The Neolithic revolution: Humanity's greatest achievement

The Neolithic revolution was the turning point of human history. It was there where man first became the master his own habitat, forever changing the course of history. By developing new technologies such as agriculture, the domestication of animals, and permanent settlements, humanity took the first step toward unlocking all the wealth and bounty we take for granted today. Without these new advances technology would be thousands of years behind the current standard.

            The discovery of agriculture changed everything. It was the first step to realizing mankind’s innovative potential. The key is food surplus. Before the Neolithic revolution, everyone had one job: get food. Agriculture, however, allowed for the general population to create enough food to support a small number of specialists, people who could focus on other crafts besides the gathering of food. This lead to an increase in luxury items and a rise in everyone’s living standards. It also lead to an increase in technical advances, like the discovery of simple metals. It also helped lead to more organized governments, which would lead to better public services and protection. Most importantly, it lead to technological breakthroughs the allowed for more effective farming, which in turn would create better harvests, which allowed for even more specialists to exist. This created an exponential increase in the number of innovations mankind was able to create, leading to our current modern state. All of this of course would not have been possible if it weren’t for the development of permanent settlements, which were necessary to agriculture and many of the innovation, like mettle working, which required large furnaces, which are not portable. The previous method of hunting and gathering would never have been able to sustain an extra population of specialists, and even if humans became efficient enough with their hunting and gathering skills to do so, the would soon be over hunting animals to extinction and running out of plants to eat. The only sustainable way to support a specialist population is through agriculture. Because of the importance of agriculture, the Neolithic revolution is unarguably the most important development in human history.