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History of the world

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: British History; General
history

   The history of the world, in popular parlance, is human history, from
   the first appearance of Homo sapiens to the present.

Paleolithic Period

   Map of early human migrations, according to mitochondrial population
   genetics (numbers are millennia before the present).
   Enlarge
   Map of early human migrations, according to mitochondrial population
   genetics (numbers are millennia before the present).

   Paleolithic means "old stone age." In other words, this is the first
   period of the stone age.

   Scientific evidence based on genetics and the study of fossils, places
   the origin of modern Homo sapiens in Africa ^. This occurred about
   200,000 years ago during the Palaeolithic period, after a long period
   of evolution. Ancestors of humans, such as Homo erectus, had been using
   simple tools for over a thousand millennia, but as time progressed,
   tools became far more refined and complex. Humans also developed
   language sometime during the Paleolithic period, as well as a
   conceptual repertoire that included systematic burial of the dead. The
   latter suggests a development of foresight after being consistently
   exposed to rotting bodies.

   Humans of this age also decorated themselves with objects to improve
   their appearance. During this period, all humans lived as
   hunter-gatherers, who were generally nomadic.

   Modern humans spread rapidly over the globe from Africa and 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 today's temperate regions were extremely
   inhospitable. Yet, by the end of the Ice Age some 12,000 years ago,
   humans had colonised nearly all the ice-free parts of the globe.

   Hunter-gatherer societies have tended to be very small, although in
   some cases they have developed social stratification, and long-distance
   contacts are possible as in the case of Indigenous Australian
   'highways' in Australia.

   Eventually most hunter-gatherer societies either developed, or were
   absorbed into, larger agricultural states. Those that did not were
   either exterminated, or remained in isolation, such as small
   hunter-gatherer societies which are still present today in remote
   regions.

Mesolithic Period

   Mesolithic ( Greek mesos=middle and lithos=stone or the 'Middle Stone
   Age') was a period in the development of human technology between the
   Paleolithic and Neolithic periods of the Stone Age. It began at the end
   of the Pleistocene epoch around 10,000 years ago and ended with the
   introduction of farming, the date of which varied in each geographical
   region. In some areas, such as the Near East farming was already in use
   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
   apparent Mesolithic era, lasting millennia. In Northern Europe for
   example, societies were able to live well on rich food supplies from
   the marshlands created by the warmer climate. Such conditions produced
   distinctive human behaviours which are preserved in the material
   record, such as the Maglemosian and Azilian cultures. Such conditions
   also delayed the coming of the Neolithic until as late as 4000 BCE in
   Northern Europe.

   Remains from this period are few and far between, often limited to
   middens (rubbish heaps which grew over time). In forested areas of the
   world, the first signs of deforestation have been found, although this
   would only start in earnest during the Neolithic, when extra space for
   farming was needed.

   The mesolithic is characterized by small composite flint tools (
   microliths and microburins) in most areas. Fishing tackle, stone adzes
   and wooden objects such as canoes and bows have been found preserved at
   some sites. Threse technologies are first found associated in Africa
   associated with the Azilian cultures, before spreading into Europe
   through the Ibero-Maurusian culture of Spain and Portugal, and the
   Kebaran culture of Palestine. Independent discovery is not ruled out in
   all cases.

Neolithic Period

   The Neolithic means "new stone age", a period of primitive
   technological and social development towards the end of the stone age.
   Beginning in the 10th millennium BCE, the Neolithic period is
   characterized by the development of early village dwellings,
   agriculture, animal domestication and tools.

Development of agriculture

   Artist's depiction of an Ancient Egyptian farmer. (Courtesy
   KingTutOne.com)
   Enlarge
   Artist's depiction of an Ancient Egyptian farmer. (Courtesy
   KingTutOne.com)

   A major change, described by the prehistorian Vere Gordon Childe as a
   "revolution," occurred around the 9th millennium BCE with the adoption
   of agriculture. The Sumerians first started farming around 9500 BCE. By
   7000 BCE, agriculture had spread to the Indus Valley, by 6000 BCE, it
   had reached Egypt, and by 5000 BCE, people in China were farming.
   Around 2700 BCE, agriculture spread to Mesoamerica. Although research
   and education has tended to concentrate on the Fertile Crescent area of
   the Middle East, archaeology in the Americas, East Asia and Southeast
   Asia indicates that agricultural systems using different crops and
   animals may well have developed nearly as early in some cases.

   A further step forward in Middle Eastern agriculture occurred with the
   development of organised irrigation and the use of a specialised labour
   force, by the Sumerians, starting about 5,500 BCE. Bronze and iron
   replaced stone as tools for agriculture and warfare. Agricultural
   settlements had until this time been almost completely dependent on
   stone tools. In Eurasia, copper and bronze tools, decorations, and
   weapons began to become commonplace around 3000 BCE. After bronze, the
   Eastern Mediterranean region, Middle East and China saw the
   introduction of iron tools and weapons.

