1.
History of the world
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The history of the world describes the history of humanity as determined by the study of archaeological and written records, beginning with the invention of writing. The latter period marked a change in history, as humans began the systematic husbandry of plants. Agriculture advanced, and most humans transitioned from a nomadic to a lifestyle as farmers in permanent settlements. As farming developed, grain agriculture became more sophisticated and prompted a division of labour to store food between growing seasons, labour divisions then led to the rise of a leisured upper class and the development of cities. The growing complexity of human societies necessitated systems of writing and accounting, in the mid-15th century, the invention of modern printing, employing movable type, revolutionized communication, helping end the Middle Ages and ushering in the Scientific Revolution. By the 18th century, the accumulation of knowledge and technology, outside the Old World, including ancient China and ancient India, historical timelines unfolded differently. However, by the 18th century, due to world trade and colonization. Genetic measurements indicate that the ape lineage which would lead to Homo sapiens diverged from the lineage that would lead to chimpanzees around six years ago. It is thought that the Australopithecine genus, which were likely the first apes to walk upright, anatomically modern humans arose in Africa about 200,000 years ago, and reached behavioural modernity about 50,000 years ago. Modern humans spread rapidly from Africa into the frost-free zones of Europe, 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 colonized nearly all the parts of the globe by the end of the Ice Age. Other hominids such as Homo erectus had been using simple wood and stone tools for millennia, at some point, humans began using fire for heat and cooking. They also developed language in the Palaeolithic period and a repertoire that included systematic burial of the dead. Early artistic expression can be found in the form of paintings and sculptures made from wood and bone, showing a spirituality generally interpreted as animism. During this period, all lived as hunter-gatherers, and were generally nomadic. The Neolithic Revolution, beginning about 8,000 BCE, saw the development of agriculture, Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution. Farming permitted far denser populations, which in time organized 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 and these were centres of trade, manufacturing and political power with nearly no agricultural production of their own
2.
History of Earth
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The history of Earth concerns the development of the planet Earth from its formation to the present day. Nearly all branches of science have contributed to the understanding of the main events of the Earths past. The age of Earth is approximately one-third of the age of the universe, an immense amount of geological change has occurred in that timespan, accompanied by the emergence of life and its subsequent evolution. Earth formed around 4.54 billion years ago by accretion from the solar nebula, volcanic outgassing probably created the primordial atmosphere and then the ocean, but the atmosphere contained almost no oxygen and so would have been toxic to most modern life including humans. Much of the Earth was molten because of frequent collisions with other bodies which led to extreme volcanism. A giant impact collision with a body named Theia while Earth was in its earliest stage. Over time, the Earth cooled, causing the formation of a solid crust, the geological time scale clock depicts the larger spans of time from the beginning of the Earth as well as a chronology of some definitive events of Earth history. The Archean and Proterozoic eons follow, they produced the abiogenesis of life on Earth, there are microbial mat fossils such as stromatolites found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone discovered in Western Australia. According to one of the researchers, If life arose relatively quickly on Earth … then it could be common in the universe, living forms derived from photosynthesis appeared between 3.2 and 2.4 billion years ago and began enriching the atmosphere with oxygen. More than 99 percent of all species, amounting to five billion species. Estimates on the number of Earths current species range from 10 million to 14 million, of which about 1.2 million have been documented and over 86 percent have not yet been described. More recently, in May 2016, scientists reported that 1 trillion species are estimated to be on Earth currently with only one-thousandth of one percent described. Geological change has been a constant of Earths crust since the time of its formation, species continue to evolve, taking on new forms, splitting into daughter species or going extinct in the process of adapting or dying in response to ever-changing physical environments. The process of plate tectonics continues to play a dominant role in the shaping of Earths oceans and continents, in geochronology, time is generally measured in mya, each unit representing the period of approximately 1,000,000 years in the past. The history of Earth is divided into four great eons, starting 4,540 mya with the formation of the planet, each eon saw the most significant changes in Earths composition, climate and life. Each eon is divided into eras, which in turn are divided into periods. The history of the Earth can be organized according to the geologic time scale. The following four timelines show the time scale
3.
