Social

Science
Water is life, water is power: Water’s role in human

history.
Introduction

This resource guide is about the environmental history, covering the entire human history
(Stone Age, Medieval, Present day, and Future).
NOT about the history of epic wars, empires, dynasties, etc. Instead, it focuses more on the
processes that allowed populations to battle for survival and become the ruling species on the
planet.
Section I: Physical Properties of Water

Water’s unique properties make it unreplaceable (p.5-9):

 High specific heat:
 Tight bound between two hydrogen atoms and the oxygen atom, leads to:
 A lot of energy is needed for water to change its temperature to change state. Thus,
water is able to keep the range of temperature relatively small.
 Only a drop of several degrees can cause another ice age.
 Water cycle
 Inverted density:
 Solid state is less dense than the liquid state (ice floats atop water).
 High polarity:
 High degree of polarity → most substances will dissolve in water → watery
environment tend to recycle nutrients (erosion and nutrient transport) → most
water is salty (and ready for reactions) → 97% salty water, 3% pure water, 0.3% in
lakes, swamps, and rivers etc.
 Vital to human life: 60% body is water; 4% loss leads to mental impairment; 15% loss can
kill you
 Photosynthesis:
 6CO2 + 6H2O + Solar Energy → C6H12O6 + 6O2
 Respiration:
 Sugar → Energy
 Proteins, nucleic acids such as DNA and RNA, and enzymes all require water to
function
 Cells (water comprises most bulk of it) have a polarized membrane that isolates the inside of
the cell from the world around it. However, water can go through according the level of need.
This can change the shape of the cell thus change the rate of the biochemical processes.
Moreover, this allows other polarized substances (such as salt) to enter and exit the cells.
 For larger organisms (such as humans), water enables the transportation of oxygen and
vital nutrients around the body.
Section II: The Environmental History of Water

Water and Pastoralist Cultures (p.10-14):

Modern humans can date back to 315,000 to 200,000 BCE (concentrated in a narrow belt in
Eastern Africa). And around 110,000 to 100,000 BCE, members migrated out into West Africa,
Middle East, and eventually the entire world. About 10,000 years ago, in Turkey, people started
to begin to practice settled agriculture, after Neolithic Revolution. Water also shaped the
lifestyle of nomadism and sedentary agriculture.
Nomadism was usually either dispossessed or forced to become sedentary by sedentary
farmers. However, nomadism is proved to have the ability to withstand more extreme
conditions and doesn’t cause the negative ecological consequences associated with settled
agriculture.
 Mongol Culture and Water
 This is a well-known example of pastoralism (nomadism / peripatetic) conquering
“more advanced” sedentary people.
 They are inhabitants of steppe (steppe is not a desert, but rain there falls too rarely to
support agriculture unless you use groundwater), and follow the weather on
horsebacks.
 Pastoralism people move according to the distribution of resources. They always more
to more resourceful areas.
 2 theories explaining Mongol Conquest in the 13th century:
 Water resource was scarcer at that time, so this promoted Mongol people’s moving
and expansion.
 Water resource was more plentiful during that period, so Mongol population and
herd bloomed.
 Mongols’ expansion also led to the creation of “Silk Road”.
 This establishment of “Silk Road” also allowed for the transportation of virus
(Black Death / Bubonic Plague). This killed 1/3 of people in the Middle East,
40% of Egypt’s population, 50% of Paris, 60% of London, etc. Overall, Black
Death killed between 75 and 200 million people in Eurasia, making the rain of
the thirteenth-century Central Asian pluvial some of the deadliest water ever to
have fallen on Earth.
 Bedouin Culture and Water
 Exhibited great flexibility tolerance of scarcity and environmental unpredictability
and a mobility according to their surroundings.
 They are nomadic people of the Middle Eastern Deserts (North Africa, the Middle
East, and Arabia).
 They follow time-tested migratory routes on camels, circulating among a known
network of oases. They also take their light and folding houses with them when they
move around.
 They also developed a wealth of the ecological knowledge like how to find water
 according to animal activities.
 Now they use pickup trucks to move around and remain a nomadic lifestyle. Tribes also
make agreements between one another regarding the right to use a land or trees.
 Though water is not influencing the lifestyle, it has a historical impact.
 Maasai Culture and Water
 They are pastoral (transhumance) tribes in sub-Saharan Africa due to dry
environments.
 They appear to maintain much larger herds than would appear appropriate.
 This is because they see herds as resources to be collected in times of plenty and
expended in times of little rain, like currency.
 Allows for diversity of species, so that there will always be species that can
survive in challenges.
 Maasai herders see their livestock as community (communal) resources (for
loans, etc.) and insurance policy.
 The First Nations of Eastern North America
 Environment was forested rather than dry.
 The indigenous people of current-day New England moved from one area to another to
harvest seasonal bounties. They don’t claim any land as necessarily belonging to them
or attempting to maximize the food that the land could produce.
 Linked to colonialism: Europeans believed that the land wasn’t used “properly” and
therefore the people who can make full use of the land should possess it.

