विकिपीडिया gomwiki https://gom.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%96%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%B2_%E0%A4%AA%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A8 MediaWiki 1.47.0-wmf.17 first-letter माध्यम विशेश चर्चा वापरपी वापरपी चर्चा विकिपीडिया विकिपीडिया चर्चा फायल फायल चर्चा मिडियाविकी मिडियाविकी चर्चा सांचो सांचो चर्चा आदार आदार चर्चा वर्ग वर्ग चर्चा TimedText TimedText talk एकक एकक चर्चा Event Event talk विशय 0 9346 217201 217199 2026-08-29T00:01:35Z InternetArchiveBot 7422 Rescuing 1 sources and tagging 0 as dead.) #IABot (v2.0.9.5 217201 wikitext text/x-wiki [[File:World population growth (lin-log scale).png|thumb|[[World population]] from 10,000 BCE to 2000 (the vertical (population) scale is logarithmic)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/population/international/data/worldpop/table_history.php|title=Historical Estimates of World Population|last=|first=|date=August 2016|website=|publisher=U. S. Census Bureau|accessdate=November 15, 2016}}</ref>]] {{Human history}} The '''history of the world''' (or '''world history''') describes the '''history of humanity''' (or '''human history''') as determined by the study of [[Archaeology|archaeological]] and [[Recorded history|written records]], beginning with the [[Inventions of writing|invention of writing]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia Americana|last=Diringer|first=David|publisher=|year=|isbn=|edition=1986|volume=29|location=|pages=558|chapter=Writing|quote=Writing gives permanence to men's knowledge and enables them to communicate over great distances.... The complex society of a higher civilization would be impossible without the art of writing.|via=}}</ref><ref name="WebsterWH">{{cite book|last1=Webster|first1=Hutton|title=World History|date=1921|publisher=D. C. Heath|location=Boston|page=27|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cboXAAAAIAAJ&pg=PR5&pg=PA27}}</ref> The [[Cradle of civilization|roots of civilization]] reach back to the earliest introduction of primitive technology and culture, while [[Prehistory]] begins in the [[Paleolithic|Palaeolithic Era]], or "Early Stone Age", which is followed by the [[Neolithic|Neolithic Era]], or "New Stone Age", and the [[Neolithic Revolution|Agricultural Revolution]] (between 8000 and 5000 [[BCE]]) in the [[Fertile Crescent]]. The latter period marked a change in human history, as humans began the systematic [[Agriculture|husbandry]] of plants and animals.<ref name="Tudge">{{cite book | last = Tudge | first = Colin | authorlink = Colin Tudge f| title = [[Neanderthals, Bandits and Farmers|Neanderthals, Bandits and Farmers: How Agriculture Really Began]] | date = 1998 | publisher = Weidenfeld & Nicolson | location = London | isbn = 0-297-84258-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Bellwood|first1=Peter|title=First Farmers: the origins of agricultural societies|url=https://archive.org/details/firstfarmersorig0000bell|date=2005|publisher=Blackwell|location=Malden, MA|isbn=0-631-20566-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Cohen|first1=Mark Nathan|title=The food crisis in prehistory overpopulation and the origins of agriculture|url=https://archive.org/details/foodcrisisinpreh0000cohe_n8y2|date=1977|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven|isbn=0-300-02016-3}}</ref> Agriculture advanced, and most humans transitioned from a [[nomad]]ic to a settled lifestyle as farmers in [[civilization|permanent settlements]]. Nomadism continued in some locations, especially in isolated regions with few domesticable plant species,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Diamond|first1=Jared|authorlink1=Jared Diamond|title=[[Guns, Germs, and Steel]]: the fates of human societies|date=1997|publisher=Cape|location=London|isbn=0224038095}}</ref> but the relative security and increased productivity provided by farming allowed human communities to expand into increasingly larger units, fostered by advances in [[history of transport|transportation]]. As farming developed, [[Cereal|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 [[City|cities]]. The growing complexity of human societies necessitated systems of [[writing]] and [[accounting]].<ref name="DSB-AO">{{cite journal| author=Schmandt-Besserat, Denise| authorlink=Denise Schmandt-Besserat| title=Signs of Life| journal=Archaeology Odyssey| date=January–February 2002| url=https://webspace.utexas.edu/dsbay/Docs/SignsofLife.pdf| pages=6–7, 63| access-date=2017-04-14| archive-date=2012-05-21| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120521204321/https://webspace.utexas.edu/dsbay/Docs/SignsofLife.pdf| url-status=dead}}</ref> Many cities developed on the [[Bank (geography)|banks]] of lakes and rivers as early as 3000 BCE, when some of the first prominent, well-developed settlements had arisen in [[Mesopotamia]] ("the Land between the Rivers"),<ref name="McNeill-Sumer">{{cite book | last = McNeill | first = William H. | authorlink = William H. McNeill (historian) | title = A World History | url = https://archive.org/details/worldhistory0000mcne_e1t4 | origyear = 1967 | edition = 4th | date = 1999 | publisher = [[Oxford University Press]] | location = New York | isbn = 0-19-511615-1 | page = [https://archive.org/details/worldhistory0000mcne_e1t4/page/15 15] | chapter = In The Beginning}}</ref> on the banks of [[ancient Egypt|Egypt]]'s [[Nile|Nile River]],<ref>{{cite book|author1=[[John Baines (Egyptologist)|Baines, John]] |author2=Jaromir Malek|title=The Cultural Atlas of Ancient Egypt|edition=revised|publisher=Facts on File|date=2000|isbn=0-8160-4036-2}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Bard | first = KA | title = Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt | url = https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780415185899 | publisher = Routledge | location = NY, NY | date = 1999|isbn=0-415-18589-0}}</ref><ref name="grimal1992">{{cite book|first=Nicolas|last=Grimal|title=A History of Ancient Egypt|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofancient0000grim_o8d3|publisher=Blackwell Books|date=1992|isbn=0-631-19396-0}}</ref> in the [[Indus Valley Civilisation|Indus River valley]]<ref>{{cite book |editor=Allchin, Raymond |editor-link=Raymond Allchin |date=1995 |title=The Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia: The Emergence of Cities and States |url=https://archive.org/details/archaeologyofear0000allc |location=New York |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=D. K. |last=Chakrabarti |date=2004 |title=Indus Civilization Sites in India: New Discoveries |url=https://archive.org/details/induscivilizatio0000unse |publisher=Marg Publications |location=Mumbai |isbn=81-85026-63-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor-link=Ahmad Hasan Dani |editor-last=Dani |editor-first=Ahmad Hasan |editor2-last=Mohen |editor2-first=J-P. |date=1996 |title=History of Humanity, Volume III, From the Third Millennium to the Seventh Century BC |location=New York/Paris |publisher=Routledge/UNESCO |isbn=0-415-09306-6}}</ref> and along the [[Yellow River|major rivers]] of [[China]].