Prehistory
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Prehistory means literally before history, from the Latin word for before, præ, and Greek ιστορία. Neighbouring civilisations were the first to follow, most other civilisations reached the end of prehistory during the Iron Age. The period when a culture is written about by others, but has not developed its own writing is known as the protohistory of the culture. By definition, there are no records from human prehistory. Clear techniques for dating were not well-developed until the 19th century and this article is concerned with human prehistory as defined here above. There are separate articles for the history of the Earth. However, for the race as a whole, prehistory ends when recorded history begins with the accounts of the ancient world around the 4th millennium BC. For example, in Egypt it is accepted that prehistory ended around 3200 BC, whereas in New Guinea the end of the prehistoric era is set much more recently. The three-age system is the periodization of prehistory into three consecutive time periods, named for their respective predominant tool-making technologies, Stone Age Bronze Age Iron Age. The notion of prehistory began to surface during the Enlightenment in the work of antiquarians who used the word primitive to describe societies that existed before written records, the first use of the word prehistory in English, however, occurred in the Foreign Quarterly Review in 1836. The main source for prehistory is archaeology, but some scholars are beginning to more use of evidence from the natural and social sciences. This view has been articulated by advocates of deep history, human population geneticists and historical linguists are also providing valuable insight for these questions. Human prehistory differs from history not only in terms of its chronology, restricted to material processes, remains and artifacts rather than written records, prehistory is anonymous. Because of this, reference terms that use, such as Neanderthal or Iron Age are modern labels with definitions sometimes subject to debate. Palaeolithic means Old Stone Age, and begins with the first use of stone tools, the Paleolithic is the earliest period of the Stone Age. The early part of the Palaeolithic is called the Lower Palaeolithic, evidence of control of fire by early humans during the Lower Palaeolithic Era is uncertain and has at best limited scholarly support. The most widely accepted claim is that H. erectus or H. ergaster made fires between 790,000 and 690,000 BP in a site at Bnot Yaakov Bridge, Israel. The use of fire enabled early humans to cook food, provide warmth, Early Homo sapiens originated some 200,000 years ago, ushering in the Middle Palaeolithic
4.
Ancient history
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Ancient history is the aggregate of past events from the beginning of recorded human history and extending as far as the Early Middle Ages or the Postclassical Era. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with Sumerian Cuneiform script, the term classical antiquity is often used to refer to history in the Old World from the beginning of recorded Greek history in 776 BC. This roughly coincides with the date of the founding of Rome in 753 BC, the beginning of the history of ancient Rome. In India, ancient history includes the period of the Middle Kingdoms, and, in China. Historians have two major avenues which they take to better understand the ancient world, archaeology and the study of source texts, primary sources are those sources closest to the origin of the information or idea under study. Primary sources have been distinguished from secondary sources, which cite, comment on. Archaeology is the excavation and study of artefacts in an effort to interpret, archaeologists excavate the ruins of ancient cities looking for clues as to how the people of the time period lived. The study of the ancient cities of Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, the city of Pompeii, an ancient Roman city preserved by the eruption of a volcano in AD79. Its state of preservation is so great that it is a window into Roman culture and provided insight into the cultures of the Etruscans. The Terracotta Army, the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor in ancient China, the discovery of Knossos by Minos Kalokairinos and Sir Arthur Evans. The discovery of Troy by Heinrich Schliemann, most of what is known of the ancient world comes from the accounts of antiquitys own historians. Although it is important to take account the bias of each ancient author. Some of the more notable ancient writers include Herodotus, Thucydides, Arrian, Plutarch, Polybius, Sima Qian, Sallust, Livy, Josephus, Suetonius, furthermore, the reliability of the information obtained from these surviving records must be considered. Few people were capable of writing histories, as literacy was not widespread in almost any culture until long after the end of ancient history, the earliest known systematic historical thought emerged in ancient Greece, beginning with Herodotus of Halicarnassus. He was also the first to distinguish between cause and immediate origins of an event, the Roman Empire was one of the ancient worlds most literate cultures, but many works by its most widely read historians are lost. Indeed, only a minority of the work of any major Roman historian has survived, prehistory is the period before written history. The early human migrations in the Lower Paleolithic saw Homo erectus spread across Eurasia 1.8 million years ago, the controlled use of fire occurred 800,000 years ago in the Middle Paleolithic. 250,000 years ago, Homo sapiens emerged in Africa, 60–70,000 years ago, Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa along a coastal route to South and Southeast Asia and reached Australia
5.
