I liked seeing both the pros and cons of people going from gatherers and hunters to growing crops and having cattle and livestock. Some of the pros were that they were able to sustain a lot more people so the population increased dramatically. They didn't have to constantly move around so it gave them more time which led them to develop a lot more technologies. But some cons were that they still relied on nature for rain and soil conditions so there would still be times where the food would be scarce. Living next to animals put them more vulnerable of getting diseases. Agriculture was also a lot more harsh on their bodies because it required a lot more physical labor. It was also interesting to see the more time they settled the closer and closer they got to forming democracies.
In this chapter we saw the similarities and differences between Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas. One of craziest things to me is the way the population was distributed, 85% of the population was in Eurasia. I think the number one thing this can be attributed to is agriculture. In the americas there weren't as lucky as they were in Eurasia. They did not have animals they could domesticate, they also had not developed any written language. Because of this the Americas and Africa had civilizations that were a lot smaller. Another major difference is that the Americas were isolated so they didn't really have anyone to communicate with like the people of Eurasia and Africa. Although the people of the Americas did not have access to iron tools or animals for domestication they still eventually achieved great things. We see with the Mayans were able to have a political system, engineering, mathematics, and even a writing system. The people of Teotihuacan formed Americas largest urba...
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