The Agricultural Revolution
2. Agricultural Revolution
Warfare did not come about in a very typical manor. The Agricultural Revolution influenced warfare in a few different ways; some argue that it created war. The Agricultural Revolution turned the peaceful hunter and gatherer civilizations into the violence thriving cultures that were encountered. “Organized” violence has also changed a great amount, from little or no conflict at all, to huge large scale wars in which hundreds upon thousands are brutally murdered.
The Agricultural Revolution gave way to bigger and better tools and machinery to help them with crop production. Animal driven plows helped increase efficiency tremendously and agricultural production, along with increased knowledge of crop rotation. This required fewer people to work in the fields, increased the food supply, and allowed a greater division of labor so people were able to specialize in other areas. This huge surplus of food allowed military leaders to increase the size of the military from only a small group to a staggering hundreds of thousands. They could also increase the tax applied to the peasants because they would have more money at their disposal from all the extra crops, and because of the larger military force they required a larger financial budget. This led to larger scaled battles over land and for power. This clearly created war because of larger armies clashing, and the definition from Shifferd’s book, the first line of the first chapter states, “War is any conflict in which over 1,000 people are killed”. From this definition, war has never happened before the revolution because there were never enough people in one area for this to occur, but after the Agricultural Revolution, this is a different story.
Societies before the revolution differed from those after it, mainly because they were hunters and gatherers, and moved around quite frequently. Of course, there are exceptions, such as the Natufian society, where modern day Israel is, but for the
Warfare did not come about in a very typical manor. The Agricultural Revolution influenced warfare in a few different ways; some argue that it created war. The Agricultural Revolution turned the peaceful hunter and gatherer civilizations into the violence thriving cultures that were encountered. “Organized” violence has also changed a great amount, from little or no conflict at all, to huge large scale wars in which hundreds upon thousands are brutally murdered.
The Agricultural Revolution gave way to bigger and better tools and machinery to help them with crop production. Animal driven plows helped increase efficiency tremendously and agricultural production, along with increased knowledge of crop rotation. This required fewer people to work in the fields, increased the food supply, and allowed a greater division of labor so people were able to specialize in other areas. This huge surplus of food allowed military leaders to increase the size of the military from only a small group to a staggering hundreds of thousands. They could also increase the tax applied to the peasants because they would have more money at their disposal from all the extra crops, and because of the larger military force they required a larger financial budget. This led to larger scaled battles over land and for power. This clearly created war because of larger armies clashing, and the definition from Shifferd’s book, the first line of the first chapter states, “War is any conflict in which over 1,000 people are killed”. From this definition, war has never happened before the revolution because there were never enough people in one area for this to occur, but after the Agricultural Revolution, this is a different story.
Societies before the revolution differed from those after it, mainly because they were hunters and gatherers, and moved around quite frequently. Of course, there are exceptions, such as the Natufian society, where modern day Israel is, but for the