Chapter 6 Africa and the Americas

Q: How did Africa’s proximity to Eurasia shape its history? And how did America’s separation from the
Eastern Hemisphere affect its development?

First off in comparison to an African society, the Eurasian societies were much different. This had to do with size of these city-states versus the societies in Africa not having the city-state style civilization. This factor alone made the make up of society just different than those of Eurasia. I always did find it very interesting that humankind is thought to first be found in Africa, but the Empires of Rome, China. Persia, Egypt and others always kind of blanketed anything we heard about Africa. Dating back before the Empire days, we learn in our textbook that Africa indeed actually helped shape Eurasia. Africa was one of the continents that led the charge for the Agricultural Revolution. As discussed before, the Agricultural Revolution was the turning point for societies. This revolution was almost the kick start to building an actual civilization or city. What I found really intriguing was the population location disparity. Africa played a huge role in the Agricultural Revolution, yet they only were home to about 15% of the worlds population at that time, while Europe had about 85% of the population. I actually think this may have not been such a bad thing. As we learn in the chapter, due to Africa's close proximity to Eurasia, domesticated animals were easier to come by than they used to be, and even though geographically Africa may have not had the animals Eurasia had, they were close enough in proximity that Africa was able to make it work. 

America's separation from the Eastern Hemisphere would seem to be a mistake. The agricultural revolution completely changed life for Eurasia and Africa. Since America essentially had zero contact with that side of the world, Americans were simply unaware of what was going on. This makes the achievements of America all the more impressive in my opinion. It is truly amazing that Mesoamerica built its society without the help of animal domestication and iron working technology. It seemed that only in the Andes were domestication of animals. This is where llamas could be offered for food or transport. As someone with Mexican and Italian heritage, it truly gives me great pride to know that my ancestors really helped build the world as we know it today. What I find even more impressive is how the eastern and western hemisphere did things so differently, yet efficiently and effectively. 

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