   The Americas may not have had metal tools until the Chavín horizon in
   900 BCE. We also know that the Moche had metal armor, knives and
   tableware. Even the metal-poor Inca had metal-tipped plows, at least
   after the conquest of Chimor. However, very little archaeological
   research has been done in Peru so far and almost all the khipus
   (recording devices, in the form of knots, used by the Incas) were
   burned in the Spanish conquest of Peru. Whole cities were still being
   discovered in 2004 CE. Some digs suggest that steel may have been made
   there before it was developed in Europe.

   River valleys became the cradles of early civilizations, such as the
   Yellow River valley in China, the Nile in Egypt, and the Indus Valley
   in the Indian subcontinent. Some nomadic peoples, such as Indigenous
   Australians and the Bushmen of Southern Africa, did not use agriculture
   until relatively modern times.

   Many humans did not belong to states before 1800 CE. Among scientists,
   there is disagreement over whether the term "tribe" should be used to
   describe the kind of societies these humans lived in. Large parts of
   the world were the territories of "tribes" before Europeans began
   colonization. Many "tribes" transformed into states when they were
   threatened or otherwise influenced by states. Examples are the
   Marcomanni and Lithuania. Some "tribes," such as the Kassites and the
   Manchus, conquered states and were absorbed by them.

   Agriculture made possible complex societies, also called civilizations.
   States and markets emerged. Technologies improved humans' ability to
   control nature and to develop transport and communication.

Development of religion

   Most historians trace the beginnings of complex religious belief to the
   Neolithic Period. Most religious belief during this time period
   consisted of worship of a Mother Goddess, a Sky Father, and also
   worship of the Sun and the Moon as deities. (see also Sun worship).
   There is the development of particular shrines, which over time develop
   as temple establishments, complete with a complex hierarchy of priests
   and priestesses and other temple functionaries. During the course of
   the neolithic there is a tendency towardsthe worship of anthropomorphic
   dieties, portrayed in human form.

Rise of civilization

State

   Agriculture led to several major changes. It allowed far larger
   population densities, which organised themselves into states. There are
   several definitions used for the term "state." Max Weber and Norbert
   Elias defined the 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 6700 km, and was first erected in the 3rd
   century BCE to protect the north from nomadic invaders. It has been
   rebuilt and augmented several times since.
   Enlarge
   Borders delineate states - a prominent example is the Great Wall of
   China, which stretches over 6700 km, and was first erected in the 3rd
   century BCE to protect the north from nomadic invaders. It has been
   rebuilt and augmented several times since.

   The first states appeared in Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt and the Indus
   Valley in the late 4th and early 3rd millennia BCE. In Mesopotamia,
   there were several city-states. Ancient Egypt began as a state without
   cities, but cities soon arose. A state needs an army to impose the
   legitimate use of force. An army needs a bureaucracy to maintain it.
   The only exception to this appears to be the Indus Valley civilization
   due to a lack of evidence of military force.

   States appeared in China in the late 3rd and early 2nd millennia BCE.
   Major wars broke out between states in the Middle East. The treaty of
   Kadesh, one of the first peace treaties, was concluded between the
   Hittites and ancient Egypt ca.1275 BCE. Major empires came into being
   with conquered areas ruled by central tribes, such as Persia (6th
   century BCE), the Mauryan Empire (4th century BCE), China (3rd century
   BCE), and the Roman Empire (1st century BCE).

   Clashes among major empires took place in the 8th century CE, when the
   Islamic Caliphate of Arabia (ruling from Spain to Iran) and the Tang
   dynasty of China (ruling from Xinjiang to Korea) fought for decades for
   control of Central Asia. The largest continguous land empire was the
   Mongolian Empire in the 13th century. By then, most humans in Europe,
   Asia and North Africa belonged to states. There were states as well in
   Mexico and western South America. States continued to control more and
   more of the world's territory and population; the last 'empty'
   territories were divided among states in the Treaty of Berlin (1878
   CE).

City and trade

   Vasco da Gama sailed to India to bring back spices in the late 15th
   century CE and early 16th century CE.
   Enlarge
   Vasco da Gama sailed to India to bring back spices in the late 15th
   century CE and early 16th century CE.

   Agriculture also created, and allowed for the storage of, food
   surpluses that could support people not directly involved in food
   production. The development of agriculture permitted the creation of
   the first cities. These were centers of trade, manufacturing and
   political power with nearly no agricultural production of their own.
   The cities formed a symbiotic relationship of a sort, absorbing
   agricultural products from the surrounding countryside, but providing,
   in return, manufactured goods and varying degrees of military
   protection.

   The development of cities led to what has been called civilization:
   first Sumerian civilization in lower Mesopotamia (3500 BCE), followed
   by Egyptian civilization along the Nile (3300 BCE) and Harappan
   civilization in the Indus Valley (3300 BCE). There is evidence of
   elaborate cities with high levels of social and economic complexity.
   However, these civilizations were so different from each other that
   they almost certainly originated independently. It was at this time
   that writing and extensive trade were introduced.