<ref name="National Gallery of Art">{{cite web|url=http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/exhibitions/1999/chinese_archaeology.html|title=The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from The People's Republic of China|last=|first=|date=|publisher=National Gallery of Art|location=|work=|accessdate=November 16, 2016}}{{Dead link|date=May 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www-chaos.umd.edu/history/ancient1.html|title=The Ancient Dynasties|publisher=University of Maryland|accessdate=12 January 2008}}</ref><ref name="Lee">{{cite journal|last1=Lee|first1=Yun Kuen|title=Building the Chronology of Early Chinese History|journal=Asian Perspectives|date=2002|volume=41|issue=1|pages=15–42|url=http://hdl.handle.net/10125/17161|issn=1535-8283|doi=10.1353/asi.2002.0006}}</ref> The history of the [[Old World]] (particularly Europe and the Mediterranean) is commonly divided into [[ancient history]] (or "Antiquity"), up to 476 CE; [[post-classical history]] (or "the [[Middle Ages]]"),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/|title=Internet Medieval Sourcebook Project|last=Halsall|first=Paul|date=January 26, 1996|website=Internet History Sourcebooks Project|publisher=Fordham University|accessdate=November 16, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.the-orb.net/ |title=The Online Reference Book of Medieval Studies |last= |first= |date= |website= |publisher=ORB |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090414091545/http://www.the-orb.net/ |archive-date=14 April 2009 |dead-url=yes |accessdate=18 April 2009 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> from the 5th through 15th centuries, including the rise of Christianity, the [[Islamic Golden Age]] (c. 750 CE&nbsp;– c. 1258 CE) and the early Italian [[Renaissance]] (beginning around 1300 CE);<ref>{{cite book|last1=Burckhardt|first1=Jacob|authorlink=Jacob Burckhardt|translator-first=S. G. C.|translator-last=Middlemore|title=The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy|date=1878|publisher=George Allen & Unwin|location=London|url=http://www.boisestate.edu/courses/hy309/docs/burckhardt/burckhardt.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080921145058/http://www.boisestate.edu/courses/hy309/docs/burckhardt/burckhardt.html|archivedate=21 September 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|editor-first=Adolphus W.|editor-last=Ward|url=http://www.uni-mannheim.de/mateo/camenaref/cmh/cmh.html |title=The Cambridge Modern History. Vol 1: The Renaissance|date=1902|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref> the [[early modern period]],<ref name="rice1970">{{cite book|last=Rice|first=Eugene, F., Jr.|title=The Foundations of Early Modern Europe: 1460–1559|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_0393054209|date=1970|publisher=W.W. Norton & Co.|authorlink=Eugene F. Rice, Jr.}}</ref> from the 15th century to the late 18th, including the [[Age of Enlightenment]]; and the [[Modern history#Western transformations|late modern period]], from the [[Industrial Revolution]] to the present, including [[contemporary history]]. In the mid-15th century, the invention of modern [[printing]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.open2.net/historyandthearts/discover_science/gberg_synopsis.html |title=What Did Gutenberg Invent? |last= |first= |date= |website= |publisher=BBC |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080506073655/http://www.open2.net/historyandthearts/discover_science/gberg_synopsis.html |archive-date=6 May 2008 |dead-url=yes |accessdate=20 May 2008 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> employing [[movable type]], revolutionized [[communication]], helping end the Middle Ages and ushering in the [[Scientific Revolution]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Grant|first1=Edward|title=The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages: their religious, institutional, and intellectual contexts|url=https://archive.org/details/foundationsofmod0000gran|date=2006|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521567626}}</ref> By the 18th century, the accumulation of [[knowledge]] and [[technology]], especially in Europe, had reached a [[Critical mass (sociodynamics)|critical mass]] that brought about the Industrial Revolution.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Understanding the Industrial Revolution|last=More|first=Charles|publisher=|year=2000|isbn=|location=|pages=|quote=|via=Questia}}</ref> Outside the Old World, including [[ancient China]] and [[History of India|ancient India]], historical timelines unfolded differently. However, by the 18th century, due to extensive [[International trade|world trade]] and [[colonization]], the histories of most civilizations had become substantially intertwined (see [[Globalization]]). In the last quarter-millennium, the rates of growth of population, knowledge, technology, communications, commerce, weapons destructiveness and environmental degradation have greatly accelerated, creating opportunities and perils that now confront the planet's human communities.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Biba|first1=Erin|title=Meet the Co-Founder of an Apocalypse Think Tank|journal=Scientific American|date=1 June 2015|volume=312|issue=6|page=26|url=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/meet-the-co-founder-of-an-apocalypse-think-tank/|quote=Throughout history our ancestors have confronted risks: pestilence, storms, earthquakes and human-induced disasters. But this century is different. It's the first when one species, ours, can determine the planet's future, threaten our civilization and jeopardize the existence of future generations.|doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0615-26}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Nordhaus|first1=William D.|authorlink1=William Nordhaus|title=A New Solution: the Climate Club|journal=The New York Review of Books|date=4 June 2015|volume=LXII|issue=10|pages=36–39|quote=Climate change has become the premier environmental problem facing the globe.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Baten, Jörg |title=A History of the Global Economy. From 1500 to the Present.