Learning Objective 1

           Jared Diamond’s theory of geographic luck is proven to be true from the passage in the text book. Though the text book never correlates the Fertile Crescent, which Jared Diamond speaks highly of, the passage did prove Diamond’s theory. In Diamond’s theory, the basic thought is that some civilizations are more advanced than others because of their geographical location and factors that relate to location. For example, Diamond says that the Fertile Crescent had good soil, good labor animals, and this was easily spread East and West because the East and West share the same weather conditions, daylight hours, and et cetera.

            In the passage read, it discusses how the people from the Paleolithic Age were nomads. They wandered and found temporary homes, gathered plants and such. They would travel in small parties of twenty to thirty people. Though over time they evolved into inhabiting one place in the Neolithic Age. In this age, the Agricultural Revolution occurred, and then people were starting to stay in one place, acting as a community. It is most likely that they would have stayed in a geographically lucky area, which makes this passage correlate with Diamond’s theory of geographic luck. Civilizations were much more able to be set up in good climates with good resources.

            For example, two of the most prominent first civilizations were places like Mesopotamia and Egypt. Both of those civilizations were very near in location to the Fertile Crescent. This also leads us to believe that the Fertile Crescent had really been a place of popularity even back then, being able to spread some of it's resources. It also gives supporting evidence to Diamond’s theory that from the Fertile Crescent, the resources and technology were spread around the Fertile Crescent that led to civilizations like Mesopotamia and Egypt.