A Splendid Exchange Summary

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1.
In A Splendid Exchange by William Bernstein it elaborates the idea of expanding world trade. Farmers also had ideas that eventually lead to many technological advancements such as different types of boats, weapons, currency and wagons. All of these ideas still exist today but have been improved upon for thousands of years.

On page 20 Bernstein talks about how the herders attacked a small village of Sumerian farmers and explains what happened after the attack was over. “..the surviving farmers examined the headgear from the fallen herders. These helmets contained a sheet, one-eighth inch thick, of a wondrous new orange material fitted over a leather head cover.” This tells us that after a raid, the surviving farmers examined the new materials …show more content…

Traveling by boat was cheaper minimal resources were wasted on making the earliest cargo ships. The creations of boats and early cargo ships made natives travel to distant places more frequently than on land. Sea trade also made trading easier and expanding territory. If boats weren’t invented, different parts of the world wouldn’t have the different resources they have now and possibly wouldn’t even know they existed like the Americas.

On page 24 it also states “A draft horse can carry about two hundred pounds on its back...help of a wagon and a good road, it can pull four thousand pounds. With the same energy expenditure, the same animal can draw as many as sixty thousand pounds along a canal towpath…” From this evidence you can see water travel made traveling much easier because more weight could be pulled at once and more resources could be traded since the horse would be able to pull more. The one thing we don’t know is how long it would take and if the river had any …show more content…

This refers to the main idea of the article because tolerance played a key role in the Achaemenids rise to power and glory which created one of the biggest empires in its era.

3.
In The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race by Jared Diamond elaborates that agriculture resulted into a poorer quality of living among modern humans. He says that agriculture paved a road of health issues and famine since it didn't provide enough nutrients in their diet. Humans didn’t want to depart from hunting and gathering since it was a still good way of living but there was one downside; no stored food.

On page 3 it says “Farmers gained cheap calories at the cost of poor nutrition, (today just three high-carbohydrate plants--wheat, rice, corn -- provide the bulk of the calories consumed by human species, yet each one is deficient in certain vitamins or amino acids essential to life.)” This shows how farmers were desperate to stay alive

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