ESSAYS NEED TO BE AT LEAST 1 PAGE LONG AND YOU NEED TO USE 3 SOURCES. After reading the materials presented in the Leaning Resources and Modules answer the posted question in the form of an ESSAY. You MUST have an Introduction, Body and Conclusion to receive full credit. If you are unfamiliar with essay composition please review the helpful direction and tips from the UMUC Effective Writing Center. YOU are responsible for knowing how to answer an essay question.
http://www.umuc.edu/writingcenter/writingresources/essaywriting.cfm
Upload your ESSAY as WORD document via your Assignment Folder. You are REQUIRED to provide citation (source if your information) in your essay from the CLASS READING materials. DO NOT USE OUTSIDE SOURCES. You MUST use Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) for citation with FOOTNOTES and BIBLIOGRAPHY. See this for directions. http://tychousa.umuc.edu/WRTG999A/chapter5/ch5-13.html
QUESTION: Describe the relationship of industrial production and transportation in relation to the development of the steam engine. How did it effect economies of the West?
reading materials:This resource contains information on the Enlightenment from 1650 to 1800 and includes a summary of events and key people and terms.
http://www.sparknotes.com/history/european/enlightenment/
The American, French, and Latin American revolutions shared a common theme: independence from foreign rule.
http://www.ukessays.com/essays/history/american-french-and-latin-american-revolutions.php
The Industrial Revolution was a transition to new manufacturing processes. This transition included going from hand production to machines, new manufacturing production processes, improved efficiency of water power, the increasing use of steam power, and the development of machine tools.
http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1981/2/81.02.06.x.html
Article on European history and Napoleon Bonaparte that includes an introduction, the consulate, the empire from 1804 to 1814, the Congress of Vienna, the restoration of Louis XVIII Bourbon, a shift in foreign policy, and a new nationalism.
Napoleon Bonaparte and the Rise of Nationalism
Article highlights a few narratives and studies focused on the history and analysis of serfdom in Russia and slavery in America, and the abolition of both.
http://news.lib.uchicago.edu/blog/2013/09/20/serf-and-slave-liberation-and-emancipation-russia-1861-united-states-1863/
Environmental Encyclopedia 3 Agricultural revolution
———, and M. W. Fox. Agricide: The Hidden Crisis That Affects Us All.
New York: Shocken Books, 1986.
Crosson, P. R. Implementation Policies and Strategies for Agricultural NonPoint
Pollution. Washington, DC: Resources for the Future, 1985.
Agricultural Research Service
A branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture charged
with the responsibility of agricultural research on a regional
or national basis. The Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
has a mission to develop new knowledge and technology
needed to solve agricultural problems of broad scope and
high national priority in order to ensure adequate production
of high quality food and agricultural products for the United
States. The national research center of the ARS is located
at Beltsville, Maryland, consisting of laboratories, land, and
other facilities. In addition, there are many other research
centers located throughout the United States, such as the
U.S. Dairy/Forage Research Center at Madison, Wisconsin.
Scientists of the ARS are also located at Land Grant Universities
throughout the country where they conduct cooperative
research with state scientists.
RESOURCES
ORGANIZATIONS
Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Rm. 223, Bldg. 003, BARC-West,
10300 Baltimore Avenue , Beltsville , MD USA 20705 , www.ars.usda.gov>
Agricultural revolution
The development of agriculture has been a fundamental part
of the march of civilization. It is an ongoing challenge, for
as long as population growth continues, mankind will need
to improve agricultural production.
The agricultural revolution is actually a series of four
major advances, closely linked with other key historical periods.
The first, the Neolithic or New Stone Age, marks the
beginning of sedentary (settled) farming. Much of this history
is lost in antiquity, dating back perhaps 10,000 years
or more. Still, humans owe an enormous debt to those early
pioneers who so painstakingly nourished the best of each
year’s crop. Archaeologists have found corn cobs a mere 2
in (5.1 cm) long, so different from today’s giant ears.
The second major advance came as a result of Christopher
Columbus’ voyages to the New World. Isolation had
fostered the development of two completely independent
agricultural systems in the New and Old Worlds. A short
list of interchanged crops and animals clearly illustrates the
global magnitude of this event; furthermore, the current
population explosion began its upswing during this period.
From the New World came maize, beans, the “Irish” potato,
25
squash, peanuts, tomatoes, and tobacco. From the Old
World came wheat, rice, coffee, cattle, horses, sheep, and
goats. Maize is now a staple food in Africa. Several Indian
tribes in America adopted new lifestyles, notably the Navajo
as sheepherders, and the Cheyenne as nomads using the
horse to hunt buffalo.
The Industrial Revolution both contributed to and was
nourished by agriculture. The greatest agricultural advances
came in transportation, where first canals, then railroads
and steamships made possible the shipment of food from
areas of surplus. This in turn allowed more specialization
and productivity, but most importantly, it reduced the threat
of starvation. The steamship ultimately brought refrigerated
meat to Europe from distant Argentina and Australia.
Without these massive increases in food shipments the exploding
populations and greatly increased demand for labor
by newly emerging industries could not have been sustained.