|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781107507180 |date=2016|publisher=Cambridge University Press|pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781107507180/page/1 1]–13|isbn=9781107507180}}</ref> {{TOC limit|3}} ==Prehistory== {{Main article|Prehistory|Human evolution}} ===Early humans=== [[File:Lascaux 04.jpg|thumb|Cave painting, [[Lascaux|Lascaux, France]]]] [[Molecular clock|Genetic]] measurements indicate that the ape lineage which would lead to ''Homo sapiens'' diverged from the lineage that would lead to chimpanzees (the closest living relative of modern humans) around six million years ago.<ref name=ChenLi>{{cite journal |last1=Chen|first1=F.C.|last2=Li|first2=W.H. | date = 2001 | title = Genomic divergences between humans and other hominoids and the effective population size of the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees | journal = Am J Hum Genet | volume = 68 | issue = 2 | pages = 444–456 | doi = 10.1086/318206 | pmid = 11170892 | pmc = 1235277}}</ref> It is thought that the [[Australopithecine]] genus, which were likely the first apes to walk upright, eventually gave rise to genus ''Homo''. [[Anatomically modern human]]s arose in Africa about 200,000 years ago, and reached [[behavioral modernity|behavioural modernity]] about 50,000 years ago.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/ha/sap.htm |title=Human Ancestors Hall: Homo Sapiens |work=Human Origins Initiative |publisher=[[Smithsonian Institution]] |accessdate=30 August 2010 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071015030431/http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/ha/sap.htm |archivedate=15 October 2007 }}</ref> Modern humans [[Recent African origin of modern humans|spread]] rapidly from [[Africa]] into the frost-free zones of [[Europe]] and [[Asia]] around 60,000 years ago.<ref name="Stringer2012">{{Cite journal | last1 = Stringer | first1 = C. | title = AOP | url = https://archive.org/details/sim_nature-uk_2012-05-03_485_7396/page/33 | doi = 10.1038/485033a | journal = Nature | volume = 485 | issue = 7396 | pages = 33–35 | year = 2012 | pmid = 22552077 | pmc = }}</ref> The rapid expansion of humankind to [[North America]] and [[Oceania]] took place at the climax of the [[Last glacial period|most recent]] [[ice age]], when temperate regions of today were extremely inhospitable. Yet, humans had colonized nearly all the ice-free parts of the globe by the end of the Ice Age, some 12,000 years ago. Other [[Hominidae|hominids]] such as ''[[Homo erectus]]'' had been using simple wood and stone tools for [[Millennium|millennia]], but as time progressed, tools became far more refined and complex. At some point, humans [[Control of fire by early humans|began using fire]] for [[heat]] and [[cooking]]. They also [[Origin of language|developed language]] in the [[Paleolithic|Palaeolithic]] period and a conceptual repertoire that included systematic burial of the dead and adornment of the living. Early artistic expression can be found in the form of [[cave painting]]s and [[sculpture]]s made from wood and bone, showing a spirituality generally interpreted as [[animism]], or even [[shamanism]]. During this period, all humans lived as [[hunter-gatherer]]s, and were generally [[nomad]]ic.<ref>{{cite news|first=Hillary|last=Mayell|url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/02/0220_030220_humanorigins2_2.html|title=When Did "Modern" Behavior Emerge in Humans?|date=20 February 2003|work=National Geographic}}</ref> Archaeological and genetic data suggest that the source populations of Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers survived in sparsely wooded areas and dispersed through areas of high [[primary productivity]] while avoiding dense forest cover.<ref name=Gavashelishvili23>{{cite journal |last1=Gavashelishvili|first1=A.|last2=Tarkhnishvili|first2=D. |year=2016 |title= Biomes and human distribution during the last ice age |journal= Global Ecology and Biogeography |doi=10.1111/geb.12437 |volume=25 |issue=5|pages=563–574}}</ref> ===Rise of civilization=== [[File:Sumerian 26th c Adab.jpg|thumb|[[Cuneiform script|Cuneiform]], the earliest known writing system]] The [[Neolithic Revolution]], beginning about 8,000 BCE, saw the development of agriculture, which drastically changed the human lifestyle. [[Mesopotamia]] is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution. It has been identified as having "inspired some of the most important developments in human history including the invention of the [[wheel]], the planting of the first cereal [[crop]]s and the development of [[cursive]] script, [[Mathematics]], [[Astronomy]] and [[Agriculture]]."<ref name="historyandpolicy">{{cite web|url=http://www.historyandpolicy.org/papers/policy-paper-13.html|title=Iraq, past, present and future: a thoroughly-modern mandate?|last=Milton-Edwards|first=Beverley|date=May 2003|work=History & Policy|accessdate=9 December 2010|archive-date=8 December 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101208112958/http://www.historyandpolicy.org/papers/policy-paper-13.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Farming permitted far denser populations, which in time organized into [[State (polity)|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 [[city|cities]]. These were centres of [[trade]], [[manufacturing]] and [[political power]] with nearly no agricultural production of their own. Cities established a [[symbiosis]] with their surrounding [[Rural area|countryside]]s, absorbing agricultural products and providing, in return, manufactured goods and varying degrees of military control and protection.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Stearns | first1 = Peter N. | authorlink1 = Peter Stearns |first2=William L. | last2= Langer | title = [[Encyclopedia of World History|The Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, Chronologically Arranged]] | publisher = [[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|Houghton Mifflin Company]] | date = 24 September 2001 | isbn = 0-395-65237-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Chandler|first1=Tertius|title=Four thousand years of urban growth: an historical census|url=https://archive.org/details/fourthousandyear0000chan|date=1987|publisher=St. David's University Press|location=Lewiston, NY|isbn=9780889462076}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Modelski|first1=George|authorlink1=George Modelski|title=World cities: -3000 to 2000|date=2003|publisher=Faros 2000|location=Washington, DC|isbn=9780967623016}}</ref> The development of cities was synonymous with the rise of [[civilization]].<ref>The very word "[[civilization]]" comes from the [[Latin]] ''civilis'', meaning "civil," related to ''civis'', meaning "citizen," and ''civitas'', meaning "city" or "city-state."