History of writing
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The history of writing traces the development of expressing language by letters or other marks and also the study and description of these developments. One of the earliest forms of expression is cuneiform. Writing numbers for the purpose of record keeping began long before the writing of language, see History of writing ancient numbers for how the writing of numbers began. It is generally agreed that true writing of language was conceived and developed in at least two places and possibly more. Egyptian script is dissimilar from Mesopotamian cuneiform, but similarities in concepts, similar debate surrounds the Indus script of the Bronze Age Indus Valley civilization in Ancient India. In addition, the script is still undeciphered and there is debate whether the script is true writing at all. An additional possibility is the undeciphered Rongorongo script of Easter Island and it is debated whether this is true writing, and if it is, whether it is another case of cultural diffusion of writing. The oldest example is from 1851,139 years after their first contact with Europeans, one explanation is that the script was inspired by Spains written annexation proclamation in 1770. Recent examples are the Cherokee syllabary, invented by Sequoyah, symbolic communication systems are distinguished from writing systems in that one must usually understand something of the associated spoken language to comprehend the text. In contrast, symbolic systems such as signs, painting, maps. Every human community possesses language, a feature regarded by many as an innate, however the development of writing systems, and their partial supplantation of traditional oral systems of communication, have been sporadic, uneven and slow. Once established, writing systems on the change more slowly than their spoken counterparts. Writing allows societies to transmit information and share knowledge, scholars make a reasonable distinction between prehistory and history of early writing, but have disagreed concerning when prehistory becomes history and when proto-writing became true writing. Writing, in its most general terms, is a method of recording information and is composed of graphemes, the emergence of writing in a given area is usually followed by several centuries of fragmentary inscriptions. Historians mark the historicity of a culture by the presence of coherent texts in the writing system. The invention of writing was not an event, but a gradual process initiated by the appearance of symbols. A conventional proto-writing to true writing system follows a series of developmental stages, Picture writing system. Transitional system, graphemes refer not only to the object or idea which it represents, phonetic system, graphemes refer to sounds or spoken symbols, and the form of the grapheme is not related to its meanings
6.
History of Africa
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The history of Africa begins with the emergence of Homo sapiens in East Africa, and continues into the present as a patchwork of diverse and politically developing nation states. The recorded history of early civilization arose in the Kingdom of Kush, and later in Ancient Egypt, the Sahel, the Maghreb, during the Middle Ages, Islam spread west from Arabia to Egypt, crossing the Maghreb and the Sahel. They were transported, along with Asians and Europeans, across the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, from the late 15th century, Europeans joined the slave trade, with the Portuguese initially acquiring slaves through trade and later by force as part of the Atlantic slave trade. They transported enslaved West, Central, and Southern Africans overseas, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, European colonization of Africa developed rapidly in the Scramble for Africa. It is widely believed that Africa had up to 10,000 different states and autonomous groups with distinct languages and customs before it was colonized. Following struggles for independence in many parts of the continent, as well as a weakened Europe after the Second World War, decolonization took place, disciplines such as the recording of oral history, historical linguistics, archaeology and genetics have been crucial. The first known hominids evolved in Africa and this gave them a crucial advantage, enabling them to live in both forested areas and on the open savanna at a time when Africa was drying up and the savanna was encroaching on forested areas. This occurred 10 to 5 million years ago, by 4 million years ago, several australopithecine hominid species had developed throughout Southern, Eastern and Central Africa. They were tool users, and makers of tools and they scavenged for meat and were omnivores. By approximately 3.3 million years ago, primitive stone tools were first used to scavenge kills made by predators and to harvest carrion. In hunting, Homo habilis was probably not capable of competing with large predators and was still more prey than hunter, H. habilis probably did steal eggs from nests and may have been able to catch small game and weakened larger prey. The tools were classed as Oldowan, around 1.8 million years ago, Homo ergaster first appeared in the fossil record in Africa. From Homo ergaster, Homo erectus evolved 1.5 million years ago, some of the earlier representatives of this species were still fairly small-brained and used primitive stone tools, much like H. habilis. The brain later grew in size, and H. erectus eventually developed a complex stone tool technology called the Acheulean. Possibly the first hunters, H. erectus mastered the art of making fire and was the first hominid to leave Africa, colonizing most of Afro-Eurasia, the fossil record shows Homo sapiens living in Southern and Eastern Africa at least 200,000 to 150,000 years ago. Around 40,000 years ago, the species out of Africa launched the colonization of the planet by modern human beings. By 10,000 BC, Homo sapiens had spread to most corners of Afro-Eurasia and their disperals are traced by linguistic, cultural and genetic evidence. The earliest physical evidence of activity appears to be a lunar calendar found on the Ishango bone dated to between 23,000 and 18,000 BC
7.
