Major States and Empires In 1500 A.D.

You live in a world where, given enough money, you can buy almost anything from almost anywhere. Do you want strawberries in February? No problem, there's a farmer in Chile who is willing to sell them to you.

Take a moment and look in the space around you. Find three items and try to find a tag or sticker indicating where each item was made. You might look at your favorite clothing, electronics, video games, books, and other possessions. Once you have found this information, locate the country where the three items were made on this world map and mark the locations using a word processing program.

If you had lived in 1500 A.D., you probably would not have owned nearly as many goods from nearly so far away as you probably do now. However, even as early as 1500 A.D., some of the first major trading networks had formed and allowed some long distance trade. How do you think this affected what people wore, ate and the types of music they listened to? How did trade change peoples lives?