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
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and seemed to like it. This would eventually start the exchange between villages for resources such as copper, obsidian and flint. The idea of finding other people’s materials like the farmers did, allowed them to improvise upon past inventions and move forward in technological advancements such as warfare and survival. On page 22 Bernstein makes a comment about a native’s idea for having a different method for transporting prey. “...a Stone Age genius, realized the enormous hunting advantage he would gain by being able to glide over the water’s surface, and built the first boat. Once the..prey had been hauled aboard, getting its carcass back to the tribal camp would have been far easier by boat than on land.” This shows us that people were constantly trying to make lives easier for themselves because as we can see from this quote, instead of dragging the hunted prey or carrying it, they would go back to their village or tribe on boat which consumed less of their energy and was less time consuming. This goes back to the central idea of the article which was technical advancements. The boat allowed hunting to be much more efficient as well as allowing people (engineers) to improve upon the idea and leading us to where we are today. On page 24 Bernstein states “ The direct descendant of the earliest cargo ship used maritime trade, a vessel relatively round in shape-and thus slow-so as to accommodate the most weight with the smallest crew and the minimal amount of building material.” As trade expanded, traveling on land became less frequent since it took longer and was more expensive.
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
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currents. On page 29 it states, “...copper was used for barter (along with cattle and grain) throughout the Bronze Age. Several centuries later, around 2000 BC, increasing copper supplies devalued the metal. When silver was discovered it was decided to be used as the new ‘money’ since their wasn't much of it yet. Eventually people globally recognized silver as currency since it was not only reliable but a reasonable way to pay for things as well. 2. In The First Hegemon by Amy Chau, it centralizes around the idea of how the Achaemenid Empire came to existence. It was the first nation in world history to control so much land as well as having a small amount of Persians who able to nearly perfectly govern vast areas that were each filled with thousands of people. The Achaemenid rulers used tolerance which meant they accepted and tried to be fair with the different people’s religions and allowed people to be able to preach their beliefs. Since they used tolerance and appealed to the people they were able to conquer massive parts of the Middle East and parts of Europe for a long period of time. On page 8 it states, “In 550 BC, Cyrus defeated Astyages and took over the Median kingdom and its claims to Assyria, Mesopotamia, Syria, Armenia, and Cappadocia. By 539, Cyprus...conquered both the Lydian kingdom and the formidable neo-Babylonian Kingdom. He was now ruler of the largest empire that had ever existed...Perhaps most striking was Cyrus’s religious tolerance-his legendary willingness to honor the temples, cults, and local gods of the peoples he conquered.” This quote tells us how big the empire was compared to any empire that ever existed. Cyrus had conquered the largest empire to its date. This shows us how the empire started out from a couple of middle eastern regions to an even larger region. It also tells us that Cyrus’s way of controlling land and the tolerance he had for the religions of the people he ruled over, explained why he had so much land as well as control. On page 9 it states, “Entering the city of Babylon with his army, Cyrus prostrated himself before the god Marduk in order to win over the local people. He presented himself as the liberator of the Babylonians, divinely chosen and assisted by their own great deity.” This quote shows us one of the strategies that Cyrus used to seem more appealing or attractive to the people and became their savior. The word liberator in the quote means that he showed himself as the savior of the people and that he was going to free them from the oppression of the god Marduk. On pages 14-15 it states, “...The Persian king upheld and even guaranteed decisions of Egyptian judges...Darius reaped tremendous benefits. Instead of wasting resources destroying conquered populations or trying to “Persianize” them, Darius harnessed their different skills, talents, and resources. In this way, Darius built some of the most splendid imperial capitals the world had ever seen.” This shows just how important tolerance for other religious cultures really was to the success of the Achaemenid empire. Not only did former rulers respect the religions of the people they conquered, Darius took it an extra step and showed us how they really were able to control large populations. On page 18 it states, “...for two centuries the Achaemenid kings successfully ruled over an empire of unprecedented territorial scale, and policies of tolerance made it possible for them….by allowing local languages, religions and rituals to flourish, the Achaemenids minimized the likelihood of opposition and revolt among conquered peoples.” The policies of tolerance helped the Achaemenid Kings control for a vast amount of time and control such large areas all because they appealed to people and not trying to enforce their Persian policies onto them.