   In China, proto-urban societies may have developed from 2500 BCE, but
   the first dynasty to be identified by archeology is that of the Shang
   Dynasty. The 2nd millennium BCE saw the emergence of civilization in
   Crete, mainland Greece and central Turkey. In the Americas,
   civilizations such as the Maya, the Moche and Nazca emerged in
   Mesoamerica and Peru at the end of the 1st millennium BCE. Coinage was
   introduced in Lydia.

   Long-range trade routes first appeared in the 3rd millennium BCE, when
   Sumerians in Mesopotamia traded with the Harappan civilization of the
   Indus Valley. Trade routes also appeared in the eastern Mediterranean
   in the 4th millennium BCE. The Silk Road between China and Syria began
   in the 2nd millennium BCE. Cities in Central Asia and Persia were major
   crossroads of these trade routes. Phoenician and Greek civilizations
   founded empires in the Mediterranean basin in the 1st century BCE,
   based on trade. The large scale transportation of commodities before
   the modern age was unique to the ancient Greek civilization. Arabs
   dominated the trade routes in the Indian Ocean, East Asia, and the
   Sahara in the late 1st millennium CE and early 2nd millennium CE. Arabs
   and Jews also dominated trade in the Mediterranean in the late 1st
   millennium. Italians took over this role in the early 2nd millennium
   CE. Flemish and German cities were at the centre of trade routes in
   Northern Europe in the early 2nd millennium CE. In all areas, major
   cities developed at crossroads along the trade routes.

Religion and philosophy

   New philosophies and religions arose in both east and west,
   particularly around the 6th century BCE. Over time, a great variety of
   religions developed around the world, with Hinduism and Buddhism in
   India, Zoroastrianism in Persia being some of the earliest major
   faiths. The Abrahamic religions also trace their origin to this time.
   In the east, three schools of thought were to dominate Chinese thinking
   until the modern day. These were Taoism, Legalism, and Confucianism.
   The Confucian tradition, which would attain predominance, looked not to
   the force of law, but to the power and example of tradition for
   political morality. In the west, the Greek philosophical tradition,
   represented by the works of Plato and Aristotle, was diffused
   throughout Europe and the Middle East by the conquests of Alexander of
   Macedon in the 4th century BCE.

Major civilizations and regions

   By the last centuries BCE, the Mediterranean, the Ganges and the Yellow
   River became the seats of empires which future rulers would strive to
   imitate. In India, the Mauryan Empire ruled over most of Southern Asia,
   while the Pandyas ruled the south of India. In China, the Qin and Han
   dynasties extended the rule of imperial government through political
   unity, improved communications and also notably the establishment of
   state monopolies by Emperor Wu.

   In the West, the Ancient Greeks established a civilization that is
   considered by most historians to be the foundational culture of modern
   Western civilization. Some centuries later the Romans began expanding
   their territory through conquest and colonisation from the 3rd century
   BCE. By the reign of Emperor Augustus in the late 1st century, Rome
   controlled all the lands surrounding the Mediterranean.

   The great empires rested on the ability to exploit the process of
   military annexation and the formation of defended human settlements to
   become agricultural centres. The relative peace they brought encouraged
   international trade, most notably were the massive trade routes in the
   mediterranean sea that were developed by the time of Hellenistic age,
   with were unparalleled in volume of trade until modern times and the
   growth of the Silk Road. They also faced common problems, such as those
   associated with maintaining huge armies and the support of a central
   bureaucracy. These costs fell most heavily on the peasantry, whilst
   land-owning magnates were increasingly able to evade centralised
   control and its costs. The pressure of barbarians on the frontiers
   hastened the process of internal dissolution. The Han empire fell into
   civil war in 220 CE, whilst its Roman counterpart became increasingly
   decentralised and divided around the same time.

   Throughout the temperate zones of Eurasia, America, and North Africa,
   large empires continued to rise and fall.

   The gradual breakup of the Roman Empire, which spanned several
   centuries following the 2nd century CE, coincided with the spread of
   Christianity westward from the Middle East. The western part of the
   Roman Empire fell under the domination of various Germanic tribes in
   the 5th century, and these polities gradually developed into a number
   of warring states, all associated, in one way or another, with the
   Roman Catholic Church. The remaining part of the Roman Empire in the
   eastern Mediterranean was henceforth known as the Byzantine Empire.
   Centuries later, a limited unity was restored to western Europe through
   the establishment of the Holy Roman Empire, comprising a number of
   states in what is now Germany and Italy.

   In China, dynasties would similarly rise and fall. Nomads from the
   north began to invade in the 4th century CE, eventually conquering
   nearly all of northern China and setting up many small kingdoms. The
   Sui Dynasty reunified China in 581, and under the Tang Dynasty
   (618-907) China entered into a second golden age. However, the Tang
   Dynasty also splintered and, after about half a century of turmoil, the
   Northern Song Dynasty reunified China in 982. Yet, pressure from
   nomadic empires to the north became increasingly urgent. All of North
   China was lost to the Jurchen in 1141 and the Mongol Empire conquered
   all of China in 1279, as well as almost all of Eurasia's landmass,
   missing only western and central Europe and Japan.

