Beginning and development
of agriculture

Agriculture and animal raising required the domestication of both animals and plants, raising of species useful for human beings, and taking care of the factors that kept them alive and productive.
 

Domestication (def.) made the species dependent on humans. Economic necessity (inadequacy of food gathering when faced with an increase of population) is probably the main factor leading to the birth of agriculture.
 

Agriculture started simultaneously in several parts of the world. Euro-mediterranean agriculture started in the Middle-East (def.) and spread,  first to the western Mediterranean region, then up to the northern part of Europe.  This happened between 6000 and 2000 BP.
 

Acquisition tools (def.) were replaced by Production tools, stone tools by metal tools, manual agriculture (def.) by animal-powered agriculture (def.)...Moreover, agriculture completely changed the socio-cultural conditions by encouraging the settlement of communities: villages, towns, nations, and empires were built on the basis of cultivated lands.