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
because in the text it mentions “cheap calories” which means quick calories that don’t provide enough nutrients. On page 3 it states, “...agriculture encouraged people to clump together in crowded societies, many of which then carried on trade with other crowded societies, led to the spread of parasites and infectious disease.” Since small areas were crowded this promoted the idea of agriculture because everyone could work together as well as trade with neighboring villages, and if one person got sick then pretty much everyone will get sick because the area was too small to live in. On page 3 it says “Compared to hunter-gatherers who preceded them, the farmers had a nearly 50 percent increase in enamel defect indicative of malnutrition.” This shows that with not enough nutrients, more increases in defects will occur. On page 2 it says “...the Bushmen’s average daily food intake...was 2,140 calories and 93 grams of protein ” This shows that hunting and gathering was still efficient because their was enough nutrients in their diet to help them stay healthy and alive. On page 4 it says, “Hunter-gatherers have little or no stored food...they live off the wild plants and animals they obtain each day.” This is probably because meat would go bad since there were no refrigerators and freezers like their are today and possibly because food preparation was long.
When the country was founded, the geography was a bigger obstacle than it is today. Before the Industrial Revolution, the primary way to move anything was on water. Rivers and Oceans were the original roads and the fastest and least expensive way to move goods. Most of the population "[was] located either at tidewater or along broad, navigable streams that could not be used to produce much water power" (Nye 44). These geographic features made it possible to move items to areas further away from the coast. Moving things one of the three modes of land transport, "by foot, on a horse, or in a wheeled vehicle" (Cowan 94) were too expensive and difficult with no developed roads. People began to look for ways to make this travel more affordable by creating waterways like the Eire canal to connect places. However, most were unsuccessful and the idea passed. Steam engines also made river travel more feasible. It was not difficult to take a barge full of goods down river; however, it would take months to pole the boat back upriver and usually was not even attempted.
Agriculture plays an enormous part in having a functioning society. The farming fields in the
Jared Diamond Argues that the worst mistake in Human History is the invention and widespread introduction of agriculture, because it has created a plethora of social, economic, and health problems for the word. One example of this is when the article states, “Hunter-Gatherers enjoyed a varied diet, while early farmers obtained most of their food from one or a few starchy crops. The farmers gained cheap calories at the cost of poor nutrition.” This illustrates that the author's main argument is that agriculture was the worst mistake in human history because it shows how agriculture has negatively impacted health of both early farmers and people today by creating mass produced bulk crops that are low in nutrition. Furthermore, another example
The first steamboats were demonstrated in1787. They were used on the river ways to bring cargo, cotton, sugar, and people to their destinations. The steamboat played a major part in the population growth. The steamboats were usually made of wood and were all kinds of sizes. They looked like giant floating houses with large smokestacks and paddlewheels. They were used for carrying people and supplies up and down the river.
Our nation was founded on agriculture, and for hundreds of years we were able to migrate across the nation bringing our farming tools and techniques with us. Technology has driven populations away from rural areas towards industrialized cities. With money now being pumped into cities, rural farmers are suffering the most. Farmers are taking out large loans in order to sustain their farms, leading to debt and in some cases suicide. Patel spoke about a farmer in India whose husband took his life because he was unable to live with the amount of debt from his struggling farm. This man left his wife and chi...
For example, one of the students that Widdicombe spoke to said that before they ate Soylent, “there [were] weeks when [they]’ve eaten nothing but cheesy pasta.” Synthetic foods are a great solution to malnourishment, as they are pure, cheap nutrition with no empty calories. As Rhinehart claims, “agriculture’s one of the most dangerous and dirty jobs out there, and it’s traditionally done by the underclass. There’s so much walking and manual labor, counting and measuring.