   Northern India was ruled by the Guptas in these times. In southern
   India, three prominent Dravidian kingdoms emerged: Cheras, Cholas, and
   Pandyas. The ensuing stability contributed to herald the golden age of
   Hindu culture in the 4th and 5th centuries CE.
   The ruins of Machu Picchu, "the Lost City of the Incas," have become
   the most recognizable symbol of the Inca civilization.
   Enlarge
   The ruins of Machu Picchu, "the Lost City of the Incas," have become
   the most recognizable symbol of the Inca civilization.

   Vast societies also began to be built up in Central America at this
   time, with the Maya and the Aztecs in Mesoamerica being the most
   notable. As the mother culture of the Olmecs gradually declined, the
   great Mayan city-states slowly rose in number and prominence, and Maya
   culture spread throughout Yucatán and surrounding areas. The later
   empire of the Aztec was built on neighboring cultures and was
   influenced by conquered peoples, such as the Toltec.

   South America saw the rise of the Inca in the 14th and 15th centuries.
   The Inca Empire of Tawantinsuyu spanned the entire range of the Andes
   and held its capital at Cusco. The Inca were prosperous and advanced,
   known for an excellent road system and unrivaled masonry.

   Islam, which began in Arabia in the 7th century, was also one of the
   most remarkable forces in World history, growing from only a few
   followers to become the basis of a series of large empires in India,
   the Middle East, and North Africa.

   In Northeast Africa, Nubia and Ethiopia, which both had long been
   linked to the Mediterranean world, remained Christian enclaves as the
   rest of Africa north of the equator converted to Islam. With Islam,
   came new technologies that, for the first time, allowed substantial
   trade to cross the Sahara. Taxes on this trade led to prosperity in
   North Africa and the rise of a series of kingdoms in the Sahel.

   This period was marked by slow but steady technological improvements
   with developments of influential importance, such as the stirrup and
   the mouldboard plough, arriving every few centuries. However, there
   existed some short periods of rapid technological progress in some
   regions. Most importantly, the Mediterranean Sea during the Hellenistic
   period (in which hundreds of technologies were invented), and periods
   of technological decay and decline like the areas of the Roman Empire
   during its decline and fall and the subsequent Early Medieval period.

Rise of Europe

Background for European advance

   The invention of the movable-type printing press in 1450s Germany was
   awarded #1 of the Top 100 Greatest Events of the Millennium by LIFE
   Magazine. By some estimates, less than 50 years after the first Bible
   was printed in 1455, more than nine million books were in print.
   Enlarge
   The invention of the movable-type printing press in 1450s Germany was
   awarded #1 of the Top 100 Greatest Events of the Millennium by LIFE
   Magazine. By some estimates, less than 50 years after the first Bible
   was printed in 1455, more than nine million books were in print.

   Nearly all the agricultural civilizations were heavily constrained by
   their environment. Productivity remained low and it was easy for
   natural climate changes to instigate the boom and bust cycles which
   brought about their rise and fall. But, by around 1500, there was a
   qualitative change in world history. Technological advance and the
   wealth generated by trade gradually brought about a widening of
   possibilities.

   Even before the 16th century, some civilizations had developed
   relatively advanced societies. In ancient times the Roman and Greek
   civilizations had developed very advanced societies which were
   supported by an advanced monetary economy with financial markets and
   private property rights,. These institutions created the conditions for
   continuous capital acumulation with increased productivity in all
   sectors of their economies. Second to some estimates, the per capita
   income of Roman Italy, with was one of the most advanced regions of the
   Roman Empire, was comparable to the per capita incomes of the most
   advanced economies in the world by the 18th century. (see ) The most
   developed regions of the ancient classical civilization were more
   urbanized than any other region in the world until the early modern
   times. However this civilization gradually declined and colapsed. Many
   historians still discuss why this decline ocurred.

   One of the most advanced civilizations of the middle ages was China. It
   had developed an advanced monetary economy by 1000. China had a free
   peasantry who were no longer subsistence farmers, and could sell their
   produce and actively participate in the market. The agriculture was
   highly productive. China was the most urbanized region in Eurasia. It
   enjoyed a technological advantage over the rest of the Eurasian world
   and had a monopoly in cast-iron production, piston bellows,
   suspension-bridge construction, printing and the compass. (see Joseph
   Needham). But, after earlier onslaughts by the Jurchens, the remnants
   of the Sung empire were conquered by the Mongols in 1279.

