History timeline, requesting your criticism
Hello,
For purposes of my own study, as well as teaching my chidlren, I am
trying to understand history better. It was never my strongest
subject in school (which was long ago enough to be considered history
itself).
For a simple start, here is a very basic timeline. I would appreciate
your critiques.
???? - 3000 BC Prehistory
3000 BC - 600 BC Antiquity
600 BC - 30 AD Classical
30 AD - 200 AD Early Christian
200 AD - 1500 AD Medieval
1400 AD - 1600 AD Renaissance
1600 AD - 1850 AD Exploration and Early American History
1850 AD - today Modern
Problems:
1. These dates are very rough and should be made more precise if
possible.
2. The divisions are Eurocentric. But that's what I know. For the
most part, the history I learned in school was European and US
history. What was happening in the rest of the world?
Most importantly,
3. What are some better divisions?
(Please respond to the newsgroup, not to my email. It's been taken
over by the hackers and spammers. Bleahhh.)
For starters, Classical usually refers to Classical Greek - 5th and 4th CE
BCE. From 323 BCE it becomes the Hellenistic period. And Roman history is
Republican, Principate, Dominate, Byzantine. Quite a mix here.
I'm not sure what putting in 'Early Christian' is about - it has nothing to
do with the world at large.
You need to formulate whether you want to lock in on religion or history. If
you want History of the Church it is going to be a lot different from
History.
if you want to define broad, inclusive periods of time, you're better
off with rough numbers.
> ???? - 3000 BC Prehistory
> 3000 BC - 600 BC Antiquity
> 600 BC - 30 AD Classical
8000bc. the beginning of agriculture and urban civilization in the
region from turkey to israel. pottery begins in japan.
5000bc. civilization expands to egypt and iraq. megalithic stuctures
are built on the atlantic coast of europe and the british isles, with
similar buildings on the western mediterranean.
two regions which were very advanced in this time later became relative
backwaters: serbia and laos. both used agriculture and copper tools.
the vinca culture of serbia used complex symbols which may have been an
early form of writing, while in china the use of symbols on pottery
would later evolve into writing.
the warming trend that followed the ice age ended at this time. the
sahara begins to dry out. coastlines stabilize.
3000bc. urban civilization begins in pakistan and peru.
1200bc. this is the great dividing line used by modern and ancient
historians alike. it is the setting of national epics: the trojan war,
the exodus of moses.
modern archeologists see a great deal of disruption and migration at
this time. the classical period of egypt ends, as does the megalithic
era of western europe. bronze tools begin to be replaced with iron on a
large scale.
> > 2. The divisions are Eurocentric. But that's what I know. For the
> > most part, the history I learned in school was European and US
> > history. What was happening in the rest of the world?
here are a few dates of international significance:
100bc. by this time you could travel from the pacific to the atlantic,
crossing only four empires: han, kushan, parthian, roman. this enables
the international trade of the silk road.
400ad. indian culture expands into southeast asia and indonesia.
600ad. the rise of the islamic world, stretching from the philipines
the west african coast.
1200ad. the mongol empire. international trade increases in volume.
a eurocentric model of history would revolve around 1500ad, when
european colonialism began. the dates i have provided are of similar
expansions by non-european cultures.
Steve Hayes
Unregistered User
(1/5/04 7:28 am) Reply
Re: History timeline, requesting your criticism
Antiquty is usually taken to extent to AD 500 or thereabouts.
> 600 BC - 30 AD Classical
> 30 AD - 200 AD Early Christian
If you are naming periods because of a significant influence on society, then
"Early Christian" isn't a distinct period in general history, though obviously
it is in church history. But even there the "Early Christian" period probably
extends to about AD 400 -- it was after that point that Christianity had a
significant influence on society, but only in one part of the world.
> 200 AD - 1500 AD Medieval
>1400 AD - 1600 AD Renaissance
>1600 AD - 1850 AD Exploration and Early American History
>1850 AD - today Modern
>
>Problems:
>
>1. These dates are very rough and should be made more precise if
>possible.
>
>2. The divisions are Eurocentric. But that's what I know. For the
>most part, the history I learned in school was European and US
>history. What was happening in the rest of the world?
It is indeed. You should be able to find timelines and chronologies in
reference books and on the Web that show what was going on in different parts
of the world.
>(Please respond to the newsgroup, not to my email. It's been taken
>over by the hackers and spammers. Bleahhh.)
Agamemnon
Unregistered User
(1/5/04 7:29 am) Reply
Re: History timeline, requesting your criticism
-3500 BC stone age
3500-1103 Pre-Archaic
1103-776 Early Archaic
776-480 Late Archaic
480-323 Classical
323-65 Hellenistic
65 BC-1453 AD Greco-Roman
1453-1600 Renaissance
1600-1789 Enlightenment
1789-1945 Imperialistic
1945-today Modern/Post-War
Re: History timeline, requesting your criticism
It is easy to see that Agamemnon's timeline is better than mine, for a
lot of reasons. It's still eurocentric, however.