</ref> [[Cradle of civilization|Early civilizations]] arose first in Lower Mesopotamia (3500 BCE),<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ascalone|first1=Enrico|title=Mesopotamia: Assyrians, Sumerians, Babylonians (Dictionaries of Civilizations; 1)|url=https://archive.org/details/mesopotamia0000asca|date=2007|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|isbn=0520252667}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Lloyd|first1=Seton|title=The archaeology of Mesopotamia : from the Old Stone Age to the Persian conquest|url=https://archive.org/details/archaeologyofmes0000lloy_m7c7|date=1984|publisher=Thames and Hudson|location=New York|isbn=0500790094}}</ref> followed by [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptian civilization]] along the [[Nile]] (3000 BCE),<ref name="grimal1992"/> the [[Indus Valley Civilisation|Harappan civilization]] in the [[Indus River|Indus Valley]] (in present-day [[India]] and [[Pakistan]]; 2500 BCE)<ref>{{cite book|last1=Allchin|first1=Bridget|authorlink1=Bridget Allchin|last2=Allchin|first2=Raymond|authorlink2=Raymond Allchin|title=Origins of a civilization: the prehistory and early archaeology of South Asia|date=1997|publisher=Viking|location=New Delhi|isbn=978-0670877133}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Allchin|first1=Raymond|title=The archaeology of early historic South Asia : the emergence of cities and states|url=https://archive.org/details/archaeologyofear0000allc|date=1995|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521376952}}</ref> and [[Ancient China|Chinese civilization]] in the [[Yellow River]] and [[Yangtze|Yangtze river]] (2200 BCE).<ref name="National Gallery of Art"/><ref name="Lee"/> These societies developed a number of unifying characteristics, including a central government, a complex economy and social structure, sophisticated language and writing systems, and distinct cultures and religions. [[Writing]] was another pivotal development in human history, as it made the administration of cities and expression of ideas far easier. As complex civilizations arose, so did complex [[religion]]s, and the first of their kind apparently originated during this period.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Zhu|first1=Tianshu|editor1-last=Compareti|editor1-first=Matteo|editor2-last=Raffetta|editor2-first=Paola|editor3-last=Scarcia|editor3-first=Gianroberto|title=Ērān ud Anērān: studies presented to Boris Ilich Maršak on the occasion of his 70th birthday|date=2006|publisher=Cafoscarina|location=Venice|isbn=8875431051|chapter=The Sun God and the Wind Deity at Kizil|chapterurl=http://www.transoxiana.org/Eran/Articles/tianshu.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Gimbutas|first1=Marija|authorlink1=Marija Gimbutas|title=The language of the goddess: unearthing the hidden symbols of western civilization|url=https://archive.org/details/languageofgoddes00gimb|date=1989|publisher=Harper & Row|location=San Francisco|isbn=0-06-250356-1}}</ref> Entities such as the Sun, Moon, Earth, sky, and sea were often deified.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Turner|first1=Patricia|last2=Coulter|first2=Charles Russell|title=Dictionary of ancient deities|url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofanci0000turn|date=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=9780195145045}}</ref> [[Shrine]]s developed, which evolved into [[temple]] establishments, complete with a complex hierarchy of [[Priest|priests and priestesses]] and other functionaries. Typical of the Neolithic was a tendency to worship [[anthropomorphism|anthropomorphic]] [[Deity|deities]]. Among the earliest surviving written religious scriptures are the Egyptian ''[[Pyramid Texts]]'', the oldest of which date to between 2400 and 2300 BCE.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/?id=6VBJeCoDdTUC&pg=PA1&dq=2353+-+2323+%22pyramid+texts%22|last=Allen|first=James|isbn=1-58983-182-9|title=The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts |date=2007 |publisher=Scholars Press |location=Atlanta, Ga.}}</ref> 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 [[Neolithic Revolution|Agricultural Revolution]] rather than following in its wake, as had generally been assumed.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Symmes|first1=Patrick|title=Turkey: Archeological Dig Reshaping Human History|url=http://europe.newsweek.com/turkey-archeological-dig-reshaping-human-history-75101|work=Newsweek|date=19 February 2010}}</ref> ==Ancient history== {{Main article|Ancient history}} {{ancient history}} ===Timeline=== :''Dates are approximate. Consult particular article for details.'' <timeline> ImageSize = width:575 height:355 PlotArea = width:475 height:334 left:65 bottom:20 AlignBars = justify Colors = id:time value:rgb(0.7,0.7,1) # id:period value:rgb(1,0.7,0.5) # id:age value:rgb(0.95,0.85,0.5) # id:era value:rgb(1,0.85,0.5) # id:eon value:rgb(1,0.85,0.7) # id:filler value:gray(0.8) # background bar id:black value:black Period = from:-3000 till:1000 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:500 start:-3000 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:500 start:-3000 PlotData = align:center textcolor:black fontsize:8 mark:(line,black) width:25 shift:(0,-5) bar:Age color:period from: -3000 till: -1200 text:[[Bronze Age]] from: -1200 till: 400 text:[[Iron Age]] from: 400 till: 1000 text:[[Post-classical era|Middle Ages]] bar:Mideast color:era from: -3000 till: -550 text:[[Mesopotamia]] from: -550 till: -322 shift:(0,-10) text:[[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenid]] from: -322 till: -247 shift:(0,0) text:[[Seleucid Empire|Seleucid]] from: -247 till: 224 shift:(0,-10) text:[[Parthian Empire|Parthian]] from: 224 till: 651 text:[[Sasanian Empire|Sasanian]] from: 651 till: 1000 text:[[Caliphate]]s bar:Africa color:age from: -3000 till: -800 text:[[Ancient Egypt]] from: -800 till: 350 text:[[Kingdom of Kush]] from: 350 till: 1000 text:[[Kingdom of Axum|Axumite Empire]] bar:Med/Europe color:era from: -3000 till: -1200 text:[[Aegean civilizations| Aegean]] from: -1200 till: -650 text:[[Phoenicia]] from: -650 till: -146 text:[[Ancient Greece]] from: -146 till: 500 text:[[Ancient Rome]] from:500 till: 1000 text:[[Middle Ages]] bar:India color:age from: -3000 till: -1300 text:[[Indus Valley Civilisation]] from: -1300 till: -150 text:[[Vedic period]] from: -150 till: 1000 text:[[Middle kingdoms of India|Middle kingdoms]] bar:China color:era from: -3000 till: -1600 text:[[List of Neolithic cultures of China|Neolithic]] from: -1600 till: -1046 text:[[Shang Dynasty|Shang]] from: -1046 till: -476 text:[[Zhou Dynasty|Zhou]] from: -476 till: -221 text:[[Warring States period|Warring]] from: -221 till: 1000 text:[[Imperial China]] bar:Japan color:era from: -3000 