Pre-Columbian era
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For this reason the alternative terms of Precontact Americas, Pre-Colonial Americas or Prehistoric Americas are also in use. In areas of Latin America the term used is Pre-Hispanic. Other civilizations were contemporary with the period and were described in European historical accounts of the time. A few, such as the Maya civilization, had their own written records, because many Christian Europeans of the time viewed such texts as heretical, men like Diego de Landa destroyed many texts in pyres, even while seeking to preserve native histories. Only a few documents have survived in their original languages, while others were transcribed or dictated into Spanish, giving modern historians glimpses of ancient culture. Indigenous American cultures continue to evolve after the pre-Columbian era, many of these peoples and their descendants continue traditional practices, while evolving and adapting new cultural practices and technologies into their lives. Now, the study of pre-Columbian cultures is most often based on scientific. Asian nomads are thought to have entered the Americas via the Bering Land Bridge, now the Bering Strait, genetic evidence found in Amerindians maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA supports the theory of multiple genetic populations migrating from Asia. Over the course of millennia, Paleo-Indians spread throughout North and South America, exactly when the first group of people migrated into the Americas is the subject of much debate. One of the earliest identifiable cultures was the Clovis culture, with sites dating from some 13,000 years ago, however, older sites dating back to 20,000 years ago have been claimed. Some genetic studies estimate the colonization of the Americas dates from between 40,000 and 13,000 years ago, the chronology of migration models is currently divided into two general approaches. The first is the short chronology theory with the first movement beyond Alaska into the New World occurring no earlier than 14, 000–17,000 years ago, followed by successive waves of immigrants. The second belief is the long chronology theory, which proposes that the first group of people entered the hemisphere at an earlier date, possibly 50. In that case, the Eskimo peoples would have arrived separately and at a later date, probably no more than 2,000 years ago. The North American climate was unstable as the ice age receded and it finally stabilized by about 10,000 years ago, climatic conditions were then very similar to todays. Within this timeframe, roughly pertaining to the Archaic Period, numerous archaeological cultures have been identified, the unstable climate led to widespread migration, with early Paleo-Indians soon spreading throughout the Americas, diversifying into many hundreds of culturally distinct tribes. The paleo-indians were hunter-gatherers, likely characterized by small, mobile bands consisting of approximately 20 to 50 members of an extended family and these groups moved from place to place as preferred resources were depleted and new supplies were sought. During much of the Paleo-Indian period, bands are thought to have subsisted primarily through hunting now-extinct giant land animals such as mastodon, Paleo-Indian groups carried a variety of tools
8.
