Agricultural Revolution
Driving Question: How did humans begin farming?
About 12,000 years ago, farming led to a revolution in how people ate, lived, and worked. People began to settle down and create cities, large societies, and eventually empires. But were all these changes positive?
Learning Objectives:
- Define agriculture and describe where it emerged.
- Investigate how farming modified the environment.
- Describe how farming changed human societies.
- Explain how geography impacted agriculture and the growth of early societies.
Vocab Terms:
- agriculture
- city
- domestication
- hierarchy
- pastoralist
- society
- surplus
When you hear the word revolution, you might think of battles to overthrow governments. The Agricultural Revolution wasn’t about political change, but it did lead to some big transformations.
Do you teach students in a city far away from farms? Introduce students to farming life by having them create seed packets for different crops with information about how they were cultivated and used. Check out student examples in this discussion.
In comic books, the hero’s power is sometimes shown when they throw lightning or create earthquakes. But in history, the quiet act of planting a seed helped make humans the most powerful lifeform this planet has ever seen.
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Guiding Questions
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Before you watch
Preview the questions below, and then review the transcript.
While you watch
Look for answers to these questions:
- Where did farming start?
- How did overpopulation lead to farming?
- How did climate change lead to farming?
- What does sedentary mean?
- Why did sedentary people like the Natufians begin farming?
After you watch
Respond to this question: How do you think farming techniques spread across the world?
By the time you’ve finished the next article and activity, you’ll know a lot more about the pros and cons of the early transition to farming.
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Guiding Questions
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Before you read
Preview the questions below, and then skim the article. Be sure to look at the section headings and any images.
While you read
Look for answers to these questions:
- Why is the transition from foraging to farming called a revolution?
- Where were the first cities located?
- What were some advantages of farming and cities?
- What were some disadvantages of farming and cities?
- What were some of the common characteristics of early agrarian cities?
After you read
Respond to this question: Would you rather be a forager, a farmer, or someone who specialized in a different job in one of the first cities? Explain your reasoning.
This activity aligns with Standard 4 (the physical and human characteristics of places) and Standard 5 (people create regions to interpret Earth’s complexity) of the National Geography Standards (NGS). For more information about how Big History materials align with NGS standards, check out this standards alignment and placement resource.
Every animal, including humans, is a part of its environment. Explore how geographical features influenced how and where agriculture developed.
Help students evaluate the evidence and respond to the claim by providing sentence starters. You can even post these around the classroom to help students throughout the year. Some examples are:
- This evidence helps support the claim because …
- For instance …
- In contrast to …
- Rather …
- As a result of …
- Finally …
Did farming lead to new complexity? Was the creation of civilizations positive? Were all farming societies the same? Find the evidence to make some claims!
The transition to farming revolutionized the way humans lived. In some ways, we’re still impacted by these changes. Fun fact: Many of the same plants and animals that were first domesticated over 10,000 years ago are still being grown and used by us today.
Key Ideas
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Guiding Questions
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Before you listen
Preview the questions below, and then review the transcript.
While you listen
Look for answers to these questions:
- About how long did it take for humans to domesticate plants?
- Why does Peter Bellwood characterize the people living in places where farming began as “lucky”?
- What were some of the earliest crops and animals that were domesticated?
- Why didn’t early humans begin farming around 120,000 years ago?
- Why didn’t farming begin everywhere after the last ice age?
After you listen
Respond to this question: Why do you think that the plants and animals that were domesticated c. 10,000 years ago continue to be the ones that are grown and used today?