World History in a Week: The Big Picture

1. World History in a Week:The Big Picture

2. When did Humans arrive on the scene? • Age of hominids? 5-7 million years • Homo erectus? 2 million years • Homo sapiens? 250,000 years • Neanderthals? 140,000-50,000 y.a. • Separate evolutionary line? First genocide? • Cro-Magnon invasion of Europe? 40,000 y.a. (fully modern anatomy) Australopithecus afarensis Homo erectus

3. Hominid Development?

4. Hunter-Gatherers • Humanity’s only “economic” activity for at least 90% of our existence. • Low population densities (small groups of 40-60; 1 person/ mi2) • Largely egalitarian - every person performs essential functions.

5. Great Leap Forward When? 50,000 years before present Emergence of modern hunter-gatherer “toolbox”: • Fish hooks, Arrows, Bows, Needles, Engravers, Awls • Art • Jewelry (Beads at first) • Navigation/Boating? (Australia from New Guinea) Proposed Causes: • Voice box development / language • Brain organization change Lascaux Caves, France Northern Australia

6. Human Expansion Urbanization and increased efficiency lead to population growth, which leads to need for more space.

7. Human Expansion “Out of Africa” Based on Archaeological and Fossil Evidence Including Homo erectusand Homo neanderthalensis

8. Human Expansion: based on mitochondrial DNA study of Homo sapiens

9. Pleistocene Overkill Hypothesis • Large, slow, or tame animals become extinct shortly after hunter-gatherer arrival in New World, Polynesia, Australia / New Guinea. • Flightless birds, giant cave bear, ground sloth. Giant Extinct Moa, New Zealand Skeleton of Giant Ground Sloth, Los Angeles

10. Agricultural and Industrial Societies Accelerate Extinctions • Flightless birds, whales, otters • U.S. Passenger Pigeon Mauritius, Indian Ocean Dodo Bird discovered in 1598, extinct by 1681. Dodo Bird, Mauritius, Indian Ocean

11. Agricultural Revolution Domestication of Plants and Animals • Seed Agriculture - Fertile Crescent, western India, northern China, Ethiopia, southern Mexico (10,000 b.p.) Rice, wheat, and corn account for more than 50% of world population's food calories and were among the first plants domesticated (along with millet, sorghum wheat, rye, barley).

12. Agricultural Revolution Source: Goudie, Andrew. 2006. Human Impact on the Natural Environment.

13. Agricultural Revolution Domestication of Animals • Dog was probably first. • Early domesticated animals: cattle, oxen, pigs, sheep, goats, guinea pigs, llama • role in agricultural production and success • relationship to success of particular cultures: Indo-European Horsemen

14. Agricultural Revolution Source: Goudie, Andrew. 2006. Human Impact on the Natural Environment.

15. Agricultural Revolution Primary effects: • Urbanization • Social Stratification • Occupational Specialization • Increased population densities Teotihuacan

16. Human Expansion and Ancient Empires Urbanization and increased efficiency lead to population growth and increased density, which leads to need for more space. Ancient Examples: • Aztecs, Maya • Chinese Warlords / Dynasties • Polynesians • Roman Empire • Muslim / Ottoman Empire Human and environmental costs are inevitable.

17. The Roman Empire, 27 B.C. to 476 C.E. Economic basis: farming of wheat, olives, & grapes, mining, fishing, raiding, and tradingLasting influences: language, architecture, engineering, law, politics, values (duty, piety, justice, gravitas, brutality), spread of Christianity after 313 AD.

18. The Decline of the Roman Empire (400-500 AD) Germanic mercenaries revolt and others invade Roman Empire. Lasting Influences / Geographic Effects?

19. The “Middle Ages” or “Dark Ages” • Feudalism • Roman Catholic Christianity Dominant in Europe • The Spanish Inquisition (1478) Jews and Muslims Expelled/Tortured The Crusades (1095 – 1272) Franks and Holy Roman Empire attempt to retake Jerusalem from Muslims.

