Agriculture
Agriculture Revolution
Factors
Originate
Agriculture was developed around
10,000 years ago in multiple places.
(Before agricultural revolution: hunting and gathering food)
it began before recorded history
Hearths
When human beings first domesticated plants and animals
No longer relied entirely on hunting and gathering
Environmental factors
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Southwest Asia: earliest crops domesticated (10,000 years ago): Early crop & livestock domestication.
Southwest Asia --> west to Europe & east to Central Asia.
East Asia: 10,000 years ago:
Rice (Yangtze River in eastern China).
Millet (the Yellow River).
Central and South Asia:
Chickens (4,000 years ago).
Horse (Central Asia).
domesticated horse -- the Indo-European language).
Sub-Saharan Africa:
Sorghum (central Africa around 8,000 years ago).
Yams (Before 8,000 years ago)
Millet and rice (independently of the hearth in East Asia).
central Africa --> further south in Africa.
Latin America: around 4,000 to 5,000 years ago (in Mexico and Peru).
Mexico: beans and cotton
Peru: potato.
maize (corn): emerged independently around the same time.
--> northward into North America
--> southward into tropical South America.
Some researchers place the origin of squash in the southeastern portion of present-day United States.
- Neolithic Revolution: The first use of agriculture. Hunter/gatherers discovered areas & settled & started farming
- Agricultural revolution in Europe and United States (during eighteen hundreds):
technological advancement & large farms.
the United States: much of the West: climate (dry) and agriculture (livestock ranching)
drylands V.S. tropics within developing countries
drylands of developing V.S. developed countries.
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northeastern China: intensive subsistence agriculture with wet rice not dominant (cold mid-latitude climate).
southeastern China: intensive subsistence agriculture with wet-rice dominant (warm mid-latitude climate).
shifting cultivation: sub-Saharan Africa (tropical climate).
pastoral nomadism: Southwest Asia & North Africa (dry climate).
subsistence regions:
pastoral nomadism --> drylands,
shifting cultivation --> tropical forests
intensive subsistence --> regions with high population concentrations.
commercial regions:
most common: mixed crop and livestock
other: Dairy, commercial gardening, grain, Mediterranean, and livestock ranching
- green revolution (in 1940 and 1950):
genetically modified high yield seed,
fertilizer, pesticides, and more advanced Machinery