till: -300 text:[[Jōmon period|Jōmon]] from: -300 till: 250 text:[[Yayoi period|Yayoi]] from: 250 till: 710 text:[[Yamato period|Yamato]] from: 710 till: 794 shift:(0,8) text:[[Nara period|Nara]] from: 794 till: 1000 text: bar:N.America color:age from: -3000 till: -1500 text:[[Archaic period in North America|Archaic]] from: -1500 till: 1000 text:Post-Archaic bar:Mesoamerica color:era from: -3000 till: -1800 text:[[Archaic period in the Americas|Archaic]] from: -1800 till: 250 text:Formative from: 250 till: 900 text:Classic from: 900 till: 1000 text:Post- bar:Andes color:age from: -3000 till: -1800 text:[[Andean preceramic|Preceramic]] from: -1800 till: -900 text: Initial from: -900 till: -250 text: [[Chavín culture|Chavín]] from: -250 till: 600 text:Early Intermediate from: 600 till: 1000 text:[[Middle Horizon|M. Horizon]] </timeline> : <small>Regions not included in the timeline include: Southern [[History of Sub-Saharan Africa|Africa]], the [[History of the Caribbean#Before European Contact|Caribbean]], [[History of Central Asia#Ancient era|Central Asia]], Northern [[Bronze Age Europe|Europe]],</small> :<small>[[History of Korea#Prehistory, Gojoseon, and the Jin State|Korea]], [[History of Oceania|Oceania]], [[Prehistoric Siberia|Siberia]], [[History of Southeast Asia#Mesolithic and early agricultural societies|Southeast Asia]], and [[History of Taiwan#prehistoric Settlement|Taiwan]].</small> ===Cradles of civilization=== [[File:All Gizah Pyramids.jpg|thumb|[[Ancient Egypt]]ians built the [[Giza pyramid complex|Great Pyramids of Giza]].]] {{Main article|Cradle of civilization|Bronze Age|Iron Age}} The [[Bronze Age]] is part of the [[three-age system]] ([[Neolithic|Stone Age]], [[Bronze Age]], [[Iron Age]]) that for some parts of the world describes effectively the early history of [[civilization]]. During this era the most fertile areas of the world saw [[city-state]]s and the [[Cradle of civilization|first civilizations]] develop. These were concentrated in fertile river valleys: the [[Tigris–Euphrates river system|Tigris and Euphrates]] in [[Mesopotamia]], the [[Nile]] in [[Egypt]], the [[Indus River|Indus]] in the [[Indian subcontinent]], and the [[Yangtze]] and [[Yellow River]] in [[China]]. [[Sumer]], located in [[Mesopotamia]], is arguably the first known complex civilization,<ref>{{Cite book|title=A History of Sumer and Akkad|last=King|first=Leonid W.|publisher=|year=2015|isbn=1522847308|location=|pages=|quote=|via=}}</ref> developing the first [[city-state]]s in the 4th millennium BCE. It was in these cities that the earliest known form of writing, [[cuneiform script]], appeared c. 3000 BCE.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Empires of the Plain: Henry Rawlinson and the Lost Languages of Babylon|url=https://archive.org/details/empiresofplainhe00adki|last=Adkins|first=Lesley|publisher=St. Martin's Press|year=2003|isbn=0-312-33002-2|location=New York|pages=|quote=|via=}}</ref> Cuneiform writing began as a system of [[pictography|pictographs]]. These pictorial representations eventually became simplified and more abstract. Cuneiform texts were written on [[clay tablet]]s, on which [[symbol]]s were drawn with a blunt [[Phragmites|reed]] used as a [[stylus]]. Writing made the administration of a large state far easier. Transport was facilitated by waterways—by rivers and seas. The [[Mediterranean Sea]], at the juncture of three continents, fostered the projection of military power and the exchange of goods, ideas, and inventions. This era also saw new land technologies, such as horse-based cavalry and chariots, that allowed armies to move faster. These developments led to the rise of [[empire]]s. Such extensive civilizations brought peace and stability over wider areas. The first empire, controlling a large territory and many cities, developed in Egypt with the unification of [[Upper and Lower Egypt]] c. 3100 BCE,<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt|url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordhistoryofa00shaw|last=Shaw|first=Ian|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2003|isbn=0-19-280458-8|location=|pages=[https://archive.org/details/oxfordhistoryofa00shaw/page/78 78]–80|quote=|via=}}</ref> while in [[Crete]] the [[Minoan civilization]] had entered the Bronze Age by 2700 BCE and is regarded as the first civilization in Europe.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The World of Ancient Times|url=https://archive.org/details/worldofancientti00carl|last=Roebuck|first=Carl|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|year=1966|isbn=|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/worldofancientti00carl/page/101 101]|quote=|via=}}</ref> Over the next millennia, other river valleys would see monarchical empires rise to power. In the 25th century and 24th century BCE, [[Assyria]] and the [[Akkadian Empire]], respectively, arose in [[Mesopotamia]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wells|first1=H. G.|authorlink1=H. G. Wells|title=The Outline of History; Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind|date=1921|publisher=Macmillan|location=New York|volume=1|page=137}}</ref> [[File:The Wrestler (Olmec) by DeLange.jpg|thumb|''[[The Wrestler (sculpture)|The Wrestler]]'', an [[Olmec]] era statuette, 1200&nbsp;– 800 BCE.]] Over the following millennia, civilizations would develop across the world. [[Trade]] would increasingly become a source of power as states with access to important resources or controlling important trade routes would rise to dominance. In c. 2500 BCE, the [[Kerma Culture]] developed in [[Sudan]], south of Egypt.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hafsaas-Tsakos|first=Henriette|year=2009|title=The Kingdom of Kush: An African Centre on the Periphery of the Bronze Age World System|url=https://www.academia.edu/2380609/The_Kingdom_of_Kush_An_African_Centre_on_the_Periphery_of_the_Bronze_Age_World_System|journal=Norwegian Archaeological Review|volume=42|pages=50–70|via=|doi=10.1080/00293650902978590}}</ref> In modern Turkey the [[Hittites]] controlled a large empire and by 1600 BCE, [[Mycenaean Greece]] began to develop.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Chadwick|first1=John|authorlink1=John Chadwick|title=The Mycenaean world|date=1984|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-29037-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Mylonas|first1=George E.|authorlink1=George E. Mylonas|title=Mycenae and the Mycenaean Age|url=https://archive.org/details/mycenaemycenaean0000mylo|date=1966|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=0-691-03523-7}}</ref> In India this era was the [[Vedic civilization|Vedic period]], which laid the foundations of [[Hinduism]] and other cultural aspects of early Indian society, and ended in the 6th century BCE.