In this course, you will be learning about the evolution of human beings from our origins as unspectacular primates on the African savannah to our place as the dominant species that has managed to thrive in every ecosystem on this planet. 

We will start by looking at our pre-history. For most of our time on earth, homo sapiens, or "wise humans," stayed in our birthplace in Africa. If we can say that our species has existed for about 200 000 years (though this didn't happen overnight) then we left Africa for the first time in the last third of our existence. 

photo from Super Power Wiki - Human Diversity

We will see how our species settled ourselves into each corner of this world starting about 65 000 years ago. First we went to the Middle East, then to Central Asia. Some of our ancestors headed west to Europe while others journeyed east to Asia. From Asia, we hopped islands in the Pacific, reaching Australia some 45 000 years ago. 

A group of nomadic hunters made their way from Siberia, in what is now eastern Russia, to North America about 20 000 years ago, give or take a few thousand years. We know that by 15 000 years ago, people had taken up residence in the southern reaches of South America. 

As you study this course over the next few months you will be asked to ponder some big questions.

• What allowed modern humans to spread across the planet and create civilizations, something that had never been attempted by any species before us?
• When humans began to farm in the fertile crescent about 8 000 years ago, was this an improvement over foraging?
• What is collective learning? and why was it such a huge step forward for our species?
• What are the key features that define a civilization?
• What is an empire and what makes it rise, stabilize then fall? 
• How were the New World empires similar to the empires in Europe and Asia and how were they different?