History of Oceania
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The History of Oceania includes the history of Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and other Pacific island nations. There are three theories regarding the spread of humans across the Pacific to Polynesia and these are outlined well by Kayser et al. This theory is supported by the majority of current human genetic data, linguistic data, slow Boat model, Similar to the express-train model but with a longer hiatus in Melanesia along with admixture, both genetically, culturally and linguistically with the local population. This is supported by the Y-chromosome data of Kayser et al. which shows all three haplotypes of Polynesian Y chromosomes can be traced back to Melanesia. In the archaeological record there are well-defined traces of this expansion which allow the path it took to be followed and dated with some certainty. It is thought that by roughly 1400 BC, Lapita Peoples, so-named after their pottery tradition and this culture is seen as having adapted and evolved through time and space since its emergence Out of Taiwan. They had given up rice production, for instance, after encountering and adapting to breadfruit in the Birds Head area of New Guinea, in the end, the most eastern site for Lapita archaeological remains recovered so far has been through work on the archaeology in Samoa. The site is at Mulifanua on Upolu, the Mulifanua site, where 4,288 pottery shards have been found and studied, has a true age of c.1000 BC based on C14 dating. A2010 study places the beginning of the human archaeological sequences of Polynesia in Tonga at 900 B. C, the area of Tonga, Fiji, and Samoa served as a gateway into the rest of the Pacific region known as Polynesia. Ancient Tongan mythologies recorded by early European explorers report the islands of Ata, pottery art from Fijian towns shows that Fiji was settled before or around 3500 to 1000 BC, although the question of Pacific migration still lingers. The first settlements in Fiji were started by voyaging traders and settlers from the west about 5000 years ago, Lapita pottery shards have been found at numerous excavations around the country. Aspects of Fijian culture are similar to the Melanesian culture of the western Pacific but have a connection to the older Polynesian cultures. Across 1,000 kilometres from east to west, Fiji has been a nation of many languages, fijis history was one of settlement but also of mobility. Over the centuries, a unique Fijian culture developed, constant warfare and cannibalism between warring tribes were quite rampant and very much part of everyday life. Early European visitors to Easter Island recorded the oral traditions about the original settlers. In these traditions, Easter Islanders claimed that a chief Hotu Matua arrived on the island in one or two large canoes with his wife and extended family and they are believed to have been Polynesian. There is considerable uncertainty about the accuracy of this legend as well as the date of settlement, published literature suggests the island was settled around 300-400 CE, or at about the time of the arrival of the earliest settlers in Hawaii. Some scientists say that Easter Island was not inhabited until 700-800 CE and this date range is based on glottochronological calculations and on three radiocarbon dates from charcoal that appears to have been produced during forest clearance activities
9.
History of East Asia
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The history of East Asia covers the people inhabiting the eastern subregion of the Asian continent known as East Asia from prehistoric times to the present. The best known ancient civilization of prehistoric East Asia was China, in prehistory, homo erectus lived in East and Southeast Asia from 1.8 million to 40,000 years ago. The species was believed to have lived for at least several hundred years in China. They may have been the first to use fire and cook food, homo sapiens migrated into inland Asia, likely by following herds of bison and mammoth and arrived in southern Siberia by about 43,000 years ago and some people moved south or east from there. The earliest sites of culture include Nanzhuangtou culture around 9500 BC to 9000 BC, Pengtoushan culture around 7500 BC to 6100 BC. The Jeulmun was a period of hunting, gathering, and small-scale cultivation of plants, archaeologists sometimes refer to this life-style pattern as broad-spectrum hunting-and-gathering. The Jōmon period occurred in Japan from circa 14,000 BC to 300BC, the Xia dynasty of China is the first dynasty to be described in ancient historical records such as Sima Qians Records of the Grand Historian and Bamboo Annals. Following this was the Shang dynasty, which ruled in the Yellow River valley, the classic account of the Shang comes from texts such as the Classic of History, Bamboo Annals and Records of the Grand Historian. According to the chronology, the Shang ruled from 1766 BC to 1122 BC. 1046–256 BC lasted longer than any other dynasty in Chinese history, however, the actual political and military control of China by the dynasty, surnamed Ji, lasted only until 771 BC, a period known as the Western Zhou. This period of Chinese history produced what many consider the zenith of Chinese bronze-ware making, the dynasty also spans the period in which the written script evolved into its modern form with the use of an archaic clerical script that emerged during the late Warring States period. Confucianism is an ethical and philosophical system developed during the Spring and it later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han Dynasty. Following the official abandonment of Legalism in China after the Qin Dynasty, nonetheless, from the Han period onwards, most Chinese emperors have used a mix of Legalism and Confucianism as their ruling doctrine. The disintegration of the Han in the second century CE opened the way for the doctrines of Buddhism and Taoism to dominate intellectual life at that time. A Confucian revival began during the Tang dynasty, in the late Tang, Confucianism developed aspects on the model of Buddhism and Taoism and was reformulated as Neo-Confucianism. This reinvigorated form was adopted as the basis of the imperial exams, the abolition of the examination system in 1905 marked the end of official Confucianism. The New Culture intellectuals of the twentieth century blamed Confucianism for Chinas weaknesses. In the 20th century, Confucianism’s influence has greatly reduced
10.