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Historische Grammatik des Hindi: Die Genese seinse morphologischen Systems aus dem Mittel- und Altindischen|last=Oberlies|first=Thomas|publisher=|year=1998|isbn=|location=|pages=|quote=|via=}}</ref> From around 550 BCE, many independent kingdoms and republics known as the [[Mahajanapada]]s were established across the subcontinent.<ref>{{Cite book|title=A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century|last=Singh|first=Upinder|publisher=Pearson Education|year=2008|isbn=978-81-317-1120-0|location=Delhi|pages=260–4|quote=|via=}}</ref> As complex civilizations arose in the Eastern Hemisphere, most indigenous societies in the [[Americas]] remained relatively simple for some time, fragmented into diverse regional cultures. During the [[formative stage]] in [[Mesoamerica]], (about 1500 BCE to 500 CE), more complex and centralized civilizations began to develop, mostly in what is now Mexico, Central America, and Peru. They include civilizations such as the [[Olmec]], [[Maya civilization|Maya]], [[Zapotec civilization|Zapotec]], [[Moche culture|Moche]], and [[Nazca culture|Nazca]]. They developed agriculture as well, growing maize and other crops unique to the Americas, and creating a distinct culture and religion. These ancient indigenous societies would be greatly affected by European contact during the early modern period.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Method and Theory in American Archaeology|url=https://archive.org/details/methodtheoryinam0000will_h3d0|last=Phillips|first=Philip|last2=Willey|first2=Gordon R.|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=1957|isbn=9780226898889|location=|pages=|quote=|via=}}</ref> ===Axial Age=== {{Main article|Axial Age|History of philosophy|Timeline of religion|History of religions}} Beginning in the 8th century BCE, the "[[Axial Age]]" saw the development of a set of transformative philosophical and religious ideas, mostly independently, in many different places. Chinese [[Confucianism]],<ref>{{cite book |title=Confucianism |first1=Chai |last1=Ch'u |first2=Winberg|last2=Chai |publisher=Barron's Educational Series |date=1973 |isbn=978-0-7641-9138-1 |page=1}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Primary Source Reader for World History: To 1500 |url=https://archive.org/details/primarysourcerea0000unse |first=Elsa A. |last=Nystrom |publisher=Thmpson, Wadsworth |date=2006 |isbn=978-0-495-00609-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/primarysourcerea0000unse/page/46 46]}}</ref> Indian [[Buddhism]] and [[Jainism]], and [[Judaism|Jewish]] [[monotheism]] are all claimed by some scholars to have developed in the 6th century BCE. ([[Karl Jaspers]]' Axial-Age theory also includes [[Persia]]n [[Zoroastrianism]], but other scholars dispute his timeline for Zoroastrianism.) In the 5th century BCE, [[Socrates]] and [[Plato]] made substantial advances in the development of [[ancient Greek philosophy]]. In the East, three schools of thought would dominate [[China|Chinese]] thinking until the modern day. These were [[Taoism]],<ref>{{cite book|last1=Miller|first1=James|title=Daoism: a short introduction|date=2003|publisher=Oneworld|location=Oxford|isbn=1-85168-315-1}}</ref> [[Legalism (Chinese philosophy)|Legalism]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Reading/China/China%20Legalism.htm |title=Chinese Legalism: Documentary Materials and Ancient Totalitarianism |work=World Future Fund |accessdate=18 April 2009}}</ref> and [[Confucianism]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.interfaith.org/confucianism/|title=Confucianism|last=|first=|date=|publisher=Brite Media|work=Interfaith Online|accessdate=31 May 2016}}</ref> The Confucian tradition, which would become particularly dominant, looked for [[Politics|political]] [[morality]] not to the force of law but to the power and example of [[tradition]]. Confucianism would later spread to the [[Korean Peninsula]] and toward [[Japan]]. In the West, the [[ancient Greece|Greek]] philosophical tradition, represented by [[Socrates]],<ref name="enc1911">{{EB1911|noprescript=1|wstitle=Socrates}}</ref> [[Plato]],<ref>{{cite web|last1=Kraut|first1=Richard|title=Plato|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato/|website=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|date=1 January 2015}}</ref> [[Aristotle]],<ref>{{Catholic|no-icon=1|prescript=|wstitle=Aristotle|volume=1|first=William|last=Turner|authorlink=William Turner (bishop of Buffalo)}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/a/aristotl.htm|title=Aristotle (384—322 B.C.E.)|last=|first=|date=|publisher=University of Tennessee at Martin|work=The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy|accessdate=18 April 2009}}</ref> and other philosophers, along with accumulated science, technology, and culture, diffused throughout [[Europe]], Egypt, the [[Middle East]], and Northwest India, starting in the 4th century BCE after the conquests of Alexander III of [[Ancient Macedonians|Macedon]] ([[Alexander the Great]]).<ref>{{cite web|last1=Heckel|first1=Waldemar|title=Bibliography of Alexander the Great|url=http://hum.ucalgary.ca/wheckel/bibl/alex-bibl.pdf|publisher=University of Calgary|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090114193802/http://hum.ucalgary.ca/wheckel/bibl/alex-bibl.pdf|archivedate=14 January 2009|date=2 October 2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/Animation/alexander.html |title=The odyssey of Alexander the Great|publisher=Western Washington University|accessdate=18 April 2009 |archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20080615021840/http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/Animation/alexander.html |archivedate = 15 June 2008}}</ref> ===Regional empires=== {{Main article|Civilization|Empire}} The millennium from 500 BCE to 500 CE saw a series of empires of unprecedented size develop. Well-trained professional armies, unifying ideologies, and advanced bureaucracies created the possibility for emperors to rule over large domains whose populations could attain numbers upwards of tens of millions of subjects. The great [[empire]]s depended on [[military]] [[annexation]] of territory and on the formation of defended settlements to become agricultural centres.