These provided a range of useful resources: meat, milk, skins and wool. Sometime later, people in the Middle East began to domesticate animals, at first sheep, goats and pigs, and later cattle (dogs had already been domesticated thousands of years before). These were the easiest plants to domesticate. It first took place in the Middle East, where a range of edible grasses вЂ“ wheat, emmer, barley вЂ“ grow wild. This development was almost certainly linked to climate changes after the end of the last Ice Age. Early farmingДЇrom about 8,000 BCE, some groups started growing their own food. In a few favored places, particularly on sea coasts where large stocks of marine foods were to be had, such as on the coasts of China, larger and more stable communities were able to develop. They owned only what they could easily carry on their backs, which meant erecting shelters from branches and stones at a new site. They lived in small bands, following a mobile lifestyle as they followed animal herds and moved to where more plants could be found. Up until about 12,000 years ago, all humans were hunter-gatherers: that is, they lived by hunting wild game, fishing, and gathering fruits and berries. It covers world history from 3500 BCE to 2005 CE.

This article consists of a timeline of world history, followed by an article outlining the history of the world.

Rise of nations world map