   Outwardly, the Renaissance (beginning in the 14th century) was the
   rediscovery of the scientific contribuitions of the classics and the
   economic and social rise of Europe. But it could also be argued that it
   engendered a culture of inquisitiveness which ultimately led to
   humanism, the Scientific Revolution, and finally the great
   transformation of the Industrial Revolution. However the Scientific
   Revolution in the 17th century did not have any immediate impact on
   technology. Only in the second half of the 18th century were scientific
   advances beginning to be applied to practical inventions. The
   advantages Europe had developed by the middle of the 18th century were
   two: an entrepreneurial culture and the wealth generated by the
   Atlantic trade (including the African slave trade). But, to a minority
   of historians, in 1750, labour productivity in the most developed
   regions of China was still on a par with that of the Atlantic economy
   in Europe (see Wolfgang Keller and Carol Shiue). It is important to
   consider that, second to most historians and social scientists, the per
   capita productivity of Western Europe already exceeded the per capita
   productivity of all other regions in the globe by the late middle ages.

   There are a number of explanations why, from the late middle ages
   onward, Europe rose to surpass these other civilizations, become the
   home of the Industrial Revolution, and dominate the rest of the world.
   Max Weber argued it was due to a Protestant work ethic that encouraged
   Europeans to work harder and longer than their fellows. Another
   sociological-economic explanation looks at demographics: Europe with
   its celibate clergy, colonial emigration, high-mortality urban centers,
   continual warfare, and late age of marriage had far more restrained
   population growth compared to Asian cultures. A relative shortage of
   labour meant surpluses could be invested in labour-saving technological
   advances such as water-wheels and mills, spinners and looms, steam
   engines, and shipping, rather than fueling a simple expansion of the
   population. Many have also argued that Europe's institutions were
   superior, that property rights and free market economics were stronger
   in Europe than elsewhere in the world because of the ideal of freedom
   which was peculiar to the European continent. In recent years,
   scholars, such as Kenneth Pomeranz, have challenged this view.

   Europe's geography may also have played an important role. The Middle
   East, India and China are all ringed by mountains, but once past these
   outer barriers all are relatively flat. By contrast, the Alps,
   Pyrenees, and other mountain ranges run through Europe, and the
   continent is also divided by several seas. This gave Europe some degree
   of protection from the peril of Central Asian invaders. In the era
   before firearms, all of Eurasia was threatened by the horsemen of the
   Central Asian steppe. These nomads were militarily superior to the
   agricultural states on the periphery of the continent and, if they
   broke out into the plains of Northern India or the valleys of China,
   were all but unstoppable. These invasions were often devastating. The
   Golden Age of Islam was ended by the Mongol sack of Baghdad in 1258,
   and both India and China were also subject to periodic invasions.
   Europe, especially western Europe, was far less subject to these
   threats.

   The geography also contributed to important geopolitical differences.
   For most of their histories, China, India and the Middle East were
   unified under a single dominant power that expanded until it reached
   the surrounding mountains and deserts. In 1600, the Ottoman Empire
   controlled almost all the Middle East, the Ming Dynasty dominated
   China, and the Mughal Empire had control over India. By contrast,
   Europe was almost always divided among a number of warring states.
   Pan-European empires, with the major exception of the earlier Roman
   Empire, tended to collapse soon after they arose. Paradoxically, the
   intense competition between rival states is often portrayed as one
   source of Europe's success. In other regions, stability was often a
   higher priority than growth. For instance, China's growth as a maritime
   power was restricted by the Hai jin of the Ming Dynasty. In Europe,
   such a blanket ban would have been impossible due to disunity; if any
   one state had imposed such a restriction, it would have quickly fallen
   behind its competitors.

   Another doubtless important geographic factor in the rise of Europe was
   the Mediterranean Sea, which, for millennia, had functioned as a
   maritime superhighway fostering the exchange of goods, people, ideas
   and inventions.

   Also, in the tropics the ever-present diseases and parasites, sapping
   the strength and health of humans, and of their animals and crops, were
   socially-disorganizing factors that impeded progress.

Mercantile dominance of Europe

   In the fourteenth century, the Renaissance began in Europe. Some modern
   scholars have questioned whether this flowering of art and humanism was
   a benefit to science, but the era did see an important fusion of Arab
   and European knowledge. One of the most important developments was the
   caravel, which combined the Arab lateen sail with European square
   rigging to create the first vessels that could safely sail the Atlantic
   Ocean. Along with important developments in navigation, this technology
   allowed Christopher Columbus in 1492 to journey across the Atlantic
   Ocean and bridge the gap from Africa-Eurasia to the Americas.

   This had dramatic effects on both continents, in one of the most famous
   historical Outside Context Problems. The Europeans brought with them
   diseases that the American natives had never before encountered and an
   uncertain number of them were killed in a series of devastating
   epidemics. The Europeans also had the technological advantage of
   horses, steel and guns that allowed them to overpower the Aztec and
   Incan empires, along with other cultures of North America.

