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The First Wave:
The Agricultural Revolution
Alvin Toffler's First Wave began approximately 10,000 years ago. That time marked the end of the Old Stone Age (the Paleolithic)and the beginning of the New Stone Age or the Neolithic. This is approximately when the Agricultural Revolution started. People began clearing land and tilling the soil in order to plant crops as opposed to gathering what nature provided or failed to provide. They also started domesticating animals and herding of cattle.
The new knowledge, techniques, and practices of agriculture provided them with larger and steadier supplies of food. In modern terms, wealth increased. But, preparing land for agriculture was work intensive and time consuming. Appropriate terrain had to be found. Trees had to be cut down, and their roots had to be dug out to make land suitable for planting and harvesting.
As a result, tribes, that had been primarily nomadic in nature, started becoming more and more sedentary. They stopped moving around and following herds' migration patterns, and began building
permanent structures, houses, barnes, etc. Settlements started to form and grow. Eventually, these expanded into villages, town, and the vast cities and empires of ancient times.
As the knowledge and tools developed, agriculture became more and more efficient and effective in providing food. Wealth grew and became increasing able to support a growing number of people not involved in food production, the nobility, the clergy, and the military. That is, social classes and an early division of labour began to emerge.
Then, the Second Wave hit.
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