Fertile Crescent Research Paper
The Fertile Crescent
The Fertile Crescent was the first area to develop agriculture. It was the first to harness the power of agriculture because of geographic luck. Geographic luck is the fact that where a civilization was on the earth relates to how well the civilization did in becoming a supreme power on the earth. If the civilization was started near a place heavy with crops highly nutritious, then it did well. If it did not have nutritious crops, then it did not do as well as some other civilizations. Geography also related to what animals they domesticated. In Jared Diamond’s book, he describes the fact that a civilization’s power originates from the fact that it had writing, guns, germs, and/or steel. The fact that civilizations had these things all depended on their being geographically lucky. Although the Fertile Crescent was the first to develop …show more content…
agriculture and developed guns, germs, and steel they still couldn’t compare to the power of Europeans in the 17th century. This paper shows how the Fertile Crescent was geographically lucky and how they developed guns, germs, and steel. It will also show how middle-eastern civilizations lost their jumpstart onto the path to being the largest power in the world. The Fertile Crescent is an area between the Mediterranean Sea, the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf. The climate in the Fertile Crescent is mostly dry, but is near bodies of water. The Fertile Crescent is also near a lot of mountainous regions. That is where the crops of wheat first started to show up. The Fertile Crescent was blessed with many wild wheat plants, which thrived in this climate. The geography of the Fertile Crescent led to many advantages for them. The climate was perfect for growing wheat and the animals around them they were able to domesticate were sheep, goats, and cattle. Cattle were the most advantageous animals ever domesticated; every part of it can be used. The Fertile Crescent had one important independently domesticated crop. Wheat is the most cultivated crop in the world. There are many reasons why wheat became the first domesticated crop in the Fertile Crescent. First of all, wheat is highly nutritious and is very easy to grow in a temperate climatic zone. Wheat is the most successful crop because it can be stored for long periods of time. As soon as the climate started to get warmer, wheat started growing in the mountains.
With the decrease of animals from the Ice Age still affecting them, the people native to the Fertile Crescent started to rely on the crops growing around them. With the native people relying on the crops, more and more permanent settlements would start to show up. With the permanent settlements, the villages could have lots of food storage because in the Fertile Crescent, they mostly grew wheat and it’s a very easy to store crop. With a storable crop, like wheat, many food surpluses would accumulate. With a lot of food surpluses you can have a larger population, because with hunting and gathering, only a small population could be supported. With so many food surpluses you can develop both parts needed to have what all great civilizations had in common, a large population and advanced technology. Civilizations can develop advanced technology by having specific people who only concentrate on doing that also known as specialists. The specialists needed the food surpluses to feed them. Wheat supplied these food
surpluses. The specialists would then go to develop the technologies needed to protect these food surpluses – guns and steel. Without the food surpluses the specialists would need to gather their own food, so they wouldn’t have the time to develop the advanced technologies. That’s why the hunter-gatherer communities never developed the advanced technologies that the agriculturist communities did. The hunter-gatherers also never developed germs either. They never did because they never were living closely to their animals that they domesticated. Diseases spreading from the animals to the humans is called zoonosis. The also weren’t sedentary because they always followed their own food so dumps never accumulated. Therefore, the sewage never seeped into their water supply, which would start the epidemics. The hunter-gatherers never developed immunities to the epidemics because they never had any. With specialists developing these new advanced technologies, the Fertile Crescent can now become one of the prominent places of the world. With all these developments that the society is making, they will later go on to develop guns, germs and steel. The peoples of the Fertile Crescent domesticated sheep, goats, and cattle. Sheep were a very useful animal because they could mature so quickly and could breed at one and a half years old. They can provide a lot of thick versatile wool, however, they can’t sustain loads or pull machines. Sheep are also very timid and easily picked off by predators. Another animal domesticated was the goat. Goats were primarily used for their milk, cheese or any other by-products. Goats