   Gold and resources from the Americas began to be stripped from the land
   and people and shipped to Europe, while at the same time large numbers
   of European colonists began to emigrate to the Americans. To meet the
   great demand for labour in the new colonies, the mass import of
   Africans as slaves began. Soon, much of the Americas had a large racial
   underclass of slaves. In West Africa, a series of thriving states
   developed along the coast, becoming prosperous from the exploitation of
   suffering interior African peoples.
   The Santa Maria at anchor, painted ca. 1628 by Andries van Eertvelt,
   shows the famous carrack of Christopher Columbus.
   Enlarge
   The Santa Maria at anchor, painted ca. 1628 by Andries van Eertvelt,
   shows the famous carrack of Christopher Columbus.

   Europe's maritime expansion, unsurprisingly given its geography, was
   largely the work of the continent's Atlantic seaboard states: Portugal,
   Spain, England, France, the Netherlands. The Portuguese and Spanish
   Empires were at first the predominant conquerors and source of
   influence, but soon the more northern English, French and Dutch began
   to dominate the Atlantic. In a series of wars, fought in the 17th and
   18th centuries, culminating with the Napoleonic Wars, Britain emerged
   as the first world power. It accumulated an empire that spanned the
   globe, controlling, at its peak, approximately one-quarter of the
   world's land surface, on which the " Sun never set".

   Meanwhile, the voyages of Admiral Zheng He were halted by China's Ming
   Dynasty (1368-1644), established after the expulsion of the Mongols. A
   Chinese commercial revolution, sometimes described as "incipient
   capitalism," was also abortive. The Ming Dynasty would eventually fall
   to the Manchus, whose Qing Dynasty oversaw, at first, a period of calm
   and prosperity, but would increasingly fall prey to Western
   encroachment.

   Soon after the invasion of the Americas, Europeans had exerted their
   technological advantage over the peoples of Asia as well. In the early
   19th century, Britain gained control of the Indian subcontinent, Egypt
   and the Malay Peninsula; the French took Indochina; while the Dutch
   occupied the Dutch East Indies. The British also occupied several of
   the areas still populated by neolithic peoples, including Australia,
   New Zealand and South Africa, and, as in the Americas, large numbers of
   British colonists began to emigrate to these areas. In the late
   nineteenth century, the last unclaimed areas of Africa were divided
   among the European powers.

   This era in Europe saw the Age of Reason lead to the Scientific
   Revolution, which changed our understanding of the world and made
   possible the Industrial Revolution, a major transformation of the
   world’s economies. It began in Britain and used new modes of production
   such as the factory, mass production, and mechanisation to produce a
   wide array of materials faster and for less labour than previous
   methods. The Age of Reason also led to the beginnings of democracy as
   we know it today, in the American and French revolutions in the late
   18th century. Democracy would grow to have a profound effect on world
   events and quality of life. During the Industrial Revolution, the world
   economy was soon based on coal, as new methods of transport, such as
   railways and steam ships, made the world a smaller place. Meanwhile,
   industrial pollution and damage to the environment, present since the
   discovery of fire and the beginning of civilization, accelerated
   tenfold.

Twentieth Century onwards

Ascendance through technology

   The advent of nuclear weapons, this exploding over Nagasaki in 1945,
   ended World War II and marked the beginning of the Cold War.
   Enlarge
   The advent of nuclear weapons, this exploding over Nagasaki in 1945,
   ended World War II and marked the beginning of the Cold War.

   The twentieth century saw the waning of Europe's domination of the
   world—partly due to the costs and internal devastations of World Wars I
   and II—and the attendant rise, as rival superpowers, of the United
   States and the Soviet Union. Following World War II the United Nations
   was founded, in the hope that it could allay conflicts among nations
   and prevent future wars. In 1991 the Soviet Union collapsed, leaving
   the United States in possession of the field as "the sole remaining
   superpower," termed by some a " hyperpower." (See " Pax Americana.")

   The century had given rise to powerful secular ideologies. The first,
   after 1917 in the Soviet Union, was communism, which after 1945 spread
   to Central Europe, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, North
   Vietnam and North Korea; in 1949, to China; and during the 1950s and
   '60s, elsewhere in the Third World. The 1920s and '30s saw militaristic
   fascist dictatorships gain control of Italy, Germany, Japan and Spain.

   These transformations were linked to wars of unparalleled scope and
   devastation. World War I destroyed many of Europe's old empires and
   monarchies, and weakened France and Britain. World War II ultimately
   saw most of the militaristic dictatorships in Europe destroyed and
   communism advance into Eastern and Central Europe and into Asia.

   This led to the Cold War, a forty-year stand-off between the United
   States, the Soviet Union, and their respective allies. All of humanity
   and complex life forms were put at risk by the existence of nuclear
   weapons. The nuclear powers understood the risks, especially after the
   Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 nearly precipitated nuclear war. Such war
   being viewed as impractical, proxy wars were instead waged, at the
   expense of non-nuclear-armed Third World countries.

   In 1991 the world witnessed the disintegration of the Soviet Union,
   with some of its former republics rejoining Russia in a Commonwealth of
   Independent States, while other republics as well as several former
   Soviet " satellites" reached out toward western Europe and the European
   Union.