In turn the Industrial Revolution introduced major
advances in farm technology, such as the cotton gin, mechanical
reaper, improved plows, and, in this century, tractors
and trucks. These advances enabled fewer and fewer farmers
to feed larger and larger populations, freeing workers to fill
demands for factory labor and the growing service industries.
Finally, agriculture has fully participated in the scientific
advances of the twentieth century. Key developments
include hybrid corn, the high responders in tropical lands,
described as the “Green Revolution,” and current genetic
research. Agriculture has benefited enormously from scientific
advances in biology, and the future here is bright for
applied research, especially involving genetics. Great potential
exists for the development of crop strains with greatly
improved dietary characteristics, such as higher protein or
reduced fat.
Growing populations, made possible by these food
surpluses, have forced agricultural expansion onto less and
less desirable lands. Because agriculture radically simplifies
ecosystems and greatly amplifies soil erosion, many areas
such as the Mediterranean Basin and tropical forest lands
have suffered severe degradation.
Major developments in civilization are directly linked
to the agricultural revolution. A sedentary lifestyle, essential
to technological development, was both mandated and made
possible by farming. Urbanization flourished, which encouraged
specialization and division of labor. Large populations
provided the energy for massive projects, such as the Egyptian
pyramids and the colossal engineering efforts of the
Romans.
The plow represented the first lever, both lifting and
overturning the soil. The draft animal provided the first in
a long line of nonhuman energy sources. Plant and animal
selectivity are likely the first application of science and technology
toward specific goals. A number of important crops
Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service Environmental Encyclopedia 3
bear little resemblance to the ancestors from which they
were derived. Animals such as the fat-tailed sheep represent
thoughtful cultural control of their lineage.
Climate dominates agriculture, second only to irrigation.
Farmers are especially vulnerable to variations, such
as late or early frosts, heavy rains, or drought. Rice,
wheat, and maize have become the dominant crops globally
because of their high caloric yield, versatility within their
climate range, and their cultural status as the “staff of
life.” Many would not consider a meal complete without
rice, bread, or tortillas. This cultural influence is so strong
that even starving peoples have rejected unfamiliar food.
China provides a good example of such cultural differences,
with a rice culture in the south and a wheat culture
(noodles) in the north.
These crops all need a wet season for germination
and growth, followed by a dry season to allow spoilage-free
storage. Rice was domesticated in the monsoonal lands of
Southeast Asia, while wheat originated in the Fertile Crescent
of the Middle East. Historically, wheat was planted in
the fall, and harvested in late spring, coinciding with the
cycle of wet and dry seasons in the Mediterranean region.
Maize needs the heavy summer rains provided by the Mexican
highland climate.
Other crops predominate in areas with less suitable
climates. These include barley in semiarid lands; oats and
potatoes in cool, moist lands; rye in colder climates with
short growing seasons; and dry rice on hillsides and drier
lands where paddy rice is impractical.
Although food production is the main emphasis in
agriculture, more and more industrial applications have
evolved. Cloth fibers have been a mainstay, but paper
products and many chemicals now come from cultivated
plants.
The agricultural revolution is also associated with some
of mankind’s darker moments. In the tropical and subtropical
climates of the New World, slave labor was extensive. Close,
unsanitary living conditions have fostered plagues of biblical
proportions. And the desperate dependence on agriculture
is all too vividly evident in the records of historic and contemporary
famine. As a world, people are never more than one
harvest away from global starvation, a fact amplified by the
growing understanding of cosmic catastrophes.
Some argue that the agricultural revolution masks the
growing hazards of an overpopulated, increasingly contaminated
earth. Since the agricultural revolution has been so
productive it has more than compensated for the population
explosion of the last two centuries. Some appropriately labeled
“cornucopians” believe there is yet much potential
for increased food production, especially through scientific
agriculture and genetic engineering. There is much room
for optimism, and also for a sobering assessment of the
26
environmental costs of agricultural progress. We must continually
strive for answers to the challenges associated with
the agricultural revolution.
[Nathan H. Meleen]
RESOURCES
BOOKS
Anderson, E. “Man as a Maker of New Plants and New Plant Communities.”
In Man’s Role in Changing the Face of the Earth, edited by W. L.
Thomas Jr. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1956.
Doyle, J. Altered Harvest: Agriculture, Genetics, and the Fate of the World’s
Food Supply. New York: Penguin, 1985.
Gliessman, S. R., ed. Agroecology: Researching the Ecological Basis for Sustainable
Agriculture. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1990.
Jackson, R. H., and L. E. Hudman. Cultural Geography: People, Places, and
Environment. St. Paul, MN: West, 1990.
Narr, K. J. “Early Food-Producing Populations.” In Man’s Role in Changing
the Face of the Earth, edited by W. L. Thomas, Jr. Chicago: The University
of Chicago Press, 1956.
Simpson, L. B. “The Tyrant: Maize.” In The Cultural Landscape, edited
by C. Salter. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1971.
PERIODICALS
Crosson, P. R., and N. J. Rosenberg. “Strategies for Agriculture.” Scientific
American 261 (September 1989