can produce enough milk to supply a family for a year. Goats can be not as reliable in a temperate zone, but in harsher, rougher climates in the bitter cold the goats can out-produce cattle. Some breeds of goats are used mainly for their fur, instead of their milk or cheese. The third and final animal domesticated is the cattle. Although cattle were not the first large animals domesticated by people in the Fertile Crescent, they definitely packed the biggest punch. Cattle can be used for the most things out of all other animals on the planet. They can be killed for their meat, having many of the needed nutrients and their skin gives leather for clothes, shoes or for shelter. When cows are alive they can produce milk used for cream, butter, cheese and yogurt. They can sustain a heavy load by pulling plows or carts. They also provide tons of fertilizer for the plants. There were only fourteen domesticated animals in all of history, mostly because there were only fourteen different animals that fulfilled all four necessary requirements to be able to be domesticated. These crops ad animals were the necessary ingredients for producing guns, germs, and steel. With these animals domesticated, there would be many epidemics spreading from the animals to the humans by zoonosis. The epidemics would wipe out many people, spreading quickly and efficiently. Those who had immunity to this disease would survive, recover completely, and pass that trait on to their children. When the people from Eurasia went to other communities and the people of that community had not developed immunity to the disease because they never faced and epidemic, the people would be wiped out. Writing was developed in the Fertile Crescent mostly because of the fact that there was a need for writing and the specialists had to make such a written language because they didn’t have to worry about gathering their own food. The need for writing was that they needed to account for the food surpluses and trade, requiring food surpluses to begin with. Early forms of writing were used to control the public where only the leaders could read. You also have to be geographically near a place that has writing to get the idea of it. All of the isolated communities get the writing later on than others or never at all. But why did Europe become the powerhouse of the 16th and 17th centuries? The agriculturists of the Fertile Crescent started to overwork the land, not giving it time to replenish its resources. Therefore, the farmlands use was depleted thus deeming it un-farmable anymore. So the inhabitants of the Fertile Crescent were forced to migrate east or west, staying at the same latitude to keep the same weather.
The Fertile Crescent was the first area to develop agriculture. It was the first to harness the power of agriculture because of geographic luck. Geographic luck is the fact that where a civilization was on the earth relates to how well the civilization did in becoming a supreme power on the earth. If the civilization was started near a place heavy with crops highly nutritious, then it did well. If it did not have nutritious crops, then it did not do as well as some other civilizations. Geography also related to what animals they domesticated. In Jared Diamond’s book, he describes the fact that a civilization’s power originates from the fact that it had writing, guns, germs, and/or steel. The fact that civilizations had these things all depended on their being geographically lucky. Although the Fertile Crescent was the first to develop …show more content…
agriculture and developed guns, germs, and steel they still couldn’t compare to the power of Europeans in the 17th century. This paper shows how the Fertile Crescent was geographically lucky and how they developed guns, germs, and steel. It will also show how middle-eastern civilizations lost their jumpstart onto the path to being the largest power in the world. The Fertile Crescent is an area between the Mediterranean Sea, the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf. The climate in the Fertile Crescent is mostly dry, but is near bodies of water. The Fertile Crescent is also near a lot of mountainous regions. That is where the crops of wheat first started to show up. The Fertile Crescent was blessed with many wild wheat plants, which thrived in this climate. The geography of the Fertile Crescent led to many advantages for them. The climate was perfect for growing wheat and the animals around them they were able to domesticate were sheep, goats, and cattle. Cattle were the most advantageous animals ever domesticated; every part of it can be used. The Fertile Crescent had one important independently domesticated crop. Wheat is the most cultivated crop in the world. There are many reasons why wheat became the first domesticated crop in the Fertile Crescent. First of all, wheat is highly nutritious and is very easy to grow in a temperate climatic zone. Wheat is the most successful crop because it can be stored for long periods of time. As soon as the climate started to get warmer, wheat started growing in the mountains.
