Alabama Social Studies SS24.6.2

SS24.6.2 is a cluster heading. These are the individual standards under it.

• SS24.6.2a

  Summarize how the Crusades, Reformation, and Renaissance influenced European exploration and describe how individuals contributed to these movements.

• SS24.6.2b

  Trace the routes of key European expeditions in North America and describe their effects on colonization in the New World.

• SS24.6.2c

  Locate on a map of North America the areas of European colonization, including colonies of England, France, Russia, and Spain.

01

What Students Need to Do

Students compare why Britain, France, and Spain built colonies and why people moved there. They explain how the Crusades, Reformation, and Renaissance shaped exploration, using people from each movement as examples. They trace expedition routes and map British, French, Spanish, and Russian claims.

02

What Mastery Looks Like

A student can explain why France sought fur trade, Spain sought wealth, and Britain sought land, while all three wanted trade profits. They can distinguish those goals from a person's reasons for leaving, such as poverty or religious persecution. They can place Russian claims in Alaska and show how Cartier's St. Lawrence route supported French colonization.

03

Common Misconceptions

Students may think every empire had the same goal or that everyone migrated for religious freedom. They may confuse an explorer's route with the full area an empire claimed. Some place Russian colonies on the Atlantic coast instead of in Alaska.

04

How to Assess It

Give students a blank North America map. Ask them to label four colonial regions, trace Cartier's route, compare two empires' goals, and name one reason a person migrated.

1. 01

   Mark British, French, Spanish, and Russian claims on a blank map; trace Cartier's St. Lawrence route and label its fur trade link.

2. 02

   Hand out short profiles of Pope Urban II, Martin Luther, and mapmaker Martin Waldseemüller; ask how each movement affected exploration.

3. 03

   Sort cards labeled fur trade, silver, farmland, trade profits, poverty, oppression, and faith into empire goals or personal reasons to migrate.

4. 04

   Find New Orleans and San Antonio on a current map, then connect their names to French and Spanish colonial claims.

• SS24.6.3

  Describe the effects of European expeditions and colonization on the economic, geographic, and social conditions of Indigenous peoples during the fifteenth thro...

• SS24.3.9

  Explain reasons for European expeditions and the establishment of early settlements and colonies in North America during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries...