hey everyone it's nicholas scientists believe that it was during the mesolithic age between
approximately 10 000 bc and 8000 bc that prehistoric humans developed the concept of
agriculture during this time humans got better at creating tools well they still used rocks
and sticks but they made better tools out of those rocks and sticks and animal bones
by polishing and crafting them into points and making spears and arrows they used some of those
materials to make rudimentary gardening tools began dabbling in planting some of their own food
and lived nomadically near rivers and other bodies of water before that during
the paleolithic age which many scientists believe began as early as two and a half million years ago
humans lived in caves and simple shelters and were strictly hunters and gatherers when it came
to obtaining food their tools were basic really just rocks and sticks and bones with very little
craftsmanship life was simple hunt gather eat repeat for thousands and thousands of years then
the last ice age occurred and the mesolithic age changed all that as farming began to take hold on
humankind tools improved humans began to learn how to plant crops this meant that they had a more
reliable food source it took a couple of thousand years but a lot of learning and improvement took
place during the mesolithic age around 8000 bc at the beginning of the neolithic period
humans completed the transition from being hunters and gatherers to well farmers they
figured out that they could grow all of their food if they wanted animals were domesticated
meaning meat was available whenever they wanted to eat humans began to create even better tools yeah
they were still using stone and sticks and animal bones but they began to modify those materials
into farming implements such as adzes to help the crops they built sturdier shelters that became
permanent homes advancements were even made in areas such as weaving sewing and pottery meaning
clothing and housewares improved as well life was good so consider this according to scientists and
historians it took humans hundreds of thousands of years 2.5 million years give or take a few
to move from hunting and gathering to farming and herding as primary methods of gathering food
specialization occurred soon thereafter in ancient civilizations such as those in mesopotamia
and egypt and the indus river valley allowing some individuals to trade for food at markets
rather than growing it and of course this all leads us to today's trips to kroger and walmart
to scan the breakfast style and pick one of the 2693 different cereals being offered and that
you've seen advertisements for wait wait i know you're wondering what hunters and
gatherers and farmers and herders and kroger and cereal have to do with world geography
well today's lesson deals with global economic activity and we more or less just summed up
some of the basic concepts we're going to be covering today first of all global economic
activity can be broken up into four groups primary secondary tertiary and quaternary
primary economic activity refers to the direct extraction of raw materials from the earth
farming is perhaps the most important and most prevalent primary economic activity whether it's
growing crops or livestock huge commercial farms or subsistence gardening all of it is considered
primary economic activity other primary economic activity includes hunting fishing forestry and
mining all of them involve humans taking resources from the earth whether those resources are crops
animals minerals metal lumber each one features humans harvesting raw materials from the land and
water early humans didn't know it but throughout the paleolithic mesolithic and neolithic ages
they were engaging in primary economic activity secondary economic activity is the processing
of those raw materials remember when i said that early civilizations saw individuals begin
to specialize and make things such as pottery that's a great example here secondary economic
activity includes both cottage industry and commercial ventures cottage industries are
those that are often home-based and small-scale in ancient civilizations those included someone
who made pottery weaved rugs created clothing processed corn into meal those kinds of things
the concept still exists today with many small businesses commercial industries are also included
in secondary economic activity and are much more common today these are large-scale businesses that
employ many people examples include a furniture factory that turns wood into tables and chairs
or perhaps an industry that turns iron ore into steel to be used in home appliances or automobiles
or perhaps a factory that transforms grains such as corn and wheat into that tasty cereal
you can purchase at the grocery speaking of the grocery that's a super example of tertiary
economic activity tertiary activity is the sale of manufactured goods okay it's the sale of raw
materials too if you want to get picky but most retail stores sell manufactured goods and not
raw materials so when we said something about you heading to the grocery to buy some cereal you'd
be engaging in tertiary economic activity the fourth type of economic activity is quaternary
now quaternary industries are those that provide information services such as research and
development consultation computation quaternary economic activity also includes education
entertainment health services and advertising like those ads for that cereal you like so much
believe it or not a majority of the people in developed countries throughout the world work
in jobs related to either tertiary or quaternary economic activity that's right a vast majority of
people in the u.s work in professions related to either tertiary or quaternary economic activity
developed nation is a term you should know too a developed nation is one that simply has more money
two criteria are usually used to determine whether or not a nation is developed the first is gross
domestic product which is the total per capita value of goods and services produced by a nation
in other words how much does the average person produce this map shows the developed countries
based on gross domestic product the darker the purple color the more the average citizen in
that nation produces annually the other criterion is per capita income or how much does the average
person make on this map dark green represents the developed high-income nations like the previous
map the united states most european countries japan and south korea are among those considered
highly developed a second category is emerging which can be seen in yellow and gold and include
nations such as mexico much of south america russia and china the final category is developing
and is represented in red developing nations include most located in africa as well as india of
course developed nations such as the united states trade with emerging and developing countries such
as china and india in fact with technological advancements in packaging and preservation and
modern developments in transportation nations today trade with one another more than ever
all of that trade isn't equal though all nations import goods and all nations export them
the amount that each nation imports and exports creates what is called a trade balance a nation
that imports more goods than it exports has what's called a trade deficit a nation that exports more
than it imports has a trade surplus this map shows the trade deficit and trade surplus for the entire
world study it for a moment the nations shaded green have a trade surplus which means they export
more goods than they import as you might expect china has the biggest trade surplus in the world
others with a large trade surplus include japan germany russia and saudi arabia so that means
countries colored pink have a trade deficit which means they import more goods than they export
that of course can have a negative impact on that nation's economy especially in providing jobs to
manufacture goods see the united states and the burgundy color that means the u.s has the largest
trade deficit in the world all those goods coming to the u.s are just a small part of modern trade
routes today goods are shipped all over the world using various methods of transportation via land
sea and air but do you know what moves more than anything else in today's world
it's so obvious so easy so common so taken for granted more than anything else we move ideas
and information thanks to modern technology it has never been easier we've come a long way since the
first famous trade route the silk road which began almost 2000 years ago and just as african slaves
brought many ideas and facets of their culture to the americas during the atlantic slave trade
so too nations and individuals in asia europe and africa were affected by the ideas and
cultural aspects brought to their continents because of trade along the silk road how was
culture being affected today by the exchange of ideas and information on the internet and
other methods of technology no one knows for sure but we all would probably agree that the changes
are coming faster and faster each day making our world smaller in many ways as communication and
the exchange of ideas becomes simpler and more common until next time keep exploring