Overview

People began farming at different times in different parts of the world. Around 8500 B.C. hunter-gatherers in the area of southwest Asia known as the Fertile Crescent began to cultivate wild grains and domesticate animals. One thousand years later, people in northern and southern China were growing rice and millet and raising pigs. Archeological evidence shows that crops were planted in Central America as early as 7000 B.C., and around 3500 B.C. in the Andes mountains and Amazon river basin of South America. Farmers in Africa began growing crops around 5000 B.C. Three thousand years later, native Americans in the eastern United States planted a few crops, but still depended on hunting and gathering. As agriculture evolved in these locations, so did the social, economic, and cultural practices that led to what is known as...