The aim of the course is to familiarize students with the relationship between man and the natural environment in the long process of cultural development of the human race, from the paleolithic stage with it’s gatherer-hunting economy, through early agricultural communities of the Neolithic period, the birth of urban communities, the first civilizations to the times of the industrial revolution and the modern IT world. Attention will be paid to the geographical diversity of the natural and cultural environment reaching beyond Europe on the African, Asian, American and Oceania continent.