20. Chinese Dynasties (1500 BC – 1912 CE) Ming Dynasty - The Forbidden City (1420) Economic basis: farming of wheat in north, rice in south, trade in silk Lasting influences: language, architecture, food, Confucian values (honor, duty to family and state, education of bureaucrats), spread of Buddhism, invention of gunpowder, gun, and compass

21. Niger-Congo (Bantu) Diffusion • proto-Bantu peoples originated in Cameroon-Nigeria • They spread throughout southern Africa 1 – 1000 CE • Bantu peoples were agriculturalists who used metal tools • 19th Century Zulu Kingdom was part of final Bantu expansion Economic basis: farming of bananas and, later, millet and sorghum Lasting influences: Niger-Congo language, How Africa Became “Black”, spread of farming

22. Muhammad and the Rise of Islam

23. Islamic World circa A.D. 1500 Lasting Influences / Geographic Effects?Slave trade, Trade Routes, Spread of Islam, Growth of Cities, Mathematics, Engineering (e.g., waterwheel)

24. Islamic World circa A.D. 1500 Lasting Influences / Geographic Effects?Slave trade, Trade Routes, Spread of Islam, Growth of Cities, Early Islam:Mathematics, Engineering (e.g., waterwheel) Lasting Influences / Geographic Effects?

25. Ottoman Empire (1299-1923) • One of the longest lasting empires in history • Islam, Jihad and state power intertwined in one man, the Sultan, as “protector of Islam” • State-run education, law, and judicial system Lasting influences: Armenian Genocide (1915) one of first modern, systematic genocides, Islamic architecture, Turkic language, food

26. The Mongol Empire, 1260 Economic basis: shepherding goats & sheep, horse-based raiding and tradingLasting influences: religious tolerance, reestablished trade routes like Silk Road, horse-based warfare, diplomatic immunity, free trade, and paper currency

27. Age of European Discovery, Exploration, and Colonization 1492 - 1771: • Bartholomew Dias (Portugal), 1488 - rounds Cape of Good Hope • Columbus, 1492 (Spanish/Italian) - first of four voyages to “New World” • Vasco De Gama (Portugal), 1498 - reaches India • Magellan (Portugal), 1519 - First Circumnavigation • James Cook (England), 1768-1771 - voyages in Pacific / Polynesia; end of era of Discovery The geographical knowledge acquired was crucial to the expansion of European political and economic power in the 16th Century.

28. The Spanish Empire, 1770 Economic basis: naval technology, resource extraction, religionLasting influences: language, law, Roman Catholicism, land distribution in Latin America

29. Lasting Influences / Geographic Effects?

30. The British Empire, 1920 Lasting Influences / Geographic Effects?

31. Industrial Revolution 1733, First Cotton Mill opens in England 1793, Eli Whitney invents cotton ‘gin 1800, steam engines become common (steamboats, locomotives) 1837, Morse and two Brits, independent of Morse ) invent telegraph 1877, Bell invents telephone 1878, Thomas Edison patents incandescent light bulb 1908, Henry Ford delivers first Model T 1913, Wright Brothers first flight Lasting Influences / Geographic Effects?

32. Global Communications and Transportation Revolution Technology: • Containerization of Cargo (1950s) • Nuclear Energy (Fission) • Television (1950s) • Inexpensive International Air Transport (1960s - present) • Internet and earlier Arpanet (1960s) • Personal Computer (1980s) • Satellite Communications (1990s) Lasting Influences / Geographic Effects?

33. Today’s Technological Revolution What emerging technologies will change the world? Which parts of the world stand poised to capitalize on them? : • Nanotechnology • Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology • Artificial Intelligence • Robotics and micro-robotics Lasting Influences / Geographic Effects?

34. Human Population Growth World Population Clock

35. Human Impact on the Planet, 2002 Red represents roads, power lines, major landscape change (e.g. agriculture), pipelines, and urbanized areas.Source: UNEP, 2002

36. Globalization Nearly everything moves farther and more quickly today: Innovations, Diseases, People, Ideologies, Financial Crises, Information.

37. Transnational Corporations • These companies conduct business in many countries, moving products and capital rapidly across national borders.

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