, otherwise known as "World History", is the history of humankind ("Homo sapiens"), from the earliest times to the present, in all places on earth. It excludes non-human "natural history" and "geological history", except insofar as the natural world substantially affects human lives. World history encompasses the study of written records, from ancient times forward, plus additional knowledge gained from other sources, such as "archaeology". Ancientrecorded history[1] begins with the invention, independently at several sites on Earth, of writing, which created the infrastructure for lasting, accurately transmitted memories and thus for the diffusion and growth of knowledge.[2][3] However, the roots of civilization reach back to the period before writing — humanity's prehistory.
Human prehistory begins in the Paleolithic Era, or "Early Stone Age". During the Neolithic Era (New Stone Age; to be precise, the Agricultural Revolution between 8500 and 7000 BCE in theFertile Crescent), humans began the systematic husbandry of plants and animals —agriculture.[4][5][6] It spread to neighboring regions and also developed independently elsewhere, until most humans lived as farmers in permanent settlements.[7] The relative security and increased productivity provided by farming allowed these communities to expand. They grew over time into increasingly larger units in parallel with the evolution of ever more efficient means oftransport.
Surplus food made possible an increasing division of labor, the rise of a leisured upper class, and the development of cities and thus, of civilization. The growing complexity of human societies necessitated systems of accounting, which led to writing.[8]
Civilizations developed on the banks of life-sustaining bodies of fresh water (lakes and rivers). By 3000 BCE, they had arisen in the Middle East's Mesopotamia (the "land between the Rivers"Euphrates and Tigris),[9] on the banks of Egypt's River Nile,[10][11][12] and in the Indus River valley.[13][14][15] Similar civilizations are believed also to have arisen at this time along the great rivers of China, but the archaeological evidence for extensive urban construction is less distinct.
The history of the Old World (Europe in particular) is commonly divided into Antiquity, up to 476 CE; the Middle Ages,[16][17] from the 5th through the 15th centuries, including the early European Renaissance; the Early Modern period,[18] from the 15th century to the late 18th, including the Age of Enlightenment; and the Late Modern period, from the Industrial Revolution to the present, including Contemporary History.
In Europe, the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476 CE) is commonly taken as signaling the end of antiquity and the beginning of theMiddle Ages, during which (around the year 1300) the European Renaissance[19][20] emerges. In the mid-15th century, Johannes Gutenberg's invention of modern printing,[21] employing movable type, revolutionized communication, helping end the Middle Ages and usher in modern times and the Scientific Revolution.[22] By the 18th century, the accumulation of knowledge and technology, especially in Europe, had reached a critical mass that brought about the Industrial Revolution.[23]
In other parts of the world, in the ancient Near East,[24][25][26] ancient China,[27] ancient India and elsewhere, the historical timeline unfolded differently, but by the 18th century, due to extensive world trade and colonization, the histories of the many human civilizations had, in large measure, converged. In the last quarter-millennium, the growth of knowledge, technology, commerce, and of the potential destructiveness of war has accelerated, creating the opportunities and perils that now confront the many human communities that inhabit the planet.[28][29]
Prehistory
Main article: Prehistory
Homo sapiens first arose on the Earth between 400,000 and 250,000 years ago during the Palaeolithic period. This occurred after a long period of evolution. Ancestors of humans, such as Homo erectus, had been using simple tools for many millennia, but as time progressed, tools became far more refined and complex. At some point, humans began using fire for heat and for cooking. Humans also developed language in the Palaeolithic period, as well as a conceptual repertoire that included systematic burial of the dead and adornment of the living. During this period, all humans lived as hunter-gatherers, and were generally nomadic.
Modern humans spread rapidly from Africa into the frost-free zones of Europe and Asia. The rapid expansion of humankind to North America and Oceania took place at the climax of the most recent Ice Age, when temperate regions of today were extremely inhospitable. Yet, humans had colonised nearly all the ice-free parts of the globe by the end of the Ice Age, some 12,000 years ago.
The Agricultural Revolution, beginning about 10,000 BCE, saw the development of agriculture. Farming permitted far denser populations, which in time organised into states. Agriculture also created food surpluses that could support people not directly engaged in food production. The development of agriculture permitted the creation of the first cities. These were centres of trade, manufacturing andpolitical power with nearly no agricultural production of their own. Cities established a symbiosis with their surrounding countrysides, absorbing agricultural products and providing, in return, manufactured goods and varying degrees of military control and protection.[30][31][32]
The development of cities equated, both etymologically and in fact, with the rise of civilizationitself. In about 40,000 BC, before the age of cities, there is evidence of people living in man-made shelter huts in northern Punjab and central Asia (Bactria). By 7000 BC, there is evidence of people growing barley in this area, and raising sheep and goats. Around this time, people begin living in mud-brick dwellings in villages, some of which are still in existence. Early cities arose in the first Sumerian civilization, in lower Mesopotamia (3500 BCE),[33][34]followed by Egyptian civilization along the Nile (3300 BCE)[12] and Harappan civilization in theIndus Valley (3300 BCE).[35][36] Elaborate cities grew up, with high levels of social and economic complexity. Each of these civilizations was so different from the others that they almost certainly originated independently. It was at this time, and due to the needs of cities, that writing and extensive trade were introduced.
This period also saw the origins of complex religion.[37][38][39] Religious belief in this period commonly consisted in the worship of a Mother Goddess, a Sky Father, and of the Sun andMoon as deities.[40] (See also: Sun worship.) Shrines developed, which over time evolved intotemple establishments, complete with a complex hierarchy of priests and priestesses and other functionaries. Typical of the Neolithic was a tendency to worship anthropomorphic deities. Some of the earliest surviving written religious scriptures are the Pyramid Texts, produced by the Egyptians, the oldest of which date to between 2400 and 2300 BCE.[41]Some archaeologists suggest, based on ongoing excavations of a temple complex at Göbekli Tepe ("Potbelly Hill") in southern Turkey, dating from c. 11,500 years ago, that religion predated the Agricultural Revolution rather than following in its wake, as had generally been assumed.[42]
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