sources for teaching pre-conquest American states

2 Sep 2024 — 2 min read

From page 43 of the AP World History Course and Exam Description

The required content in the AP World History curriculum for the Americas between 1200 and 1450 can be challenging. How does one quickly cover “continuity, innovation, and diversity” while showing how these states “expanded in scope and reach”? We can’t cover everything, but we can use a few visual sources to give a sense of the big picture in the Americas before the arrival of the Spanish.

The Sources

Afroeurasian Exchange Networks and the Spread of Religions before 1450

Extensive trade networks crisscrossed Afroeurasia before 1500. These networks facilitated more than the movement of goods; cultural traditions and technologies also spread through the networks. We can easily see this through the spread of the four most popular universal religions. The Source