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Morgan|first1=Lewis Henry|title=Ancient society; or, researches in the lines of human progress from savagery, through barbarism to civilization|date=1877|publisher=Henry Holt|location=New York|url=https://archive.org/details/ancientsociety00morg}}</ref> The relative peace that the empires brought encouraged [[international trade]], most notably the massive trade routes in the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]], the maritime trade web in the Indian Ocean, and the [[Silk Road]]. In southern Europe, the [[Ancient Greece|Greeks]] (and later the [[Ancient Rome|Romans]]), in an era known as "[[classical antiquity]]," established cultures whose practices, laws, and customs are considered the foundation of contemporary [[Western culture]]. Major regional empires of this period include: *The [[Medes|Median Empire]], from ''c.'' 700 BCE,<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The Cambridge History of Iran|last=Diakonoff|first=I. M.|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1985|isbn=0-521-20091-1|editor-last=Gershevitch|editor-first=Ilya|volume=2|location=Cambridge|pages=|chapter=Media|quote=|via=}}</ref>{{Rp|36–148}} centred in present-day [[Iran]],<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|140}}<ref>{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture|last=|first=|publisher=|year=1997|isbn=|volume=30|location=|pages=|quote=...and the Medes (Iranians of what is now north-west Iran)...|via=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Media-ancient-region-Iran|title=Media {{!}} ancient region, Iran|last=|first=|date=|website=|publisher=Encyclopedia Brittanica|access-date=November 18, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=The Origin of the Indo-Iranians|last=Kuz'mina|first=Elena E.|publisher=BRILL|year=2007|isbn=978-90-04-16054-5|editor-last=Mallory|editor-first=J. P.|location=|pages=303|quote=Proto-Iranian split into Western (Median, and others) and Eastern (Scythian, Ossetic, Saka, Pamir and others)...|via=}}</ref> but extending west to present-day [[Turkey]] and east to present-day [[India]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0013_0_13491.html|title=Medes and Media|last=|first=|date=2008|website=Encyclopedia Judaica|publisher=Jewish Virtual Library|access-date=November 18, 2016}}</ref> The Median Empire gave way to successive [[History of Iran|Iranian]] empires of the period,<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Histories|last=Herodotus|first=|publisher=|year=|isbn=|location=|pages=93|quote=|via=}}</ref> including the world's first superpower [[Achaemenid Empire|The Achaemenid Empire]] (550-330 BCE) up to the [[Sasanian Empire]] (224-651 CE).<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Ancient Persia|last=Wiesehöfer|first=Josef|publisher=I. B. Traus|year=1996|isbn=|location=New York|pages=|quote=|via=}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=http://www.cultureofiran.com/b_history.php |title=A Brief History |last=Price |first=Massoume |date=2001 |website=Culture of Iran |publisher= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011121030510/http://www.cultureofiran.com/b_history.php |archive-date=21 November 2001 |dead-url=yes |access-date=November 18, 2016 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> [[File:Parthenon from west.jpg|thumb|The [[Parthenon]] epitomizes the sophisticated culture of [[Ancient Greece]].]] *The [[Delian League]] (from 477 BCE)<ref>{{Cite book|title=Ancient Greece: From Prehistoric to Hellenic Times|url=https://archive.org/details/ancientgreecefro00mart_1|last=Martin|first=Thomas|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2001|isbn=978-0-300-08493-1|location=|pages=|quote=|via=}}</ref> and the succeeding Athenian Empire (454-404 BCE),<ref>{{Cite book|title=History of the Peloponnesian War|last=Thucydides|first=|publisher=|year=|isbn=|location=|pages=I, 96|nopp=y|quote=|via=}}</ref> centred in present-day [[Greece]]. *[[Alexander the Great]] (356-323 BCE), of [[Macedonia (ancient kingdom)|Macedon]], founded an empire of conquest, extending from present-day Greece to present-day India.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture|last=Blair|first=Sheila S.|last2=Bloom|first2=Jonathan M.|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2009|isbn=|volume=3|location=|pages=385|quote=[Khojand, Tajikistan]; as the easternmost outpost of the empire of Alexander the Great, the city was renamed Alexandria Eschate ("furthest Alexandria") in 329 BCE.|via=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Central Asia in World History|url=https://archive.org/details/centralasiainwor0000gold|last=Golden|first=Peter B.|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2011|isbn=|location=|pages=[https://archive.org/details/centralasiainwor0000gold/page/25 25]|quote=(...) his campaigns in Central Asia brought Khwarazm, Sogdia and Bactria under Graeco-Macedonian rule. As elsewhere, Alexander founded or renamed a number of cities, such as Alexandria Eschate ("Outernmost Alexandria," near modern Khojent in Tajikistan).|via=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/alexander_the_great.shtml|title=Alexander the Great|last=|first=|date=|website=Historic Figures|publisher=BBC|access-date=November 18, 2016}}</ref> The empire divided shortly after his death, but the influence of his [[Hellenization|Hellenistic]] successors made for an extended [[Hellenistic period]] (323 – 30 BCE)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/haht/hd_haht.htm|title=Art of the Hellenistic Age and the Hellenistic Tradition|last=Hemingway|first=Collette|last2=Hemingway|first2=Seán|date=April 2007|website=Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History|publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art|access-date=November 18, 2016}}</ref> throughout the region. *The [[Maurya Empire]] (322 – 185 BCE)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/FeaturesFarEast/India_IronAge_Mauryas01.htm|title=The Mauryas: Chandragupta|last=Rajadhyaksha|first=Abhijit|date=August 2, 2009|website=The History Files|publisher=Kessler Associates|access-date=November 18, 2016}}</ref> in present-day [[History of India|India]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=A History of India|last=Kulke|first=Hermann|last2=Rothermund|first2=Dietmar|publisher=Routledge|year=2004|isbn=0-415-32920-5|edition=4th|location=|pages=|quote=|via=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=A History of India|last=Thapar|first=Romila|publisher=Penguin Books|year=1990|isbn=0-14-013835-8|volume=1|location=|pages=384|quote=|via=}}</ref> In the 3rd century BCE, most of [[South Asia]] was united into the Maurya Empire by [[Chandragupta Maurya]]<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Political History of Ancient India: From the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty|url=https://archive.org/details/politicalhistory0000rayc|last=Mukherjee|first=B. N.|last2=Raychaudhuri|first2=H. C.|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1996|isbn=|location=|pages=|quote=|via=}}</ref>{{Rp|594}} and flourished under [[Ashoka|Ashoka the Great]].