Crash Course World History

Introduction

• Instructor: John Green
• Duration: 40 weeks
• Focus: How humans evolved from hunters and gatherers to modern times

Testing Life Skills

• The "test" is about being an informed, engaged, and productive global citizen
• Testing occurs in many life scenarios: schools, bars, hospitals, job interviews, etc.
• Important skills include:
  • Thinking beyond celebrity gossip
  • Resisting empty political rhetoric
  • Understanding life and community in a broader context

Human Progress in 15,000 Years

• From hunting and gathering to modern inventions like airplanes, the Internet, and fast food

Case Study: The Double Cheeseburger

• Symbolizes modern food complexity
• Requirements:
  • Feeding, raising, and slaughtering cows
  • Growing and processing wheat
  • Milking cows and making cheese
  • Growing and pickling cucumbers, sweetening tomatoes, and grinding mustard seeds
• Questions raised:
  • How did we create such a food system?
  • Is it good or bad to live in this world of abundance?

Early Human Life

• 15,000 years ago: Humans were foragers and hunters
• Foraging: Gathering fruits, nuts, grains
• Hunting: Provided protein; Best hunting: Fishing (abundant and safer)
• Foragers' life: Healthier, more leisure time
• Contemporary foragers: More time for art, music, storytelling, leisure

Rise of Agriculture

• Independently arose in several regions (Africa, China, Americas)
• Key crops by region: rice, maize, potatoes, wheat, yams
• Shift from foraging to agriculture

Advantages and Disadvantages of Agriculture

Advantages

• Controllable food supply
• Potential for surplus food, enabling cities and specialized labor
  • Allows for non-food related trades and technological advancements
• Global practice with environmental manipulation (irrigation, terracing)

Disadvantages

• Environmental changes to grow more food
• Hard labor and social hierarchies (e.g., slavery)

Herding as an Alternative

• Benefits: Meat, milk, wool, leather
• Nomadic lifestyle (harder for building cities)
• Limited to animals suitable for domestication (mostly not native to the Americas)
• Notable animals: sheep, goats, cattle, pigs, horses, camels, donkeys, reindeer

Domestication Challenges

• Animals like hippos, zebras, grizzlies, elephants are unsuitable for domestication
• Elephants' long gestation period limits population growth

Theories on Agriculture's Emergence

• Population pressure or abundance
• Experiments with domestication
• Possibly for more alcohol
• Darwin's accidental discovery theory
• Desire for increased food

Early Domestication Examples

• 13,000 years ago: Prehistoric Greeks domesticated snails
• Snails: Caloric, easy to transport, and contain

Impact of Agriculture

• Enables complex civilizations, but also patriarchy, inequality, war, famine
• Environmental impact: Deforestation, dams, oil drilling
• Irreversible: Revolution as a process, not an event

Conclusion

• History shows our decisions shape future worlds
• Importance of studying history to understand these processes

Next Week

• Topic: Indus River Valley

Closing

• Show credits
• Engage in comments for questions and suggestions