Topic 2: Resources in History and Culture

Question 1

what was some of the most important prehistoric resources?

Answer 1

• salt!
• clean water
• food, plants, animals.

Question 2

what were the first natural resources used in trade?

Answer 2

• basic stone tools, from flint, obsidian, slate, etc.

Question 3

once the neolithic agriculturist time period came, the natural resources people wanted included…

Answer 3

• complex stone tools and pottery
• domestic animals
• timber to make buildings
• cereal crops
• polished stones as prestige items
• copper, gold, and some silver starts being traded for prestige items

Question 4

What is bronze? why did people want it?

Answer 4

• bronze is an alloy of copper and tin
• it was much harder than tin, but not as malleable, so great for sharp tools

Question 5

the major aspect of the bronze age was ….

Answer 5

sophisticated trade networks

Question 6

why did iron replace bronze?

Answer 6

• iron ore was a lot more common in many places.
• to make bronze, you need copper and tin. Tin was not widely available, so iron replaced bronze, even thought it was not as good as bronze.
• didn’t need extensive trading for iron.

Question 7

A by-product of smelting is …

Answer 7

glass

Question 8

Why was imperial rome important in the history of natural resources?

Answer 8

• rome established a nearly global trade
• expansionism fueled by resource requirements of expanding core population - needed more resources for their populations
• more mining, seeking resources.

Question 9

the fall of the roman empire lead to….

Answer 9

• decline in intensive resource exploitation, as there was no organized empire now to exploit resources.

Question 10

the black death in Europe lead to

Answer 10

a decrease in natural resource demand. Lots of land that ceased to be occupied, and a much smaller population with smaller needs.

Question 11

the first attempt since the Romans to categorize minerals, metals, fossils was ….

Answer 11

in the Renaissance (Georg Bauer)

Question 12

Georg Baur, in the Renaissance, categorized….

Answer 12

• the art of mining, refining, and smelting metals
• deep mining methods, crushing and washing ores
• ore geology, refining, smelting, acid extraction

Question 13

The industrial revolution created what?

Answer 13

• organized factories
• major advancements in textiles, mining, steam power, etc.

Question 14

What replaced wood as the primary source of fuel in the industrial revolution in Britain?

Answer 14

• coal replaced wood!
• there was lots of it, so few limitations on what they wanted to make.

Question 15

the introduction of the steam engine allowed

Answer 15

• pumping out of deep mines
• improved coal, iron, copper, tin
  (better ore with deeper mines)

Question 16

in the industrial revolution, what changed to the market price of resources? copper and tin industry?

Answer 16

• market price rather than access controls where resources are sourced
• copper and tin industry collapsed because of the market price! was more expensive to source it locally than from south america.

Question 17

Into the 20th century, what issues did we see with resource expansion?

Answer 17

• such large expansion growth of resources from the industrial revolution, and diverse natural resources are exploited
• resource over-exploitation and exhaustion begin to become problems!!

Question 18

What is the “Tragedy of the Commons”?

Answer 18

• idea thought of in the late 1960’s
• multiple individuals acting independently, are only consulting their own self interest.
• if they all share land, they will ultimately deplete a shared limited resource
• even when its clear that it is not in anyone’s long term interests for this to happen - it will!
• the environmental degradation is shared, and delayed.