Prequisite for homology theory

Question

I have almost finished Hatcher topology section $1.1$ but not $1.2$(Van Kampen's theorem) and $1.3$( covereing space)

Now my question is that

Can I directly jump into $2$nd chapter homology theory?

Will I face any difficulty in understanding if i will not read Van Kampen and covering space topics.Actually i don't want to read $1.2$(Van Kampen's theorem) and $1.3$( covereing space).I want to skip these two topics

I have seen many books of algebraics Toplogy where fundamental group chapter is not included.

Also,i want to know the about the prequisite for homology theory

Answer 1

The homology chapter of Hatcher does not logically depend on 1.2 and 1.3. All chapters of Hatcher are pretty much independent of each other(not logically, but you can pretty much start from any chapter and go backwards whenever necessary). However, Van Kampen and covering spaces are important, skipping them would be unwise.

Hatcher is basically self-contained. I don't think one needs extra prerequisite to understand the homology chapter.