Roads, steamboats, canals, and railroads lowered the cost and shortened the time of travel. By making these improvements, products could be shipped into other areas for profit (Roark, 260). Steamboats set off a huge industry and by 1830, more than 700 steamboats were operating up and down the Ohio and Mississippi River (Roark, 261). Steamboats also had some flaws, due to the fact of deforesting the paths along the rivers. Wood was needed to refuel the power to the boat.
With distant but profitable markets now attainable, farmers and manufactures now produced for the market rather than for their own personal consumption. Farmers, craftsmen, and entrepreneurs were brought considerable opportunities because of the Market Revolution. The construction of new roads and canals allowed people to exchange goods in distant markets with complete strangers. Railroads allowed people and goods to move faster and cheaper. The steamboat, which was invented by Robert Fulton in 1807, made it possible for two-way traffic to move swiftly on the nations new waterways. With the steamboat, this made it easier for farmers in the South to easily transport cotton, rice and sugar...
Travel by land and water was both tedious and expensive. Transporting one ton of goods across states would cost around 100 dollars or 1,265 dollars in today’s money. In the 1790s, land routes connecting the east coast and the farther western regions of the United States were undeveloped. Along with this, when weather conditions were poor land routes could not support any sort of dependable shipping by wagon, or even travel by horseback. Natural waterways provided the most dependable method of transport west of Albany. Even travel by waterway in this time period was inconvenient because these water routes were unreliable due to shallow water and raging rapids.
The troops relied heavily upon the horses and mules for transportation of men and equipment. Draft horses pulled the ambulances to aid wounded men and wagons which contained the soldiers’ supplies, personal baggage, and medical supplies. The horses were able to transport the artillery such as cannons quickly. The horse provided a swift transport from battle to battle. One example is when Union Major General Phillip H. Sheridan rode 22 miles from Winchester to Cedar Creek on his horse Rienzi to fight in the Battle of Cedar Creek in a single day.
Agriculture has been around for hundreds of years. With its negative effects on humanity, agriculture has greatly affected the environment. Many archeologists believe that adoption of Agriculture was not an improvement but a disaster for humans in many ways. Jared Diamond, the author of the article called “The worst mistake in the history of the human race” argues that hunter-gatherers were better off than the farmers. In a way agriculture is believed to cause many problems for humans such as sexual inequality, deep class division, changed their diet which later led to poor health and diseases.
Agriculture is the science and practice of producing crops and livestock. The primary aim of agriculture is to use the land to produce more abundantly to feed and clothe the world at the same time protecting it from deterioration or misuse. Humans had to improve agriculture as they became more dependent on food, creating a solitary evolutionary connection between plants and animals (Campbell and Reece, 2001). In this day and age, so many people have forgotten the authentic premises of survival. It is easy for some to believe that the grocery stores produce food and clothing is produced by shopping centers. These inaccurate presumptions are being made due to the lack of knowledge of how agriculture truly works. There are also significant differences in the levels of understanding between rural and urban communities.
...on the move and food was no longer an issue. Populations grew and the excess of food kept growing. The remaining of food is the most important factor of all. At first the people would barter the things they made for the things they need. Populations continued to grow and so did there conclusion.
Savita and I chose to do “The Exchange” as our two-person scene. The scene is about a customer who wants to return her coffeemaker (me) and the lazy employee who’s making her life hard (Savita). Our actions were carefully planned. We figured it would be really boring as an audience member to watch two people just stand and talk to each other so hand movements were a must. Most notably for me would be when I stepped back and looked at the “sign” (we can only make so many props) and asked if this was the exchange department as well as when I slammed my hands down and leaned over the table during the rant where I threatened to murder Savita if I didn’t get help soon.
So overall, Agriculture is playing a very important role in changing the lifestyle of different people. Agriculture might have made everything easy for us but it still has its cons. We see the effects of agriculture and how it affects the lives of other species and the environment.