History of Southeast Asia
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The term Southeast Asia has been in use since World War II. Earliest Homo sapiens presence in Mainland Southeast Asia can be traced back to 50,000 years ago, as early as 10,000 years ago, Hoabinhian settlers have developed a tradition and culture of distinct artefact and tool production. During the Neolithic Austroasiatic peoples populated Indochina via land routes and sea-borne Austronesian immigrants preferably settled in insular Southeast Asia, the earliest agricultural societies that cultivate millet and wet-rice emerge around 1,700 BCE in the lowlands and riverine floodplains of Indochina. Around the same time the first Agrarian Kingdoms emerged where territory was abundant and favourable, such as Funan at the lower Mekong, smaller and insular principalities increasingly engaged in and contributed to the rapidly expanding sea trade. The history of Southeast Asia has been influenced by its wide topographical diversity. Maritime Southeast Asia is apart from exceptions like Borneo and Sumatra a patchwork of recurring land-sea patterns on widely dispersed islands, a discontinuity, that admitted moderately sized thalassocratic states indifferent to territorial ambitions where growth and prosperity was associated with sea trade. Mainland Southeast Asia with a continuous, but rugged and difficult terrain provided the basis for the early Khmer, the era of European colonialism, early Modernity and the Cold War era revealed the reality of limited political significance for the various Southeast Asian polities. Post-World War II national survival and progress required a modern state, there are numerous ancient Asian designations for Southeast Asia, none of which refer to a strictly defined geographical area. Names include Suvarnabhumi or Sovannah Phoum and Suvarnadvipa in Indian tradition, the term Southeast Asia has been coined to designate the area of operation for Anglo-American forces in the Pacific Theater of World War II from 1941 to 1945. Anatomically modern human migration into Southeast Asia before 50,000 years ago has been confirmed by the combined fossil record of the region. Java Man and Homo floresiensis attest for a regional presence and isolation. Modern human presence in the Niah cave on East Malaysia dates back to 40,000 years BP, human remains are from approximately 24,000 years ago. Research emphasises considerable variations in quality and nature of the artifacts, influenced by environmental conditions and proximity. Remarkable is nonetheless that the Hoabinhian culture accounts for the first verified ritual burials, genetics as a research tool has been established only recently but results tend to contradict conventional theories. Though millet and rice cultivation was introduced around 2000 BCE, hunting and gathering remained an important aspect of food provision, in particular in forested, many tribal communities of the aboriginal Australo-Melanesian settlers continued the lifestyle of mixed sustenance until the modern era. Between around 1,700 and 1,000 BC people settled in the Southeast Asian lowlands as wet-rice, immigration from China alongside the introduction of farming occurred and DNA testing calls for revision of Neolithic migrations. Earliest known copper and bronze production in Southeast Asia has been found at the site of Ban Chiang in North-east Thailand, by about 500 BCE large and delicately decorated bronze drums of remarkable quality, that weighed more than 70 kg were produced in the laborious lost-wax casting process. This industry of highly sophisticated metal processing has been developed locally bare of Chinese or Indian influence, historians relate these achievements to the presence of well organised, centralised and hierarchical communities and a large population
11.
