What are the different "Ages" of the world?
Hey,
How are you doing? I hope you’ve had a great weekend and I wish you a really super week ahead.
Remember that we all have a purpose in this world. Sometimes more than one. Live it and enjoy your journey.
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The Earth is about 4.5 billion years old, according to science at least. According to most religions, it's much younger. Humans are much younger. The earliest signs of humans are about 2.5 million years ago. And this was early humans like homo habilis and eventually homo erectus, Neanderthals and Denisovans.
We, homo sapiens, are estimated to have emerged about 300,000 years ago. Most people don't know (or have forgotten) that humanity began from Africa. The earliest home sapiens began to migrate out of Africa and across other parts of the world. Interesting.
What I've been curious about recently though is learning about the progress of humanity after this period. The aim is primarily to quench my curiosity about world history. But importantly, it's also the figure out what we can learn from history about the progress of civilizations and how that information can help Africa step up our game. I believe that understanding history provides a richer context for our daily lives and our approach to socio-economic issues.
Today's focus is on trying to understand the different 'Ages' that humanity and the world has been through. There are four main ways that time periods of history are classified: cosmological (time periods in the origin and mass evolution of the universe), geological (time periods in the origin and evolution of the Earth), anthropological and historical (time periods in the origin and evolution of human civilization) (Source).
The standardized way of classifying historical time periods of human history is the 'Three-Age' system. This system essentially puts human existence so far into three major periods (Source):
The Stone Age (2.5 million B.C. to 3000 B.C.) - documents the human migration from Africa and first use of tools by Neanderthals, Denisovans and early humans
The Bronze Age (3000 B.C. to 1300 B.C.) - humans settle in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley and ancient Egypt; invention of the wheel and metalworking
The Iron Age (1300 B.C. till today) - formation of planned cities, introduction of ironworks, steel, and writing systems
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Some people argue that the Iron age ended around 600 BC but a huge part of our modern society still leverages iron.
So an easier system to use to visualize different time periods since 1300 BC is the use of Eras. In this system, there are 5 main historical eras.
Prehistory Era
Classical Era
Middle Ages
Early Modern Era
Modern Era
(Adapted from YourDictionary.com)
The Stone Age (2.5 million B.C. to 3000 B.C.)
The Bronze Age (3000 B.C. to 1300 B.C.)
The Iron Age (1300 B.C. to 600 B.C.)
The Classical era was mainly centered around the civilizations on the Mediterranean Sea and their contributions to world culture. These empires included:
Ancient Greece (600 B.C. to A.D. 600) - foundation of democracy, philosophy, mathematics, drama, and poetry
Ancient Rome (753 B.C. to A.D. 476) - political power that developed the legal system, irrigation, architecture, city roads, and Christianity
Persian Empire (550 B.C. to 330 B.C.) - Middle Eastern empire that practiced Zoroastrianism before Islam and fell to Alexander the Great in 330 B.C.
Byzantine Empire (A.D. 285 to A.D. 1453) - Mediterranean culture that incorporated practices and beliefs from ancient Greece and Rome; the only major power not to fall until after the Renaissance
The Middle Ages was an unstable period that lasted for nearly a millennium. Historians often group the era into three distinct periods: the Early Middle Ages, the High Middle Ages and the Late Middle Ages.
Early Middle Ages (A.D. 476 to A.D. 1000) - also known as Late Antiquity; this period shows most powers rebuilding after the collapse of the Roman Empire and the beginning of Islam in the Middle East.
High Middle Ages (A.D. 1000 to A.D. 1250) - 250-year period that saw the height of the Catholic church’s power in the Crusades.
Late Middle Ages (A.D. 1250 to A.D. 1450) - a period that saw the Black Plague, the beginning of European exploration and the invention of the printing press.
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The major movements in politics, religion, and geography helped to guide human civilization into the Modern era. These movements include:
Renaissance Humanism (A.D. 1400 to A.D. 1500 ) - break from medieval scholasticism that incorporated Classical thought into Early Modern ideas
Protestant Reformation (A.D. 1517 to A.D. 1648) - religious movement in which Lutheranism (started by Martin Luther) broke with the Catholic church and redefined Christianity
The European Renaissance (A.D. 1450 to A.D. 1600) - known as a cultural “rebirth” in art, music, literature, society, and philosophy
The Enlightenment (A.D. 1650 to A.D. 1800) - an intellectual movement that is also called the Age of Reason; saw the re-examination of politics, economics and science before giving way to Romanticism in the 19th century
Because our history of the last three centuries is so well documented, it’s possible to examine each period of the Modern era on its own. These eras include:
First Industrial Revolution (A.D. 1760 to A.D. 1840) - beginning of the modern era that saw several technological innovations, including the invention of the cotton gin, the increase of city factories and mills and the completion of the Erie Canal.
