HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Human history is marked both by a gradual accretion of discoveries and inventions, as well as by quantum leaps — paradigm shifts, revolutions — that comprise epochs in the material and spiritual evolution of humankind. One such epoch was the advent of the Agricultural Revolution. Between 8,500 and 7,000 BCE, in the Fertile Crescent, humans began the systematic husbandry of plants and animals — agriculture. This spread to neighboring regions, and also developed independently elsewhere, until most Homo sapiens lived sedentary lives in permanent settlements as farmers.
Not all societies abandoned nomadism, especially those in isolated regions that were poor in domesticable plant species. Those societies that did abandoned nomadism were scattered habitations, centered about life-sustaining bodies of water — rivers and lakes — coalesced over time into ever larger units, in parallel with the evolution of ever more efficient means of transport. These people did adopt agriculture and the relative security and increased productivity provided by farming allowed the population to expand. Surplus food made possible an increasing division of labor, the rise of a leisured upper class, the development of cities and thus civilization. The growing complexity of human societies necessitated systems of accounting, and from this evolved, beginning in the Bronze Age, writing.World history, which examines history from a global perspective, looks to the invention of writing as the key component that gave rise to civilization, i.e., to permanent settled communities which fostered a growing diversity of trades.[14] This invention created the infrastructure for lasting, accurately transmitted memories and thus the capability for the diffusion and growth of knowledge.[14] There are various written accounts of languages developing. The early writing systems were not a sudden invention. They were rather based on ancient traditions of symbol systems that cannot be classified as writing proper, but have many characteristics strikingly reminiscent of writing, so that they may be described as proto-writing. The independent invention of writing at several sites on Earth allow various regions to claim to be a cradle of civilization. The various writing styles, in turn, had been made necessary in the wake of the Agricultural Revolution.
Civilizations developed perforce on the banks of rivers. One of the first to arise, between 4,000 and 3,000 BCE, was Sumer, in the Middle East's "land between the rivers"—Mesopotamia Other civilizations soon developed on the banks of the Nile River in ancient Egypt at the Indus River valley and along the great rivers of China.
The history of the Old World is commonly divided into:
Antiquity — in the Ancient Near East,the Mediterranean basin of Classical Antiquity, Ancient China,[25] and Ancient India, up to about the 6th century;
the Middle Ages from the 6th through the 15th centuries;
the Early Modern periodincluding the European Renaissance, from the 16th century to about 1750; and
the Modern period, from the Age of Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, beginning about 1750, to the present.
In Europe, the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476 CE) is commonly taken as signaling the end of antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages. A thousand years later, in the mid-15th century, Johannes Gutenberg's invention of modern printing,[29] employing movable type, revolutionized communication, helping end the Middle Ages and usher in modern times, the European Renaissance[30][31] and the Scientific Revolution.[32]
By the 18th century, the accumulation of knowledge and technology, especially in Europe, had reached a critical mass that sparked into existence the Industrial Revolution.[33] Over the quarter-millennium since, the growth of knowledge, technology, commerce, and — concomitantly with these — the potential destructiveness of war has accelerated geometrically, creating the opportunities and perils that now confront the human communities that together inhabit the planet.
[edit] Prehistory
Main article: Prehistory

[edit] Paleolithic
Main articles: Paleolithic, Recent African Origin, Early Homo sapiens, and Early human migrations

Map of early human migrations, according to mitochondrial population genetics. Numbers are millennia before the present (accuracy disputed).
"Paleolithic" means "Old Stone Age." This was the earliest period of the Stone Age. The Lower Paleolithic predates Homo sapiens, beginning with Homo habilis and the earliest use of stone tools some 2.5 million years ago. Homo sapiens originated some 200,000 years ago, ushering in the Middle Paleolithic.[36][37]
Sometime during the Middle Paleolithic, humans also developed language, music, early art, as well as systematic burial of the dead.[38]
Humans spread from East Africa to the Near East some 80 millennia ago, and further to southern Asia and Australasia some 60 millennia ago, northwestwards into Europe and eastwards into Central Asia some 40 millennia ago, and further east to the Americas from ca. 30 millennia ago. The Upper Paleolithic is taken to begin some 40 millennia ago, with the appearance of "high" culture.[39] Expansion to North America and Oceania took place at the climax of the most recent Ice Age, when today's temperate regions were extremely inhospitable. By the end of the Ice Age some 12,000 BP, humans had colonised nearly all the ice-free parts of the globe.
Throughout the Paleolithic, humans generally lived as nomadic hunter-gatherers. Hunter-gatherer societies have tended to be very small and egalitarian, though hunter-gatherer societies with abundant resources or advanced food-storage techniques have sometimes developed a sedentary lifestyle, complex social structures such as chiefdoms, and social stratification; and long-distance contacts may be possible, as in the case of Indigenous Australian "highways."

