The same land is farmed every year, which is called “sedentary farming.” This is different from nomadic farming, in which new areas are farmed as the soil becomes less rich in nutrients from a lot of planting, and shifting cultivation, in which controlled forest fires are used to make land that can be farmed.
Both Eurasia and the Americas came up with settled farming on their own. By 10,000 B.C.E., farming was done in one place on the Eurasian continent.
The first people to live in America did not arrive until 20,000 B.C.E. They were hunters and gatherers. By 7,000 B.C.E., people in South America were also farming. Sedentary farming on both continents made it possible for civilization to grow.
