2. Why is agriculture necessary to the development of civilization?

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The reason that we have permanent civilizations, is because of agriculture. With the development of agriculture, communities did not have to follow the herds in order to have food to eat. Now that there were permanent civilizations, there needed to be permanent homes for residents, so permanent homes were built. To produce the mass amounts of food, the farmers needed extra help, which led them to domesticate animals. The final issue of these civilizations were the lack of water in certain areas. This dilemma was then solved by irrigation canals, and used in many different communities. As more and more permanent civilizations began to develop, so did trade routes. Through these trade routes, residents had access to new, beautiful, and expensive products, such as copper and colored cloth. Finally social classes were developed. Those who owned expensive things (colored cloth) were part of the upper class, and those who opened less expensive goods (regular tan cloth) were part of the lower class. Agriculture had a profound effect on civilizations, causing them to become permanent, and the development of social classes, trade routes, and irrigation canals.

Photo: https://www.pexels.com/photo/nature-field-summer-agriculture-621/

external source: https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/big-history-project/agriculture-civilization

manual page 73-76

Sarah Hill