Chapter 2: The Revolution of Agriculture

The Agriculture Revolution in World History
- Agriculture began around 12,000 years ago.
- It was called often the Neolithic or Agricultural Revolution, it was speaking of the cultivation of particular plants as well as the taming and breeding of particular animals.
- The coming of agriculture brought a transformation of human life all across the planet and was the foundation for:
1. growing populations
2. settled villages
3. animal-borne diseases
4. horse drawn chariot warfare
5. cities
6. states
7. empires
8. civilizations
9. writing
10. literature and much more

-Amongst the most revolutionary aspects of the age of agriculture was a new relationship between humankind and other living things. Humans were not using things they found in nature but they were changing and modifying it as well.
- animals and plants were changed as well too.
- Domestication- the changing and taming of nature for the benefit of human kind. It also gave a new kind of mutual dependance.
- Intensification- it means getting more for less. More food and resources, far more, from a much smaller area of land than was possible with a gathering and hunting technology. More food meant more people

Agricultural breakthroughs
Southwest Asia (Fertile Crescent)- barley, wheat, lentils, figs, goats, sheep, cattle, pigs
This area was favored among all areas
it consists of present day Iraq, Syria, Israel/Palestine, and Southern Turkey.
It had variety of wild plants and animals capable of domestication.

China- rice, millet, soy beans, pigs chickens, and water buffalo
Saharan and Sub Saharan Africa- sorghum, millet, yams, teff, cattle
Highland New Guinea- taro, bananas, yams, sugarcane
Andes region- potatoes, quinoa, manioc, llamas, alpaca, guinea pig
Mesoamerica- maize, squash, beans
Eastern woodlands of North America- sunflower, goosefoot, sump weed

Globalization of Agriculture
The extension of farming occurred in two ways
1. diffusion- the gradual spread of agricultural techniques and perhaps of the plants and animals themselves, but without the movement of agricultural people
2. the slow colonization or migration of agricultural peoples as growing populations and pressures to expand pushed them outward.

The culture of Agriculture
The Agricultural Revolution lead to an increase in human population, as the greater production of agriculture was able to support much larger numbers.
-10,000 years ago the population was 6 million people
- before the Agricultural Revolution, it was 50 million people
5,000 years ago the population was 250 million by the beginning of the Common Era.

- The remains of early agricultural people show some deterioration in health such as tooth decay, and anemia, a shorter physical stature, and diminished life expectancy
- Living close to animals subjected them to new diseases such as small pox,flu, measles, chicken pox, malaria, tuberculosis, rabies
Relying on small number of plants or animals in societies were vulnerable to famine