World History 3219

January 2017

In the previous two units we investigated how the human experience changed as a result of innovation and new ideas.

In this outcome your understanding of change will deepen as you consider how people have attempted to find better ways to use resources to meet needs and wants.

In unit 1 we discussed how innovations led to changes in ways of living which in turn led to greater efficiencies and greater effectiveness.

Paleolithic innovations included the constructionand use of primitive tools, keeping and creating fire, the development of spoken language

How did these innovations make it easier for hominids to meet their needs and transform there way of life?

the development of agriculture provided greater efficiency in the acquisition of food (Neolithic Revolution)

the refinement of lithic tools (e.g., adding shaft to a point to create a spear or arrow) or in metal working (e.g., bronze to iron) provided greater effectiveness.

Transportation: Phoenician boats

Infrastructure: Roman Aqueducts

Warfare: Stirrup

Communication: Printing Press

Health Care: Smallpox vaccine

Many innovations relate to economics: the study of how to maximize the use of resources to meet needs and wants.

What are needs and wants?

Needs…..required for survival (food, clothing, shelter)

Wants……those things you would like to have but not necessary for survival (cell phone, Internet, quad)

Given that resources are finite, scarcity is a fundamental fact of life.

Usually people can only meet some of theirneeds and wants.

However, by seeking ways to maximize the use of resources, more of a person’s needs and wants can be satisfied.

The idea of scarcity and meeting our needs & wants is addressed through trade.

The significance of the following economic innovations will be explored in this section

trade

money, commerce, and banking,

joint-stock companies, and

laissez-faire economics.

Trade - exchange of goods and services

Countries sell goods and services they can produce for profit so they can buy the things they need

Import- brought in from another country

Export- sold to another country

Canadians meet our needs through importing and exporting

Early civilizations met their needs by trading locally, but as not all of our need could be met locally, people began to extend their trade connections.

There is evidence to suggest that the civilizations of Sumer traded textiles and food in exchange for copper, lumber, precious stones, cotton, and luxury goods from the Indus River valley

The growth of trade is linked to the desire for luxury goods

As large towns appeared throughout Mesopotamia and Egypt during the Neolithic period, self-sufficiency started to fade as marketplaces appeared.

A farmer could now trade grain for meat, or milk for a pot, at the local market, which was seldom too far away.

Cities started to work the same way, realizing that they could acquire goods they didn’t have at hand from other cities far away, where the climate and natural resources produced different things.

This longer-distance trade was slow and often dangerous, but was lucrative for the middlemen willing to make the journey.

Historians believe the first long-distance trade occurred between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley in Pakistan around 3000 BC.

This long-distance trade was limited almost exclusively to luxurygoods like spices, textiles and precious metals.

Cities that were rich in these commodities became financially rich, too, trading with other surrounding regions for jewelry, fancy robes and imported delicacies.

By the 2000 BC, extensive overland & oceanic trade routes had developed connecting Europe, the Mediterranean, and China linking cultures for the first time in history.

The trade routes served principally to transfer raw materials, foodstuffs, and luxury goods from areas with surpluses to others where they were in short supply.

Cyprus sent copper resources to the Near East and Egypt,

Egypt sent papyrus and wool to other regions.

Phoenicia, famous for its seafaring expertise, traded its valuable cedar wood and linens dyes all over the Mediterranean.

China prospered by trading jade, spices and later, silk.

Britain shared its abundance of tin.

What would be the advantages and disadvantages of the following:

Overland trade routes (Silk Road)

Oceanic / coastal trade routes

The appearance of new cities along the trade routes

grew rich providing services to merchants and acting as international marketplaces & commercial centers

flourished mainly as centers of trade supplying merchant caravans and policing the trade routes.

They also became cultural and artistic centers, where peoples of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds could meet and exchange ideas.

Trade promoted the development of

commercial centers

The trade routes were the communications highways of the ancient world.

New inventions, religious beliefs, artistic styles, languages, and social customs, as well as goods and raw materials, were transmitted by people moving from one place to another to conduct business

As trade networks developed, trading partners began to manufacture goods specifically for sale in other places

The more they learned about other cultures, the better they were able to design products that would suit foreign tastes