How the story is divided

Since history exists, human beings have looked for the best way to divide it and separate it into phases to better understand the great changes that happen between the different parts. The most widely used model at present is the European one, being the main one in those western cultures and increasingly expanded throughout the world. To explain this model in this lesson from a TEACHER we are going to discover you how the story is divided with the most common periods that have been officially established.

Index

1. Prehistory, the first division of history
2. Old age
3. Middle Ages
4. Modern age
5. Contemporary age

To know how the story is divided, it is important that we bear in mind that the main stage encompasses many years that have been labeled as Prehistory.

The first of the different stages that make up the history of mankind is called Prehistory, the entire historical period being prior to the creation of the deed

The prehistory did not have a similar evolution around the world, as some regions advanced much faster than the rest, and it is therefore difficult to create a homogeneous division between all of them. Even so, for the European model the phases of Prehistory are the following:

• Paleolithic: Human beings begin to expand throughout the world. First handling of fire and lithic production.
• Mesolithic: Humans improved agricultural production and groups with larger numbers of people were increasingly common.
• Neolithic: Technological and social improvements that led to the appearance of the first sedentary human beings.
• Copper Age: The appearance of copper allowed the creation of more efficient and durable tools.
• Bronze Age: Bronze began to be used, a more useful material than copper.
• Iron age: Use of iron and human beings begin to form cities that would end up being great civilizations.

The Old age is the historical period between the emergence of the writing, being created by the calls ancient civilizations, and that ends with the fall of Western Roman Empire in 476.

At this time, the models of political power and large religious organizations that have been maintained to this day were born, being the creation of the social strata and of the thought of the cities urbanistic thought an important value of this stage.

In ancient times some of the greater states and civilizations of the history of the humanity, being the present society a direct consequence of the thoughts and customs of these regions. Some of these cultures are the egyptians, the Sumerians, the Mesopotamians, the greek, the romans and the persian.

Like the rest of the periods of our history, the Ancient Age can be divided into phases, these stages being the following:

• Classical antiquity: It is the stage that includes the Greco-Roman period, that is, it ranges from the first peoples of Classical Greece to the last years of the Roman Empire.
• Late antiquity: A period in continuous debate that usually encompasses the Third century crisis from Rome until the first Muslim conquests.

The Middle Ages is the historical period included between the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 to discovery of America in 1492; although on certain occasions it is situated in the fall of the Byzantine Empire, invention of the printing press or the end of the Hundred Years War, all of them in 1453.

Among the main elements of this historical period we can speak of the replacement of the slave-owning economic system by the feudal, the appearance of the islamic culture and its confrontation against Christianity or the change towards a political system based on the greater importance of royalty and nobility.

As for the division of the Middle Ages, necessary for its long duration, we must talk about the following medieval stages:

• High Middle Ages: Between the 5th and 10th centuries is a stage characterized by the consolidation of Christianity throughout Europe. Its end is usually set by the beginning of feudalism, the decline of the great Abbasid caliphate, and the Viking invasions.
• Full Middle Ages: It covers from the 11th to the 13th century, being an intermediate stage between the fullness of the High Middle Ages and the decline of the Low Middle Ages. In this stage, Christianity continued its expansion, maintaining strong confrontations against Islam, the Crusades and the Reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula being great examples.
• Middle Ages: Between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries it was marked by a strong crisis caused by the Black Death that decimated most of the European population.

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It is the historical period between the discovery of America in 1492 and the French Revolution in 1789. Between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, it is a short-lived stage, although the great changes that occurred during this time give it great importance.

The discovery of a new world and the crisis caused by the Black Death brought great changes to the world society, being important to know them to understand the importance of the Age Modern The main characteristics of the Modern Age are as follows:

• The bourgeoisie It is taking on greater importance, being a non-privileged social class that begins to have greater economic power than the nobility and the clergy.
• At the beginning of this stage, Kings they began to have a greater and absolute power than in the Middle Ages, although at the end of this stage and with the arrival of the liberal revolutions their power declined.
• The Church went into crisis and underwent numerous transformations in order not to lose his power, the Pope was less and less important in the face of the growing power of the kings.
• It was a time of great discoveries, starting a globalization that would be vital for the future of the world.
• First economic changes that over time would lead to a system increasingly similar to the capitalism.

Image: Lifeder

To conclude this lesson on how history is divided, we must talk about the stage in which we find ourselves today, the so-called Contemporary Age.

This stage is comprised from the French revolution in 1789 to the present, since although for years many historians have proposed specific dates to create a new stage, none has worked, thus remaining as our historical stage.

Between the features most important of contemporary times we can find:

• A new way of thinking, living and working
• Transformation in all senses of society
• A great technological evolution that would lead to industrial revolutions and the appearance of new sources of information
• Emergence of democracy,
• Globalization of the world.

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