Revolutionary Period (A.D. 1764 to A.D. 1848) - period of revolutions around the world, including the American Revolution, French Revolution, Spanish-American Wars for Independence, Italian Revolutions, Greek War of Independence, and the Spring of Nations.
Age of Imperialism (A.D. 1800 to A.D. 1914) - century of time in which France, Britain, Spain, the Netherlands, and the United States colonized in other nations around the world.
Victorian Era (A.D. 1837 to A.D. 1901) - reign of Queen Victoria I that saw increased urbanization, the American Civil War and the end of African slavery
Second Industrial Revolution (A.D. 1869 to A.D. 1914 ) - often referred to as the Technological Revolution; period in which the light bulb, the telephone, the airplane, and the Model T automobile were invented
World War I (A.D. 1914 to A.D. 1918) - worldwide conflict centered in Europe; also known as the Great War
Great Depression (A.D. 1929 to A.D. 1939) - extended period of worldwide economic hardship that started with the stock market crash in 1929
World War II (A.D. 1939 to A.D. 1945) - wartime period that began with Germany’s invasion of Poland and ends with the surrender of Japan, the last standing Axis power
Contemporary Period (A.D. 1945 to current) - also known as the Information Age; the period in which technological advances define social, economic and political life
This time series of the past couple of millennia is fascinating. The technological and social evolution of the world we live in today is a faster pace than ever before.
In 2006, there was about 0.16 zettabytes of data created by humans up until that point. At the end of 2020, that number was at 59 zettabytes. This means that data created on a single day in 2020 was more equal to or more than all the data the world had created by 2006. The amount of data we produce yearly is expected to reach 149 zettabytes by 2024.
While this seems like such a fast pace though, it would not be possible without the foundation built by our ancestors across different eras of human history. It however shows us that the progression of the human race is built off the efforts of those that are no longer with us.
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Here are some lessons/thoughts that I have from journey of exploring this musing:
The role of contrarians and a progress mentality: In my recent study of human history, in almost all instances, society progressed as a result of the efforts of contrarians. People who were curious, who asked questions, who questioned rules, problem solvers and people who differed from the norm.
This is interesting because most of our education and societal rules are geared towards making people conform. I personally do not think that everyone will be contrarians. However, every society that progresses and goes on to outlive others had contrarians who created new things that made the old obsolete.
Therefore, we should encourage people who are contrarian to explore their curiosities and weirdness because we never know if they're the ones who'll create something that moves the human race forward.
Western supremacy in influencing the narrative: When you think about what you know about the world, a huge amount of it is skewed to western cultures and societies. I wrote about the renaissance age last week for instance but that was largely the view of what happened in Europe.
Most people don't know much about what was happening in China and other parts of Asia around that time. Or in the Americas. Or in Africa (Outisde North Africa). The lesson from this is that history as we know if today should be taken with a grain of salt because it's likely incomplete.
But this also shows the importance of documentation and quest for human progress. While Asia had strong dynasties and documentation that might just not be as popular, there is very little known about large parts of the Americas and Africa for instance.
One reason for this could also be that in Africa, we don't have a strong archeology culture. How much exploration of our lands have been done to better understand what the life of those who lived 2,000 years ago in the region I'm writing this letter from?
At the end of the day, history is written by those who emerged victorious.
Generalization: I enjoyed reading this contrarian article by Prof. Föll, a professor of material sciences at Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (CAU). In his opinion, there is not a clear distinction between the different ages.
We describe the stone age such because most of the tools we discovered date back to that time period. This however doesn't mean that the use of bronze and iron tools didn't exist during that period. Prof. Foll shares multiple examples of discoveries that date much later to the 'Ages' they're constricted to.
Another point that he makes is that the "Ages" will differ by geography and people. The fact that humans in Egypt used bronze tools in the creation of the pyramids does not mean that iron tools were not already in use in other parts of the world. While standardization of dates for Age might help in sharing information about them, it's important to remember that it's not rigid.
I love it! ◌ I Like It ◌ Not Bad ◌ I Don’t Like It ◌It’s Awful
What do you think about the documentation of the different historical ages and what we can learn from them? Do you think the lack of deep historical data about Africa is an issue?
This letter was written while listening to a Jon Bellion playlist.
Love always,
Francis.
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