Many of the first domesticated animals were reared for products such as meat, wool, hides, milk. But over time humans began to value certain animals for their strength, and for the first time the exploitation of the environment did not rely solely on human muscle power.
Oxen (male cattle castrated to make them more docile) were first harnessed and put to work from about 4000 BCE , in both Europe and the Middle East. At first they dragged sledges, and later ploughs and wheeled wagons, enabling greater areas of land to be cultivated. Their relatives, water buffalo, were similarly used in southern and South-East Asia, being particularly adapted to the wet environment of rice paddies.
The horse – which was to become the dominant mode of transport in many parts of the world for the best part of five millennia – was first domesticated in around 3000 BCE , in the steppes around the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Wild horses are relatively small, but selective breeding by humans produced a great variety of different builds and sizes, suited to a wide range of roles, from pulling heavy carts to carrying messages long distances – it was not until the invention of the steam locomotive that the speed of the horse was to be surpassed.
The wild ass was domesticated around the same time as the horse, in Egypt, and both horses and donkeys were widely used by the early civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt.
The horse in war
Horses were not at first used in war as cavalry – in which each horse carries an armed rider – but to pull chariots. Typically, these were lightweight carts drawn by one or two horses, and carrying a driver and a single warrior, armed with throwing spears or a bow and arrows. In the 2nd and 1st millennia BCE such war chariots were widely used across Europe, the Middle East and central and southern Asia as far east as China, but by the start of the Common Era had largely been superseded by cavalry. Armed horsemen are more manoeuvrable. They can mass in larger units than chariots, and on rougher ground. At first, cavalry were relatively light, as the horses were too small to mount heavily armoured riders. Riders were typically armed with javelins or bows and arrows. With the breeding of heavier horses, the introduction of the stirrup and more stable saddles, and with heavily armoured riders deploying heavy lances against the enemy’s line, cavalry could be used as a shock weapon. Later, the development of firearms eroded the tactical advantage of heavy cavalry.
The third major group of working animals comprises the camelids – the camel family. In South America, the chief working camelid is the llama, which has long ceased to exist in the wild. Although the llama was widely exploited by successive civilizations in South America as a pack animal, it lacks the strength to pull either a plough or a wheeled cart. In the Old World the single-humped Arabian camel (found from North Africa through to India) and the two-humped Bactrian camel of Central Asia and Mongolia are much larger, and are used as draught animals as well as for riding. Camels are well adapted to desert conditions, and can survive long spells without water (although they can drink 100 litres of water in a matter of minutes). The fat in their humps stores energy in times of food shortage. Camels were first domesticated in Arabia, and by 1000 BCE caravans of camels were carrying precious goods up the west coast of Arabia, providing a trade link between India in the east, and Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean in the west.
The last major group of working animals are the elephants. The Indian elephant (once found as far west as Syria) was being used as a beast of burden in the valley of the River Indus by 3500 BCE , and has been used in agriculture and forestry ever since. It was also used in warfare, to carry armed troops. African elephants are far less docile than their Indian cousins. Although they were famously used in battle by the Carthaginian general Hanibal against the Romans in the 3rd century BCE , they often inflicted as much damage on their own side as on the enemy. Attempts to domesticate them were abandoned long ago.