[edit] Mesolithic
Main article: Mesolithic

Dugout canoe.
The "Mesolithic," or "Middle Stone Age" (from the Greek "mesos," "middle," and "lithos," "stone") was a period in the development of human technology between the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods of the Stone Age.[40]
The Mesolithic period began at the end of the Pleistocene epoch, some 10,000 BP, and ended with the introduction of agriculture, the date of which varied by geographic region. In some areas, such as the Near East, agriculture was already underway by the end of the Pleistocene, and there the Mesolithic is short and poorly defined. In areas with limited glacial impact, the term "Epipaleolithic" is sometimes preferred.
Regions that experienced greater environmental effects as the last ice age ended have a much more evident Mesolithic era, lasting millennia.[41] In Northern Europe, societies were able to live well on rich food supplies from the marshlands fostered by the warmer climate. Such conditions produced distinctive human behaviours which are preserved in the material record, such as the Maglemosian and Azilian cultures. These conditions also delayed the coming of the Neolithic until as late as 4000 BCE (6,000 BP) in northern Europe.
Remains from this period are few and far between, often limited to middens. In forested areas, the first signs of deforestation have been found, although this would only begin in earnest during the Neolithic, when more space was needed for agriculture.
The Mesolithic is characterized in most areas by small composite flint tools — microliths and microburins. Fishing tackle, stone adzes and wooden objects, e.g. canoes and bows, have been found at some sites. These technologies first occur in Africa, associated with the Azilian cultures, before spreading to Europe through the Ibero-Maurusian culture of Spain and Portugal, and the Kebaran culture of Palestine. Independent discovery is not always ruled out.
During the Mesolithic as in the preceding Paleolithic period, people lived in small (mostly egalitarian) bands and tribes.

[edit] Neolithic
Main article: Neolithic Period
"Neolithic" means "New Stone Age." This was a period of primitive technological and social development, toward the end of the "Stone Age." Beginning in the 10th millennium BCE (12,000 BP), the Neolithic period saw the development of early villages, agriculture, animal domestication and tools.[42][43]

[edit] Rise of agriculture
Main article: History of Agriculture

Ox-drawn plow, Egypt, ca. 1200 BCE.
A major change, described by prehistorian Vere Gordon Childe as the "Agricultural Revolution," occurred about the 10th millennium BCE with the adoption of agriculture. The Sumerians first began farming ca. 9500 BCE. By 7000 BCE, agriculture had spread to India; by 6000 BCE, to Egypt; by 5000 BCE, to China. About 2700 BCE, agriculture had come to Mesoamerica.[44]
Although attention has tended to concentrate on the Middle East's Fertile Crescent, archaeology in the Americas, East Asia and Southeast Asia indicates that agricultural systems, using different crops and animals, may in some cases have developed there nearly as early. The development of organised irrigation, and the use of a specialised workforce, by the Sumerians, began about 5500 BCE. Stone was supplanted by bronze and iron in implements of agriculture and warfare. Agricultural settlements had until then been almost completely dependent on stone tools. In Eurasia, copper and bronze tools, decorations and weapons began to be commonplace about 3000 BCE. After bronze, the Eastern Mediterranean region, Middle East and China saw the introduction of iron tools and weapons.

The technological and social state of the world, circa 1000 BCE.
The Americas may not have had metal tools until the Chavín horizon (900 BCE). The Moche did have metal armor, knives and tableware. Even the metal-poor Inca had metal-tipped plows, at least after the conquest of Chimor. However, little archaeological research has so far been done in Peru, and nearly all the khipus (recording devices, in the form of knots, used by the Incas) were burned in the Spanish conquest of Peru. As late as 2004, entire cities were still being unearthed. Some digs suggest that steel may have been produced there before it was developed in Europe.
The cradles of early civilizations were river valleys, such as the Euphrates and Tigris valleys in Mesopotamia, the Nile valley in Egypt, the Indus valley in the Indian subcontinent, and the Yangtze and Yellow River valleys in China. Some nomadic peoples, such as the Indigenous Australians and the Bushmen of southern Africa, did not practice agriculture until relatively recent times.[45][46][47]
Before 1800, many populations did not belong to states. Scientists disagree as to whether the term "tribe"[48] should be applied to the kinds of societies that these people lived in. Many tribal societies, in Europe and elsewhere, transformed into states when they were threatened, or otherwise impinged on, by existing states. Examples are the Marcomanni, Poland and Lithuania. Some "tribes," such as the Kassites and the Manchus, conquered states and were absorbed by them.
Agriculture made possible complex societies — civilizations. States and markets emerged. Technologies enhanced people's ability to control nature and to develop transport and communication.

[edit] Rise of religion
It is to the Neolithic that most historians trace the beginnings of complex religion.[49][50][51] Religious belief in this period commonly consisted in the worship of a Mother Goddess, a Sky Father, and of the Sun and Moon as deities. (see also Sun worship). Shrines developed, which over time evolved into temple establishments, complete with a complex hierarchy of priests and priestesses and other functionaries. Typical of the Neolithic was a tendency to worship anthropomorphic deities. The earliest surviving religious scriptures are the Pyramid Texts, produced by the Egyptians (dating back to 3100 B.C.E).