With the decrease of animals from the Ice Age still affecting them, the people native to the Fertile Crescent started to rely on the crops growing around them. With the native people relying on the crops, more and more permanent settlements would start to show up. With the permanent settlements, the villages could have lots of food storage because in the Fertile Crescent, they mostly grew wheat and it’s a very easy to store crop. With a storable crop, like wheat, many food surpluses would accumulate. With a lot of food surpluses you can have a larger population, because with hunting and gathering, only a small population could be supported. With so many food surpluses you can develop both parts needed to have what all great civilizations had in common, a large population and advanced technology. Civilizations can develop advanced technology by having specific people who only concentrate on doing that also known as specialists. The specialists needed the food surpluses to feed them. Wheat supplied these food
surpluses. The specialists would then go to develop the technologies needed to protect these food surpluses – guns and steel. Without the food surpluses the specialists would need to gather their own food, so they wouldn’t have the time to develop the advanced technologies. That’s why the hunter-gatherer communities never developed the advanced technologies that the agriculturist communities did. The hunter-gatherers also never developed germs either. They never did because they never were living closely to their animals that they domesticated. Diseases spreading from the animals to the humans is called zoonosis. The also weren’t sedentary because they always followed their own food so dumps never accumulated. Therefore, the sewage never seeped into their water supply, which would start the epidemics. The hunter-gatherers never developed immunities to the epidemics because they never had any. With specialists developing these new advanced technologies, the Fertile Crescent can now become one of the prominent places of the world. With all these developments that the society is making, they will later go on to develop guns, germs and steel. The peoples of the Fertile Crescent domesticated sheep, goats, and cattle. Sheep were a very useful animal because they could mature so quickly and could breed at one and a half years old. They can provide a lot of thick versatile wool, however, they can’t sustain loads or pull machines. Sheep are also very timid and easily picked off by predators. Another animal domesticated was the goat. Goats were primarily used for their milk, cheese or any other by-products. Goats can produce enough milk to supply a family for a year. Goats can be not as reliable in a temperate zone, but in harsher, rougher climates in the bitter cold the goats can out-produce cattle. Some breeds of goats are used mainly for their fur, instead of their milk or cheese. The third and final animal domesticated is the cattle. Although cattle were not the first large animals domesticated by people in the Fertile Crescent, they definitely packed the biggest punch. Cattle can be used for the most things out of all other animals on the planet. They can be killed for their meat, having many of the needed nutrients and their skin gives leather for clothes, shoes or for shelter. When cows are alive they can produce milk used for cream, butter, cheese and yogurt. They can sustain a heavy load by pulling plows or carts. They also provide tons of fertilizer for the plants. There were only fourteen domesticated animals in all of history, mostly because there were only fourteen different animals that fulfilled all four necessary requirements to be able to be domesticated. These crops ad animals were the necessary ingredients for producing guns, germs, and steel. With these animals domesticated, there would be many epidemics spreading from the animals to the humans by zoonosis. The epidemics would wipe out many people, spreading quickly and efficiently. Those who had immunity to this disease would survive, recover completely, and pass that trait on to their children. When the people from Eurasia went to other communities and the people of that community had not developed immunity to the disease because they never faced and epidemic, the people would be wiped out. Writing was developed in the Fertile Crescent mostly because of the fact that there was a need for writing and the specialists had to make such a written language because they didn’t have to worry about gathering their own food. The need for writing was that they needed to account for the food surpluses and trade, requiring food surpluses to begin with. Early forms of writing were used to control the public where only the leaders could read. You also have to be geographically near a place that has writing to get the idea of it. All of the isolated communities get the writing later on than others or never at all. But why did Europe become the powerhouse of the 16th and 17th centuries? The agriculturists of the Fertile Crescent started to overwork the land, not giving it time to replenish its resources. Therefore, the farmlands use was depleted thus deeming it un-farmable anymore. So the inhabitants of the Fertile Crescent were forced to migrate east or west, staying at the same latitude to keep the same weather.