Kushan Empire · c. 30-250 AD

The Kushans: crossroads of Asia

Descendants of nomads driven out of China, the Kushans built an empire across the Hindu Kush that touched Rome's trade, Han China and India at once. Students use coins and treasure to discover a crossroads empire many people have never heard of.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
12–15
On the map
3 steps, AD 100 to AD 150
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

Descendants of nomads driven out of China, the Kushans built an empire across the Hindu Kush that touched Rome's trade, Han China and India at once. Students use coins and treasure to discover a crossroads empire many people have never heard of.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Locate the Kushan Empire between the Han, Parthian and Indian worlds on the map.
  • Explain how the Kushans profited from controlling trade routes.
  • Use coins and objects as evidence of contact between cultures.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 100

Between empires

Open the map in AD 100 and find the Kushan Empire. Which big neighbors lie to its west, its east and its south?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 100

Two roads meet

Turn on Trade Routes. Find the Silk Road and the Grand Trunk Road. Where do they come closest to each other? Who controlled that area in AD 100?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 150

A Buddhist heartland

Turn on Spreads and choose Buddhism. Find Taxila and Balkh. Under the Kushans both were Buddhist centers. Which route carried Buddhism from here to China?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. The Kushans came from nomads who had been driven from their homeland. How could a people on the move build an empire?
  2. Kushan coins showed Greek, Persian and Indian gods, and even the Buddha. What message did this send to their subjects?
  3. A storeroom at Begram held Roman glass, Indian ivory and Chinese lacquer. What does this tell us about the Kushans?
  4. Some of the first statues of the Buddha as a man were made under the Kushans. Why does art change when cultures meet?
  5. Historians still argue about when Kanishka ruled. Why are the dates of this empire so hard to pin down?
4

Game round

9 min

Play Marcus Aurelius in Rule History. Roman glass and goods reached Kushan lands in the age of Rome's Antonine emperors. After the round, discuss: how could decisions made in Rome affect markets thousands of kilometers away?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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