Environmental Interactions - AP World History: Modern

Silent Spring was published in 1962 by Rachel Carson and is directly challenged the chemical industry, specifically the use of the pesticide DDT and its effects on bird populations. Additionally, this book is widely considered to have launched the modern environmentalism movement and led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The Plague of Justinian was the first ever outbreak of bubonic plague and would continue to spread exploration westward into Europe. 1340 saw an explosion of bubonic plague that would persist for sixty years, killing a third of the population of Europe. This outbreak would become known as the Black Death.

The Plague of Justinian occurred from 541 - 542 CE Like the later Black Death - which devastated the population of Europe in the fourteenth century - the Plague of Justinian was a widespread epidemic caused by the transmission of the Bubonic Plague. Modern historical estimates range from twenty million to fifty million deaths globally. The population of the Byzantine Empire declined dramatically as a result of the plague. It is called the Plague of Justinian because it occurred during his reign (he was himself afflicted, but he survived).

Population growth and state building have long been hindered in Sub-Saharan Africa by obstacles that simply do not exist in other parts of the world. The extreme prevalence of insect-borne diseases like malaria, which humans are extremely vulnerable to, has had a catastrophic impact on Sub-Saharan human history. Furthermore, the climate of Sub-Saharan Africa fluctuates wildly, including prolonged periods of drought, which made agricultural societies all but impossible until fairly recently. Finally, the massive geographic barrier that is the Sahara Desert kept this region isolated from the rest of Afro-Eurasia until the arrival of Arabs and Europeans. This meant that the people living in Sub-Saharan Africa were not exposed to the same diversity of ideas, resources, and innovations as the rest of the world.

The Black Death (aka the bubonic plague) first entered Europe in 1347 and was widespread across the continent by 1350. The disease was carried by infected fleas on the backs of rats onto various ships in Asia, which in turn entered European ports and then spread from person to person along nearly every one of Europe’s major trade routes. The greater the volume of human contact during any sort of connected economic transactions, the greater the transmission and the faster the spread of the disease. The spread of the Black Death was helped along by several other internal factors within the continent as well – frequent crop failures had been devastating the region for a few years. These failures, in turn, caused widespread malnutrition, hunger, and famine among much of Europe’s population, especially in the cities – which were also hotspots of trade, further compounding the dire situation. Prior to the plague’s arrival, Europe had also been struggling with a chronic over-population dilemma, which put further strains upon the already diminished food supply and the overall state of ill-health. Taken together, these factors coalesced to create the perfect conditions for the horrifically rapid spread of the Black Death throughout Europe.

In the 1330s an outbreak of Bubonic plague began in China. By the mid-fourteenth century it had spread throughout Eurasia, leading to widespread sickness and death. The Black Death, as it came to be called in Europe, led to the death of perhaps as many as one hundred million people and caused the population of Europe to decline by one-third.

When the Europeans arrived in the Americas in the late fifteenth century the differences between civilization in South America and North America could be summarized as follows - South America contained more multinational empires and tended to be based on extensive agricultural systems and permanent settlements; whereas North America contained much smaller and more homogeneous communities who were more likely to live a nomadic, hunter-gatherer type lifestyle. Of course this distinction is not uniform and has many notable exceptions.

To begin with an "epidemic" is a widespread infectious disease. Throughout human history epidemics have had a diverse impact on human society. They have destabilized governments, encourage revolutions, spurred socioeconomic change, limited and encouraged the exchange of ideas, led to a decline in trade, and had many other unexpected consequences.

Although it is true that the Mississippian civilization declined in the thirteenth century, we cannot say for sure that it was a result of prolonged famine and drought. No-one knows exactly why the Mississippian civilization declined, but it is certain that it did so long before the arrival of Europeans in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

The Mississippian civilization arose in pre-Columbian America around 700 CE. The people of the Mississippian civilization built earthen mounds for religious and ceremonial purposes. Their largest city was called Cahokia. They declined, however, more than two centuries before the arrival of Europeans in the Americas.

Yu the Great founded the Xia Dynasty approximately four thousand years ago. He is a partially mythological figure, it is not known exactly when he lived. His organization of Chinese rural communities, to prevent the flooding of the Yellow River, are primarily responsible for the foundation of the Chinese state. Yu was an innovator and organizer - he implemented a system of irrigation and a system to prevent flooding, and then tirelessly worked to ensure the system was uniformly carried out by local Chinese communities. In so doing he created a communal purpose and identity.

During the most recent ice age Asia and North America were connected via a land bridge in the Bering Strait. This allowed humans to migrate from Asia to North America and led to human settlement throughout the Americas. The native people of the Americas are all descended from this group of people who crossed the Bering Strait approximately fifteen thousand years ago. When the ice age ended, Asia and North America were no longer connected, thus isolating the Americas from the rest of the world until European colonization in the 1500s.

Mesopotamia is translated as “The land between two rivers.” It is also the cradle of civilization, for it is here that the Neolithic Revolution first took place. The two rivers in question are the Tigris and Euphrates.

Ancient Egypt was geographically isolated from other civilizations. It was protected on all sides by either desert, sea, or mountains. Ancient Mesopotamia on the other hand lacked natural barriers of any kind. It lies in a fertile valley that was under constant threat of invasion. Many historians speculate that this intensity of competition in Mesopotamia contributed a great deal to the innovations made by Mesopotamian societies.

The Old Kingdom of Ancient Egypt was geographically isolated from other human civilizations. Protected by inhospitable deserts, the Mediterranean Sea, and several mountain ranges the ancient Egyptians never developed much of a military culture and were fairly easily conquered by the first militaristic civilization they encountered - the Hyksos.

Pastoralism refers to the practice of keeping domesticated animals. During the later Neolithic Revolution many societies were organized around the domestication of animals such as cows, horses, pigs, sheep, goats, buffaloes, and oxen. Pastoral societies most commonly emerged in wide open plains with plenty of flat grassland. This is compared to agricultural societies which would most likely have emerged in valleys and in the fertile floodplains.

During and after the most recent ice age the Bering Strait (which had connected North America to Asia via a land bridge from Alaska) was flooded and the Americas were isolated from the rest of the world. This geographic separation enforced an environmental and cultural isolation which had a profound impact on the development of American society.

Llamas and alpacas are two species of camel that are native to South America. Unlike their cousins in Arabia and Central Asia, llamas and alpacas are not renowned for their strength or resilience. The lack of a true “workhorse” type animal in South America (an animal like an ox, camel, horse, or buffalo) decelerated the growth of civilization in the continent for several millennia.

Fossil fuel usage in contemporary society is harmful to the environment.

Burning hundreds of millions of years worth of carbon material isn't beneficial to the environment, although it may be to the economy.

Although ancient societies had their own fuel sources, they all pale in comparison to the modern fossil fuel industry, its global supply chain, and the ways in which it facilitates modern life.

Fossil fuel usage is not specific to economic niches. Rather sustainable fuel such has solar and wind is specific to small scale niches, whereas fossil fuels are the norm.