The Great Transition: Water and the Neolithic Revolution (p.15-22):

Neolithic (New Stone) Revolution is also known for the transition from hunter-gathers to
settled agriculture. Water usage changed as well, from following water to where it’s plentiful to
waiting for water to come to them (and engineered the landscape to provide reliable supplies of
water). The Neolithic Revolution changed human life completely and forever (life style,
challenges, etc.).
The Neolithic Revolution developed independently in at least three locations around the world:
Southwest Asia (Middle East), China, and Mesoamerica. They each have their distinct crops and
animals.
 The Neolithic Revolution in Southwest Asia, China, and Mesoamerica
 The transition from nomadism to sedentary is actually gradual, lasting for over
hundreds of years.
 Process of the transition: Nomadism → they find grove of fruits etc. and come back
each year to eat them → they spread the seeds intentionally or unintentionally → the
groves expanded → some people were even able to survive on these plants all year
round without moving → settled agriculture began to emerge
 Although nomadism has a lot of advantages over agriculture, agriculture allows for an
increase in population density while nomadism is not able to support.
 Southwest Asia (First place of adoption)
 Ten or twelve thousand years ago in the “Fertile Crescent” (areas around the
Arab Peninsula).
 The two major crops share the general tolerance of dry condition.
  Sheep, goats, and pigs are present there as well.
 China (Second place of adoption)
 Seven to nine thousand years ago and the area was dominated by dry grasslands
along the Yellow River.
 Farming did not take place on the banks of the river, but rather on elevated terrace
above rivers.
 Farmers first farmed millet and a form of rice grown on dry land.
 Pigs and chicken were raised, sheep or goats weren’t.
 Mesoamerica (Third place of adoption)
 Five to seven thousand years ago and includes modern-day southern Mexico and
parts of what is now Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador.
 Only well-watered agriculture core among the three; only place lacking ungulates
suitable for domestication as well → people had to perform any needed
agriculture work.
 Crops were different too: they were less calorie-rich than those in the other two
areas.
 The main grain was maize. It was first cultivated around 5000 BCE but reached
its present size around 2000 BCE. → Population densities did not grow as
rapidly that elsewhere.
 The Expansion of Arable Land in Southwest Asia
 The earliest crops were cultivated using methods of dry farming.
 But later, the growth of population is putting higher pressure on the land.
 Their first attempt was “floodwater farming” (to utilize the nutrient and wet land
soon after the spring floods). However, due to erosion caused by deforestation, the
actual amount of available land was decreased.
 By approximately 5500 BCE, farmers began to dig ditches on the eastern fringes
of Mesopotamia. This led to higher productivity, thus able to support to support
more people. The digging of ditches also resulted in the expansion of farming to
the south, to the more arid area now called Mesopotamia, and then beyond.
 The Meaning and Role of Water in the First Urban Civilization: Mesopotamia and
Egypt
 Mesopotamia
