c. 1200–1450. Song China, Dar al-Islam, South and Southeast Asia, the Americas, Africa, and Europe before any of them met at scale.
Four puzzles on causation. Build one causal chain per face of the tower — the right cause, the right mechanism, the right consequence. Three strikes and the chain breaks.
Stack the unit's events in chronological order with no dates on the blocks. Reason from cause and effect. Three cracks and the tower falls.
Vocabulary four-in-a-row for two players. Match one of your three definitions to a term on the board and the square is yours. Song exams, Sufi teachers, chinampas, and the mit'a. Play here, or print fifteen kits for the room.
c. 1200–1450. The Silk Roads, the Indian Ocean, and the trans-Saharan routes — and everything that traveled on them, plague included.
Four puzzles on causation. Build one causal chain per face of the tower — the right cause, the right mechanism, the right consequence. Three strikes and the chain breaks.
Stack the unit's events in chronological order with no dates on the blocks. Reason from cause and effect. Three cracks and the tower falls.
Vocabulary four-in-a-row for two players. Match one of your three definitions to a term on the board and the square is yours. Caravanserai, monsoon winds, flying cash, and the Pax Mongolica. Play here, or print fifteen kits for the room.
c. 1450–1750. Ottoman, Safavid, Mughal, Ming and Qing, Tokugawa, Romanov. Same gunpowder, six different answers to holding a diverse population.
A printable card game for the table. Ottoman, Safavid, Mughal, Qing — every card carries a fact and a period image, never the empire. Ask who staffs the army, whether the ruler stands above the majority faith, and where the money comes from. Play here, or print seven decks.
Four puzzles on causation. Build one causal chain per face of the tower — the right cause, the right mechanism, the right consequence. Three strikes and the chain breaks.
Stack the unit's events in chronological order with no dates on the blocks. Reason from cause and effect. Three cracks and the tower falls.
Vocabulary four-in-a-row for two players. Match one of your three definitions to a term on the board and the square is yours. Devshirme, zamindars, tax farming, and the Sunni-Shi'a split. Play here, or print fifteen kits for the room.
c. 1450–1750. Sea routes, the Columbian Exchange, coerced labor, and the silver that made the first genuinely global market.
Four puzzles on causation. Build one causal chain per face of the tower — the right cause, the right mechanism, the right consequence. Three strikes and the chain breaks.
Stack the unit's events in chronological order with no dates on the blocks. Reason from cause and effect. Three cracks and the tower falls.
Plant Old and New World ingredients across 14 regions and watch them diffuse along trade routes — slowed by climate zones and by the Manila Galleon's long Pacific crossing — until regional dishes light up.
Vocabulary four-in-a-row for two players. Match one of your three definitions to a term on the board and the square is yours. Caravels, encomienda, the Middle Passage, and the Manila Galleon. Play here, or print fifteen kits for the room.
c. 1750–1900. Enlightenment arguments, four Atlantic revolutions, the nations built afterward, and the machines that changed the ground under all of it.
A printable card game for the table. American, French, Haitian, Latin American — every card carries a fact and a period image, never the revolution. Four risings that borrowed the same words and meant very different things by them. Play here, or print seven decks.
Four puzzles on causation. Build one causal chain per face of the tower — the right cause, the right mechanism, the right consequence. Three strikes and the chain breaks.
Stack the unit's events in chronological order with no dates on the blocks. Reason from cause and effect. Three cracks and the tower falls.
Vocabulary four-in-a-row for two players. Match one of your three definitions to a term on the board and the square is yours. Natural rights, the Reign of Terror, Toussaint Louverture, and the spinning jenny. Play here, or print fifteen kits for the room.
c. 1750–1900. The new imperialism, China forced open, Japan choosing differently, and the movements that pushed back.
Four puzzles on causation. Build one causal chain per face of the tower — the right cause, the right mechanism, the right consequence. Three strikes and the chain breaks.
Stack the unit's events in chronological order with no dates on the blocks. Reason from cause and effect. Three cracks and the tower falls.
Vocabulary four-in-a-row for two players. Match one of your three definitions to a term on the board and the square is yours. Extraterritoriality, the Meiji Restoration, spheres of influence, and Adwa. Play here, or print fifteen kits for the room.
c. 1900–1945. Two world wars, the peace that failed between them, and the decisions real policymakers faced in the twenty years of quiet.
Four puzzles on causation. Build one causal chain per face of the tower — the right cause, the right mechanism, the right consequence. Three strikes and the chain breaks.
Stack the unit's events in chronological order with no dates on the blocks. Reason from cause and effect. Three cracks and the tower falls.
You are a nation in 1919. Negotiate, ally, and survive twenty years of economic crisis — then face the choices that led the world to war.
Vocabulary four-in-a-row for two players. Match one of your three definitions to a term on the board and the square is yours. Total war, the mandate system, appeasement, and Nuremberg. Play here, or print fifteen kits for the room.
c. 1945–1980. Two superpowers who never fought each other, and the empires that came apart three different ways.
Four puzzles on causation. Build one causal chain per face of the tower — the right cause, the right mechanism, the right consequence. Three strikes and the chain breaks.
Stack the unit's events in chronological order with no dates on the blocks. Reason from cause and effect. Three cracks and the tower falls.
Vocabulary four-in-a-row for two players. Match one of your three definitions to a term on the board and the square is yours. Containment, satyagraha, non-alignment, and apartheid. Play here, or print fifteen kits for the room.
c. 1980–present. The Cold War ends, production comes apart across borders, and the problems left over cross every border on the map.
Four puzzles on causation. Build one causal chain per face of the tower — the right cause, the right mechanism, the right consequence. Three strikes and the chain breaks.
Stack the unit's events in chronological order with no dates on the blocks. Reason from cause and effect. Three cracks and the tower falls.
Once containers and fiber erased distance, rank took over. Launch innovations into the world city network and watch hierarchical diffusion carry them down the ranks — then find out which ones ever cross the last mile to the countryside.
Vocabulary four-in-a-row for two players. Match one of your three definitions to a term on the board and the square is yours. Containerization, outsourcing, ethnic cleansing, and the Paris Agreement. Play here, or print fifteen kits for the room.