I'm guessing that such is inevitable.
Since different parts of the world didn't do the same things at the
same time (and often didn't even communicate with each other), it may
be impossible to develop a single history timeline (notice I said a
SINGLE line) that is applicable to the whole world prior to, say, the
20th century.
Is this guess correct?
Thank you,
Ted Shoemaker
I keep saying that I'm going to write a signature line about irony,
but I haven't done it yet.
Ted wrote:
> Hello,
> For purposes of my own study, as well as teaching my chidlren, I am
> trying to understand history better. It was never my strongest
> subject in school (which was long ago enough to be considered history
> itself).
> For a simple start, here is a very basic timeline. I would appreciate
> your critiques.
This can only be a listing of dates "commonly refered to as" in everyday discussion.
> ???? - 3000 BC Prehistory
The 3000 depends upon where. Prehistory ends when there is written history to read
presuming it is discovered. The beginning of a locally written contemporanious record of
some sort. Prehistoric north America, vice central America, is prior to 1492. The idea
comes from a time prior to archaeology so being discovered matters.
> 3000 BC - 600 BC Antiquity
> 600 BC - 30 AD Classical
That should be the period of Greek dominance of western civilization.
> 30 AD - 200 AD Early Christian
Despite the interests of believing christians there is no evidence of any christian
influence even in the roman empire until Constantine. As with prehistory, it also strongly
depends upon location. We don't find much more than scattered mentions of it prior to
200AD. Those dates do not merit such credit.
> 200 AD - 1500 AD Medieval
General considered to start with the start of the disintegration of the western empire as
that was the start of a social organization totally different from the central structure
of the empire. Folks from the eastern empire disagree with this cutoff date for obvious
reasons.
> 1400 AD - 1600 AD Renaissance
> 1600 AD - 1850 AD Exploration and Early American History
Introduction of American is as narrow and parochial as a division called christian. There
was no significant American influence in the world until the Spanish American War and the Panama Canal.
> 1850 AD - today Modern
Modern should be when the scientific and industrial revolutions start becoming major
forces in world events. That is as good an average date as any.
> Problems:
> 1. These dates are very rough and should be made more precise if
> possible.
> 2. The divisions are Eurocentric. But that's what I know. For the
> most part, the history I learned in school was European and US
> history. What was happening in the rest of the world?
Your first two divisions are not eurocentric. Mesopotamia and Egypt are the only possible
reasons for including 3000. Until about 1500 there is not much reason to make mention of Europe.
> Most importantly,
> 3. What are some better divisions?
--
If a group steals takes money from people against their will they
are called thieves and pirates. If a group takes money in return
for protectionfrom thieves and pirates, it is called a government.
-- The Iron Webmaster, 2872
> Egypt are the only possible reasons for including 3000. Until about
> 1500 there is not much reason to make mention of Europe.
Surely Rome and Greek are located in Europe. Both the Greek world
and the Roman empire extended to non European lands, but their
"centers" were in Europe.
Given that his "classical" period would be European centric.
Andi wrote:
> Surely Rome and Greek are located in Europe. Both the Greek world
> and the Roman empire extended to non European lands, but their
> "centers" were in Europe.
> Given that his "classical" period would be European centric.
The Tigris/Euphrates civilizations were pretty much on their own when they started unless I have missed something. Same with Egypt. I don't have a formal enducation in ancient history so I never had to memorize exact events and dates but those regions didn't do much more than consolidate until around 2000-1500 and when they started expanding they took after each other. Persi starts get into the act about the end of the period. We are still only talking Asia and Africa.
It is an opening for eternal disagreement whether Turkey is Asia or Europe. That applies to some other kingdoms in the region. We start finding the beginnings of a culture we can call "Greek" if we wish to excite purists but that is about 1200 and it doesn't become a player in world events until it turns back Persia. That leads to payback time with Alexander who adds Egypt for good measure. And that ends some time after Rome has taken over all the Greek empires plus a few years for cultural trends to shift completely to Rome.
"Iraq" does not rise again until under Islam around 1000AD and doesn't last very long but the cultural world is squarely in Islam unti the 15th or 16th century as much for the rise of christianity as the decline of islam.
My thoughts anyway. The object was to avoid eurocentrism so things should be looked at terms of their effects on world history. It is PC to say we ignore Chinese history but
talking about its effects on the world would be sinocentric for almost all of its history.
The "international" aspect of that region is a perpetual serious of border wars that don'e
seem to go any place after the major commbatants were defined. The impacts had only a bit more global impact than the mesoamerican wars.
-- West Nile Virus
It a strain known only in Israel. No one disagrees.
To this day no one can find a natural means for it to be in the US.
Israel has announced it has a vaccine to sell in the US.
I report. You decide.
-- The Iron Webmaster, 2869
Email This To a Friend
Topic Commands
Click to receive email notification of replies 
Click to stop receiving email notification of replies