   The collapse of the communist polities found a delayed reflection in
   the capitalist realm as the late-20th-century acceleration of free
   trade and "globalization" led to the United States' growing
   indebtedness to China, and to the export of American jobs to low-wage
   countries, at the expense of American workers. The United States'
   growing internal and external debts boded ill for that country's
   long-term economic, diplomatic and military position in the world. (
   Lou Dobbs, War on the Middle Class, 2006.)

   The same century saw vast progress in technology, and a large increase
   in life expectancy and standard of living for the majority of humanity.
   As the world economy switched from one based on coal to one based on
   petroleum, new communications and transportation technologies continued
   to make the world more united. The technological developments of the
   century also contributed to problems with the environment, though urban
   pollution is lower today than in the days of coal. As the world's
   petroleum reserves approached exhaustion within the next few decades,
   competition for the shrinking resource exacerbated long-standing
   conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere.
   The last exploration of the moon, Apollo 17, 1972.
   Enlarge
   The last exploration of the moon, Apollo 17, 1972.

   The latter half of the century saw the rise of the information age and
   globalization dramatically increase trade and cultural exchange. Space
   exploration reached throughout the solar system. The structure of DNA,
   the very template of life, was discovered, and the human genome was
   sequenced, promising to eventually change the face of human disease.
   The number of scientific papers published each year now far surpasses
   the total number published prior to 1900 , and doubles approximately
   every 15 years. Global literacy rates have continued to increase, and
   the percentage of the global society's labor pool needed to produce
   society's food has continued to decrease substantially ( Kurzweil
   1999).

   The same period, however, raised prospects of an end to human history,
   precipitated by unmanaged global hazards: nuclear proliferation, the
   greenhouse effect and other forms of environmental degradation caused
   by the " fissile-fossil complex," international conflicts prompted by
   the dwindling of resources, fast-spreading epidemics such as HIV, and
   the passage of near-earth asteroids and comets.

   The development of states had always taken impetus from hope of gain
   and fear of loss. The sense of national identity had always been forged
   in conflicts with outsiders who were perceived as a threat. As the 20th
   century closed, the world witnessed the rise of what some saw as a new
   superstate, the European Union. Tentative steps were also taken, at
   emulating the European Union, by states in Asia, Africa and South
   America. Meanwhile the growth, life and collapse of states, organized
   around various human populations and for the purpose of achieving
   various human goals, continued to be accompanied by wars, with
   concomitant loss of life, physical destruction, disease, famine and
   genocide.

   As the 20th century closed and the 21st opened, an increasingly
   interdependent world faced common hazards that could be averted only by
   common effort. It more and more seemed that the world must either
   perish or survive as a whole. This was brought home on October 30,
   2006, by the Stern Review, warning of the threat of global warming and
   rapid climate change. In the historic escalation of human perils,
   localized internecine and international conflicts began to be edged
   out, as a focus of dread, by common threats to all mankind.

   The global threats posed by environmental degradation and by the
   exhaustion of material and energy resources were not the first
   "matergetic crisis" that the world had faced. One of many earlier ones
   had been triggered by Britain's exhaustion of her supplies of wood
   needed for the production of iron, and had led to the invention of
   coking by the Abraham Darbys, father and son, which helped spark the
   18th-century Industrial Revolution. Similarly, as the 20th century
   yielded to the 21st, the world seemed again to be lodged at a historic
   bottleneck which might be opened up by new technological innovations
   and by concerted effort on the part of the world community. The world
   was using but a small part of the solar energy that is continually
   bathing Earth; an imperative for coming decades must be to capture more
   of the energy that is radiated out by the great fusion reactor at the
   centre of the solar system — the Sun — and to use it wisely.

Globalization and westernization

   The world was politically united by Europeans, who established colonies
   in most parts of the world outside Europe. Western culture modernised
   rapidly due to the industrial revolution and began to dominate the
   world in the 19th and 20th century, but was greatly influenced by other
   civilisations. There are still enormous cultural differences between
   world regions, although the trend is towards unification with a Western
   dominance.

   The mercantile empires of Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, France and
   Great Britain in the 15th to 19th centuries dominated the seas. The
   industrialisation and the social and political changes in the Western
   World of the 18th and 19th century led to a feeling of superiority
   among western thinkers and politicians. Africa and most of Asia became
   European-controlled, while European descendants ruled in the Australia
   and the Americas. New ideologies emerged aimed at reshaping the world.
   Social Darwinists and imperialists generally believed that white people
   were superior and that they should civilize the primitive peoples
   (other cultures) by introducing Western ways of production (economics)
   and Western ideologies, such as Christianity. This way, the primitive
   people could have a 'better', 'more moral' lifestyle, although it was
   assumed that they could never be as cultivated as the whites.
   Socialists and liberals wanted to civilize the working classes in
   western countries as well. Socialists and American liberals believed
   (and continue to believe) that the society is, in large part,
   responsible for the behaviour of its citizens and that the society
   should be changed in order to make the world better. American
   Conservatives, European liberals, and all Libertarians believed (and
   continue to believe) in freedom and market forces and want individuals
   to take responsibility for themselves and hold that a society should
   guarantee freedom in order for individuals to develop fully.
   Christians, regardless of political ideology, believe that the
   individual's relation to their Church and/or God is the critical factor
   in a satisfactory life. Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and other religions
   have religious concepts of their own.