Post-classical history
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Post-classical history is the period of time that immediately followed ancient history and preceded modern history. Depending on the continent, the era generally falls between the years 200–600 and 1200–1500, the major classical civilizations the era follows are Han China, the Western Roman Empire, the Gupta Empire, and the Sasanian Empire. The post-classical era itself was followed by the modern era, and forms the middle period in a three-period division of world history, ancient, post-classical. The era is thought to be characterized by invasions from Central Asia, the development of the world religions. The name of this era of history derives from antiquity of Europe. In European history, post-classical is synonymous with the time or Middle Ages. Art and architecture were characterized by Christian themes, several attempts by the Crusades to recapture the Holy Land for Christianity were unsuccessful. East Asia experienced the establishment of power of Imperial China, which established several prosperous dynasties influencing Korea, Vietnam. Religions such as Buddhism and Neo-Confucianism spread, gunpowder was originally developed in China during the post-classical era. The invention of gunpowder led to the invention of fireworks, then to its use in warfare, also, the invention spread around the world. The Mongol Empire greatly affected much of Europe and Asia, the latter of which was conquered in many areas, the Mongols were able to create safe trade and stability between the two regions, but inadvertently encouraged the spread of the Black Plague. The timelines of the civilizations of the Americas – Maya, the Aztec. In Europe, it is called the Middle Ages in the sense of being between the two periods in time, ancient times and modern times. Humanist historians argued that Renaissance scholarship restored direct links to the classical period, the term first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas. In early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, first recorded in 1604, English is the only major Western European language that retains the plural form. Medieval historians did not, of course, think of themselves as being in the middle of history, instead, they wrote history from a universal and theological perspective. They divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires and they considered the Roman period, especially the time of the Apostles, a historical peak, followed by a long slide toward the Apocalypse. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, from Petrarchs Italian perspective, this new period was an age of national eclipse
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Middle kingdoms of India
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Middle kingdoms of India refers to the political entities in India from the 3rd century BCE to the 13th century CE. This period begins after the decline of the Maurya Empire, the Middle period lasts for some 1500 years, and ends in the 13th century with the rise of the Delhi Sultanate and the end of the Later Cholas. The period is known as the period of India, during which India is estimated to have had the largest economy of the world controlling between one third and one fourth of the worlds wealth. During the 2nd century BCE, the Maurya Empire became a collage of regional powers with overlapping boundaries, the whole northwest attracted a series of invaders between 200 BCE and 300 CE. The Puranas speak of many of these tribes as foreigners and impure barbarians, over time, the invaders became Indianized as they influenced society and philosophy across the Gangetic plains and were conversely influenced by it. This period is marked by intellectual and artistic achievements inspired by cultural diffusion and syncretism as the new kingdoms straddle the Silk Road. The first Saka king in India was Maues or Moga who established Saka power in Gandhara, Indo-Scythian rule in India ended with the last of the Western Satraps, Rudrasimha III, in 395 CE. The invasion of India by Scythian tribes from Central Asia, often referred to as the Indo-Scythian invasion, played a significant part in the history of India as well as nearby countries. The Indo-Greek Kingdom covered various parts of the Northwestern South Asia during the last two centuries BCE, and was ruled by more than 30 Hellenistic kings, often in conflict with each other. The kingdom was founded when Demetrius I of Bactria invaded the Hindu Kush early in the 2nd century BCE, the Greeks in India were eventually divided from the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom centered in Bactria. The expression Indo-Greek Kingdom loosely describes a number of various dynastic polities, there were numerous cities, such as Taxila Pakistans Punjab, or Pushkalavati and Sagala. Euthydemus I was, according to Polybius a Magnesian Greek and his son, Demetrius, founder of the Indo-Greek kingdom, was therefore of Greek descent from his father at minimum. A marriage treaty was arranged for Demetrius with a daughter of Antiochus III the Great, the ethnicity of later Indo-Greek rulers is less clear. For example, Artemidoros Aniketos may have been of Indo-Scythian descent, intermarriage also occurred, as exemplified by Alexander the Great, who married Roxana of Bactria, or Seleucus I Nicator, who married Apama of Sogdia. The diffusion of Indo-Greek culture had consequences which are still felt today, the Yavana or Yona people, literally Ionian and meaning Western foreigner, were described as living beyond Gandhara. Yavanas, Sakas, the Pahlavas and Hunas were sometimes described as mlecchas, kambojas and the inhabitants of Madra, the Kekeya Kingdom, the Indus River region and Gandhara were sometimes also classified as mlecchas. This name was used to indicate their cultural differences with the culture of the Kuru Kingdom, the Indo-Parthian Kingdom was founded by Gondophares around 20 BCE. The kingdom lasted only briefly until its conquest by the Kushan Empire in the late 1st century CE and was a framework where many smaller dynasts maintained their independence