[edit] Bronze Age
Further information: Ancient history

Ancient Egyptians in Africa built the Great Pyramids of Giza, regarded by many as the greatest architectural feat of ancient times.
The Bronze Age forms part of the three-age system. In this system, it follows the Neolithic in some areas of the world. In the 24th century BC, Akkadian Empire[52][53] In the 22nd century BC, the First Intermediate Period of Egypt occurred The time between the 21st to 17th centuries BC aroundthe Nile has been denoted as Middle Kingdom of Egypt. In the 21st century BC, the Sumerian Renaissance occurs. By the 18th century, the Second Intermediate Period of Egypt begins.
By 1600 BC, Mycenaean Greece begins to develop.[54][55] Also by 1600 BC, the beginning of Shang Dynasty in China emerges and there is evidence of a fully developed Chinese writing system. Around 1600 BC, the beginning of Hittite dominance of the Eastern Mediterranean region is seen. The time between the 16th to 11th centuries around the Nile is call the New Kingdom of Egypt. [56][57] Between 1550 BC and 1292 BC, the Amarna period occurs.

[edit] Early civilization
Main articles: State and Civilization
The first Agricultural Revolution led to several major changes. It permitted far denser populations, which in time organised into states. There are several definitions for the term, "state." Max Weber and Norbert Elias defined a state as an organization of people that has a monopoly on the legitimate use of force in a particular geographic area.

Borders delineate states — a prominent example is the Great Wall of China, which stretches over 6,400 km, and was first erected in the 3rd century BCE to protect the north from nomadic invaders called Xiongnu. It has since been rebuilt and augmented several times.
In Bronze Age Mesopotamia and Iran, there were several city-states. States appeared in Mesopotamia, western Iran, and Indus Valley. Ancient Egypt began as a state without cities, but soon developed them. States appeared in China in the late 3rd and early 2nd millennia BCE.
A state ordinarily needs an army for the legitimate exercise of force. An army needs a bureaucracy to maintain it. The only exception to this appears to have been the Indus Valley civilization, for which there is no evidence of the existence of a military force.
Major wars were waged among states in the Middle East. About 1275 BCE, the Hittites under Muwatalli II and the Egyptians under Ramesses II concluded the treaty of Kadesh, the world's oldest recorded peace treaty.[58]
Empires came into being, with conquered areas ruled by central tribes, as in the Neo-Assyrian Empire (10th century BCE), the Achaemenid Persian Empire (6th century BCE), the Mauryan Empire (4th century BCE), Qin and Han China (3rd century BCE), and the Roman Empire (1st century BCE).
Clashes among empires included those that took place in the 8th century, when the Islamic Caliphate of Arabia (ruling from Spain to Iran) and China's Tang dynasty (ruling from Xinjiang to Dalian) fought for decades for control of Central Asia.

Middle Ages
Main article: Middle Ages
The Middle Ages are commonly dated from the fall of the Western Roman Empire (or by some scholars,[who?] before that) in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period[117] in the 16th century, marked by the rise of nation-states, the division of Western Christianity in the Reformation,[118] the rise of humanism in the Italian Renaissance,[119] and the beginnings of European overseas expansion which allowed for the Columbian Exchange.[120]
The period corresponds to the Islamic conquests[121] and the Islamic golden age,[122][123] followed by the Mongol invasions in the Middle East and Central Asia. South Asia sees a series of "Middle kingdoms" followed by the establisment of Islamic empires. The Chinese Empire sees the succession of the Sui, Tang, Liao, Yuan and Ming Dynasties.
The Middle Ages[124] witnessed the first sustained urbanization of northern and western Europe. Many modern European states owe their origins to events unfolding in the Middle Ages; present European political boundaries are, in many regards, the result of the military and dynastic achievements during this tumultuous period.
21st century
As the 20th century yielded to the 21st, it became increasingly clear that Earth's human population was fast becoming lodged in a historic bottleneck of resource constraints, exacerbated by mounting population and growing environmental degradation.[169] A matter of particular urgency was the development of more plentiful and safer sources of energy such as solar and other renewable energy varieties, and perhaps expanded use of nuclear energy and of "clean" fossil-fuel technologies.[170][171]
Older industrial regions competed with rapidly-industrializing economies, including those of China and India, for the world's resources, including petroleum. Smaller polities, too, made their contributions to global competition and strife. The life courses of many states continued to be accompanied by wars, with resulting loss of life, economic devastation, disease, famine and genocide. As of 2008, some 30 ongoing armed conflicts raged in various parts of the world.


History topics
Medieval demography
History of science
History of technology
Technological singularity
Historiography
Development criticism

[edit] History by period
List of archaeological periods
List of time periods

[edit] History by region
History of Africa
History of the Americas: History of North America, History of Central America, History of the Caribbean, History of South America
History of Antarctica
History of Asia: History of East Asia, History of the Middle East, History of South Asia, History of Southeast Asia
History of Australia
History of Europe
History of New Zealand
History of the Pacific Islands