   The 20th century witnessed a strong polarization between these
   ideologies. Social Darwinism suffered a great loss when Nazi Germany
   was defeated during World War II. The United States and the Soviet
   Union enforced decolonization. The Civil Rights movement and the hippie
   counter culture of the 1960s led to a worldwide domination of a
   humanist ideology which persists in Westernized countries today.

   Socialists attempted to change society with different methods. The two
   most powerful movements were social democracy and communism. Social
   democrats tried to reach a socialist society by changing society in
   cooperation with other political parties. The welfare state was created
   in many western countries. Left-wing Christians and liberals also
   shared a belief in the welfare state. Today, the welfare state is
   unpopular because it withholds economical progress due to inefficient
   investments. Communists attempted to create a socialist society by
   destroying the old society, the old elites and all competing
   ideologies. It led to genocide and substantial poverty, and was widely
   viewed as unsuccessful. Soviet and Chinese leaders and intellectuals
   discovered that the 'western' style of production with
   self-responsibility led to continuing progress, while the communist
   societies were in a continuous economic depression, so they were forced
   to become capitalistic.

   Non-Western civilizations were first dominated by Western colonisers,
   who generally treated the local population with extreme harshness as
   local resources were exploited to benefit the colonial power.
   Nationalist and communist movements that swept through these countries
   inspired the local populace to begin thinking of, and initiating,
   independece movements, wanting equal shares in the world. Many African
   and Asian colonies became independent in the 1960s. Initially, there
   was much optimism that the new underdeveloped countries could become
   developed, but their economic situation generally grew worse after
   becoming independent. Civil wars and dictatorships wrecked the local
   societies and economies - the cause of which is sometimes attributed to
   neocolonialism, particularly that of the United States (see Jingoism,
   and the Dependency theory). Today, many Latin American and Asian
   nations are beginning the transition to first-world status; most of
   Africa and the Middle East, however, is stagnating.

   Conservatives and nationalists around the world were afraid that their
   societies would collapse due to modernisation and new ideologies, so
   they tried to turn the tide of change. Conservatism is popular in many
   parts of the world, with neo-conservatism dominating the United States
   government. Islamic fundamentalists try to stop secularisation by
   waging war against Western culture. Many state leaders and
   intellectuals in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa criticise the
   West for its "immoral" lifestyle. Conservatism is fed, for a large
   part, by a religious belief in the afterlife with its attendant fears
   of retribution foreverafter.

   Attempts to unite the world by military conquest or revolution met with
   no success. The nation state became the most important institute in the
   (western) world. Colonial empires in the 19th century were based on
   nation states, which controlled large territories containing
   'aboriginal' populations. Nation states united in federations during
   the 20th century. During the interbellum between World War I and World
   War II, the League of Nations tried to prevent wars. After World War
   II, the United Nations tried to solve many problems that could not be
   solved by individual nation states. The League of Nations and United
   Nations were dependent on the voluntary contribution and desire to
   cooperate of individual member states. These organizations cannot
   function without the support of large countries, as was apparent during
   the 1920s and 1930s and during the Cold War. Many states are not
   (ethnic) nation states, but exist as multiple nations (sub-Saharan
   Africa), or only have a small portion of a nation within their
   boundaries (as in Arab countries).

   The number and size of free market economies have increased
   dramatically since the 19th century, but state-controlled economies
   were still seen as viable alternatives, until the fall of the USSR in
   1989. Free-market economies led to an enormous growth in standards of
   living. A global free market has, so far, met with mixed success. The
   free transfer of goods and information led to a growing interdependence
   of states that are bound by self-interest to cooperate with other
   states. This process is called globalization.

   Overpopulation has been identified as one of the largest worldwide
   problems. This problem was identified much earlier by thinkers such as
   Malthus and Max Weber. Weber was afraid that India and China would
   develop their economies at the cost of Europe, and advocated German
   imperialism to prevent poverty for the German masses. The technological
   and economical development of the 20th century proved that the western
   countries could have economical growth through internal development.
   The European countries at the time of Max Weber could be seen as Third
   World countries compared to the wealth they have now. China, India and
   Latin America have been developing in recent decades, which has
   consequences for employment in western countries. Increasing population
   is also linked with the rapidly increasing demand for a share of
   limited resources and for the increasing destruction of the environment
   as these resources are used.

   American culture has made a huge impact on the world. Hollywood movies
   and jazz music dominated the whole western world from the 1920s. Youth
   culture started in America. Jeans, T-shirts, the American style of
   advertising and pop music gained worldwide dominance in the 1960s and
   1970s.

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