Resources, Hazards and Human History
- Earth & Space
- Ages 14–18 · Grades 9–12
What you’ll find out
- Early cities grew along rivers that supplied water, fertile soil and trade routes; later industry clustered near coal and iron.
- Resources are unevenly distributed because each forms only where particular geological processes operated.
- Hazards and climate changes have shaped human settlement, from Pompeii to the decline of Classic Maya cities.
No sign-up and no real names. In the lesson you check your understanding as you read, and practise until it sticks.
Resources shaped where people live
The availability of natural resources has shaped where people live and how societies developed. The earliest cities grew along great rivers, such as the Nile, the Tigris and Euphrates, the Indus and the Yellow River. These rivers supplied water for drinking and irrigation. Their floods spread fertile silt across the land. In Egypt, farming depended on the Nile’s yearly flood. Thousands of years later, the Industrial Revolution drew people to live near coalfields and iron ore. Resources are unevenly distributed because they form only where particular geological processes occurred. So some regions are rich in oil, metals or fresh water, while others are poor. Gold discoveries also drew huge crowds.
Hazards and a changing climate
Natural hazards also shape human activity, often in the same places that offer valuable resources. Volcanic ash weathers into very fertile soil, so many people farm the slopes of volcanoes in Indonesia, Italy and Central America. The danger is real: in 79 CE an eruption of Vesuvius buried the Roman town of Pompeii. Floodplains offer rich soil but regularly flood. Earthquakes strike along plate boundaries, where people now use stronger building codes and warning systems. Climate change has shaped history too. The warm, stable climate that followed the last ice age allowed farming to begin. Later, long droughts contributed to the decline of several civilisations, including the Classic Maya.
Curriculum links: NGSS HS-ESS3-1 · England KS4: Chemistry · Cambridge IGCSE: Environmental Management