Evolution/Geography

Question 1

What are two environmental factors that caused different societies to evolve at different rates?

Answer 1

The most consequential factor was geographic location, which influenced:

1. Availability of plants/animals for domestication/food production
2. Isolation/Proximity to other societies (diffusion of technology/innovation)

Question 2

Brief history of human evolution

Answer 2

7M: First origin
1.7M: Homo erectus
500K: Homo heidelbergensis
- hai·duhl·br·guhn·suhs
100K: Neanderthals
50K: Homo sapiens

Question 3

Why did some societies adopt farming and others didn’t?

Answer 3

A mix of environmental, geographic, and cultural factors.

Geographic location and continent orientation influenced the number of domesticable plants and animals and spread of agriculture

Question 4

What are 5 driving factors in enabling a society to expand/conquer others?

Answer 4

• Political organization
• Military technology
• Diseases (& antibodies)
• Maritime technology
• Writing (directions/maps)

Question 5

What was the first area to adopt farming?

Answer 5

Fertile Crescent (Jordan/Syria/Iraq) in 7000 BC.
- This Mediterranean climate had the largest and most variable climate, which caused greater evolution and diversity of plants
- It also produced animals that enabled a balanced diet: pigs, sheep, cows, goats

Question 6

How did medicine contribute to the pace of innovation for society?

Answer 6

Modern medicine increased life expectancy, which would have given people more security/patience to embark on journeys with delayed payoffs

Question 7

What 5 economic/societal factors play into the pace of innovation for a country?

Answer 7

1. Modern capitalism (reward for investors)
2. Patent & property laws (US x= China)
3. Individualism vs family culture
4. Technical training
5. Availability of cheap labour

Question 8

How important was sedentary living to innovation?

Answer 8

Sedentary living (enabled by domestic food production) allowed people to accumulate more possessions and build public infrastructure projects (irrigation)

Question 9

What we’re the four main factors that drove hunter-gatherer societies to evolve?

Answer 9

1. Sedentary living
2. Food production (enabling specialization)
3. Diffusion of technology (spread of inventions on a continent)
4. Society/population density (more people = more inventions)

Question 10

Which came first: food production, population growth, or complex societies?

Answer 10

They stimulate each other (they are autocatalytic)

Population growth leads to societal complexity, which leads to intensified food production, which leads to population growth

Question 11

What are three ways complex societies stimulate food production

Answer 11

• Organizing labor to build public infrastructure (I.e building irrigation systems)
• Long distance trade (importing metals to make better agricultural tools)
• Creating synergies between economic specialists (farmers feed ranchers livestock, livestock used for plowing farmers fields)

Question 12

What are three ways intensive food production stimulated the development of complex societies?

Answer 12

• Food surpluses permits economic specialization (bureaucrats & craftsmen)
• Food production necessitates sedentary living (required for accumulating possessions and developing public works)
• Excess labor after harvest can be used to build public works (pyramids, irrigation)

Question 13

What were the events and pressures that lead up to the unification of Germany (1871)?

Answer 13

Three early attempts (Frankfurt Parliament of 1848, restored German confederation of 1850, and the North German Confederation of 1866) failed due to disagreements on power distribution and territory.

France declaring war in 1870 was the catalyst that led to the central imperial German government of 1871 (w/ many individuals surrendering much of their power)

Question 14

What are the main two ways states grow and consolidate territory/power?

Answer 14

• Merger by threat of external force
• Merger by conquest

Question 15

Why do larger population sizes necessitate the centralized authority of complex societies?

Answer 15

Central authorities enable:

1. Conflict resolution between strangers
2. Efficient decision making (communal decisions don’t work at scale)
3. Redistribution of resources (direct trades between individuals becomes inefficient. Excess goods produced by one are transferred to individuals w/ deficits)