History Essay: A Comparative Study of Agricultural and Axial Ages

This essay provides a detailed examination of two pivotal periods in human history: the Agricultural Revolution and the Axial Age. The Agricultural Revolution, spanning from 10,000 to 2000 BC, is analyzed as a transition from hunting and gathering to settled farming, with a focus on developments in the Middle East and Europe. The essay also discusses the technological advancements and societal impacts, including rural-to-urban migration and the rise of capitalist farmers. The second part of the essay addresses the Axial Age (500-300 BCE), exploring the emergence of primary religious and spiritual traditions in Eurasia, questioning its existence and analyzing the cognitive shifts from narrative to analytical styles. The essay references climate change, social disturbances, technological innovations, and the influence of key thinkers like Socrates and Indian philosophers, providing a comprehensive overview of these transformative historical periods.

Running head: HISTORY
HISTORY
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1HISTORY
Answer 1
Historians have labelled the first Agricultural Revolution (Neolithic Revolution) that
occurred worldwide between 10,000 BC and 2000 BC as the era of transition from hunting
and gathering to society based on stationary farming. The earliest known developments
however occurred in the Middle East (Andersen, Sandholt Jensen and Skovsgaard). However,
in the 18th century, another Agricultural revolution had its occurrence with the shift of
European agriculture from techniques used in the past. It led newly introduced methods of
crop rotation and livestock utilization to pave way for enhanced crop harvests along with
greater range of vegetation to support more livestock.
Furthermore, the increase in agricultural production as well as technological
advancements during the Agricultural Revolution resulted to the unprecedented rise in
populace and new agricultural practices, further generating such phenomena as rural-to-urban
migration, expansion of coherent and loosely controlled agricultural market in addition to
emergence of capitalist farmers. According to Olsson and Paik, the rise in production
augmented the failure of the agricultural share of the workforce, contributing to the urban
labour force on which industrialization had been subjected to. The Agricultural Revolution
has therefore been cited as a cause of the Industrial Revolution.
Agricultural development is significantly dependent on innovation. Innovation thus is
regarded as major source of upgraded productivity, effectiveness and financial development
all the way through progressive and emerging financial prudence. Thus, it serves as decisive
role in creating employment services, generating income, alleviating poverty as well as
driving social development. However, authors have mentioned that if farmers, agribusinesses,
or counties are to compete as well as thrive along with shifts observed in agriculture and
economy, they must modernize uninterruptedly. Thus, investments in science and technology

2HISTORY
along with borrowing are considered as vital components of majority of strategies in order to
upsurge and preserve agricultural productivity and innovate.
Answer 2
Comprehensive studies mentioned that development of towns and progress of
agricultural system did not principally happen with the leaps and bounds of great river basin
civilizations. The Aegean, Europe, America, Anatolia and Africa comprised of distinctive
warrior-based ethos (Milić). Furthermore, settlements in the America and regions of sub-
Saharan Africa had been insignificant and remained based around agriculture. Meanwhile,
studies revealed that inhabitants shifted beyond stone implements in addition to hunting and
gathering. However, these inhabitants remained more egalitarian in comparison to basin
inhabitants.
Answer 4
During the beginning of 1200 BCE, countries of Afro-Eurasia encountered sustained
period of drought, thus causing social disturbances and migration as well as destroying
established societies and thriving administrations. On the other hand, studies revealed that
number of regions which had undergone rapid population growth during second millennium
BCE realized their incapacity of supporting huge influx of people and compelling individuals
to leave their households in search of food as well as fertile land. Meanwhile, in Egypt low
Nile floods compelled pharaohs to indulge upon acquiring food supplies and deterring
Libyans from the desert in addition to "Sea People" plunderers from the coast (Welc and
Marks). However, the intense influx of people especially driven in part by climate change,
disordered urban societies and devastated the administrative centers of kings, priests as well
as dynasties. These disruptions caused by these immigrants paved way for new empires to
establish, yet only after ages of disturbances and decline.

3HISTORY
Moreover, technological innovations were crucial in reshaping communities which
had been devastated by lack economy along with violent population movements. Studies of
authors mentioned that newly developed technologies allowed valiant adventurers to cross
larger bodies of water and during that century iron developed as the most widely used metal
(Clarke, Joanne, et al.)
Answer 5
The ‘Axial Age’ from 500-300 BCE referred to the era during which majority of
primary religious and spiritual traditions emerged in the Eurasian societies. Even though, the
Axial Age has recently been the focus of elevating interest. However, its existence in present
times is in great dispute. However, the primary underlying factor for questioning the
existence of the Axial Age is related to the fact that its nature along with its spatial and
temporal boundaries has been still showing utmost uncertainty (Clarke, Joanne, et al.). The
standard approach to the Axial Age explains it as a transformation of cognitive style, starting
from a narrative and analogical style to highly analytical as well as reflective approach most
likely because of the growing implementation of external memory tools.
Studies revealed that in ancient Greece Socrates had been known as the exemplar of
thinkers who accentuated the use of intention in the unyielding investigation of truth. On the
other hand, Axial Age thinkers revealed excessive originality and further exhibited
unexpected likeness in relation to decisive concerns (McCloskey). Furthermore, several
Indian thinkers perceived karma, further known as the residual effects of past activities in
terms of immediate impact upon human life. These thinkers further suggested solutions for
the way human beings could achieve liberation that is moksha from the effects of karma.

4HISTORY
References
Andersen, Thomas Barnebeck, Peter Sandholt Jensen, and Christian Volmar Skovsgaard.
"The heavy plow and the agricultural revolution in Medieval Europe." Journal of
Development Economics 118 (2016): 133-149.
Clarke, Joanne, et al. "Climatic changes and social transformations in the Near East and
North Africa during the ‘long’4th millennium BC: A comparative study of environmental and
archaeological evidence." Quaternary Science Reviews 136 (2016): 96-121.
McCloskey, Deirdre Nansen. "It was ideas and ideologies, not interests or institutions, which
changed in Northwestern Europe, 1600–1848." Journal of evolutionary economics 25.1
(2015): 57-68.
Milić, Marina. "PXRF characterisation of obsidian from central Anatolia, the Aegean and
central Europe." Journal of Archaeological Science 41 (2014): 285-296.
Olsson, Ola, and Christopher Paik. "Long-run cultural divergence: Evidence from the
neolithic revolution." Journal of Development Economics 122 (2016): 197-213.
Welc, Fabian, and Leszek Marks. "Climate change at the end of the Old Kingdom in Egypt
around 4200 BP: New geoarchaeological evidence." Quaternary International 324 (2014):
124-133.