<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|204–209, 270–271}} From the 3rd century CE,<ref name=":5">{{Cite web|url=http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761571624/gupta_dynasty.html |title=Gupta Dynasty |last=Heitzman |first=James |date= |website=Encarta Online |publisher=Microsoft |archive-url=http://www.webcitation.org/5kwqOxl5F?url=http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761571624/gupta_dynasty.html |archive-date=1 November 2009 |dead-url=yes |access-date=November 18, 2016 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> the [[Gupta Empire|Gupta dynasty]] oversaw the period referred to as ancient India's Golden Age.<ref>{{Cite book|title=History of India|last=Jayapalan|first=N.|publisher=Atlantic Publishers|year=2001|isbn=|volume=1|location=|pages=130|quote=|via=}}</ref> From the 4th to 6th centuries, northern [[India]] was ruled by the [[Gupta Empire]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Raghu Vamsa|last=|first=|publisher=|year=|isbn=|location=|pages=v. 4.60–75|nopp=y|quote=|via=}}</ref> In southern India, three prominent [[Dravidian people|Dravidian]] kingdoms emerged: [[Chera dynasty|Cheras]],<ref>{{Cite book|title=Evolution of Education Thought in India|last=Lal Dwivedi|first=Bhanwar|publisher=Northern Book Centre|year=1994|isbn=978-81-7211-059-8|location=|pages=164|quote=|via=}}</ref> [[Chola dynasty|Cholas]],<ref>{{Cite book|title=A History of South India|last=Nilakanta Sastri|first=K. A.|publisher=|year=|isbn=|location=|pages=157|quote=|via=}}</ref> and [[Pandyan dynasty|Pandyas]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Ancient Indian History and Civilization|last=Nath Sen|first=Sailendra|publisher=|year=|isbn=|location=|pages=|quote=|via=}}</ref> The ensuing stability contributed to heralding in the golden age of [[Hindu]] culture in the 4th and 5th centuries. *The [[History of the Roman Empire|Roman Empire]], centred in present-day [[Italy]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Social Development|last=Morris|first=Ian|publisher=Stanford University|year=2010|isbn=|location=|pages=|quote=|via=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Why the West Rules--For Now|url=https://archive.org/details/whywestrulesforn00morr_1|last=Morris|first=Ian|publisher=Farrar, Strous, and Giroux|year=2010|isbn=978-0-374-29002-3|location=New York|pages=|quote=|via=}}</ref> Beginning in the 3rd century BCE, the [[Roman Republic]] began expanding its territory through conquest and colonization.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Roman Empire: A Very Short Introduction|url=https://archive.org/details/romanempireverys0000kell|last=Kelly|first=Christopher|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2007|isbn=|location=|pages=4ff|quote=|via=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Space, Geography, and Politics in the Early Roman Empire|url=https://archive.org/details/spacegeographypo00nico|last=Nicolet|first=Claude|publisher=University of Michigan Press|year=1991|isbn=|location=|pages=[https://archive.org/details/spacegeographypo00nico/page/1 1], 15|quote=|via=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=The Praetorship in the Roman Republic|url=https://archive.org/details/praetorshipinrom0002bren|last=Brennan|first=T. Corey|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2000|isbn=|location=|pages=[https://archive.org/details/praetorshipinrom0002bren/page/605 605] et passim|quote=|via=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=The Oxford Handbook of Social Relations in the Roman World|last=Ando|first=Clifford|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=|isbn=|location=|pages=39–40|chapter=From Republic to Empire|quote=|via=}}</ref> By the time of [[Augustus]] (63 BCE - 14 CE), who would become the first Roman Emperor, Rome had already established dominion over most of the Mediterranean. The empire would continue to grow, controlling much of the land from [[England]] to [[Mesopotamia]], reaching its greatest extent under the emperor [[Trajan]] (d. 117 CE).<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Taagepera|first=Rein|year=1979|title=Size and Duration of Empires: Growth-Decline Curves, 600 BC to 600 AD|jstor=1170959|journal=Social Science History|volume=3|pages=|via=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Adams|first=Jonathan M.|last2=Hall|first2=Thomas D.|last3=Turchin|first3=Peter|year=2006|title=East-West Orientation of Historical Empires|url=http://peterturchin.com/PDF/Turchin_Adams_Hall_2006.pdf|journal=Journal of World-Systems Research|volume=12|pages=|via=|access-date=2017-04-14|archive-date=2016-05-17|archive-url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20160517210851/http://peterturchin.com/PDF/Turchin_Adams_Hall_2006.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> In the 3rd century CE, the empire would split into western and eastern regions, with (sometimes) separate emperors. The Western empire would fall, in 476 CE, to German influence under [[Odoacer]]. The eastern empire, now known as the [[Byzantine Empire]], with its capital at [[Constantinople]], would continue for another thousand years, until overthrown by the [[Ottoman Empire]] in 1453 CE. *The [[Qin dynasty]] (221 – 206 BCE), the first imperial dynasty of China, followed by the [[Han dynasty|Han Empire]] (206 BCE – 220 CE). The Han Dynasty was comparable in power and influence to the Roman Empire that lay at the other end of the Silk Road. While the Romans constructed a vast military of unprecedented power, Han China was developing advanced cartography, shipbuilding, and navigation. The East invented blast furnaces and were capable of creating finely tuned copper instruments. As with other empires during the Classical Period, Han China advanced significantly in the areas of government, education, mathematics, astronomy, technology, and many others.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Remaking China's Public Philosophy for the Twenty-First Century|url=https://archive.org/details/remakingchinaspu0000zhou|last=Zhou|first=Jinghao|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=2003|isbn=0-275-97882-6|location=Westport|pages=|quote=|via=}}</ref> *The [[Kingdom of Aksum]], centred in present-day Ethiopia.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Oxford Companion to Archaeology|last=Phillipson|first=David|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2012|isbn=|editor-last=Silberman|editor-first=Neil Asher|edition=2nd|location=|pages=48|quote=|via=}}</ref> By the 1st century CE the Kingdom of Aksum had established itself as a major trading empire, dominating its neighbours in South [[Arabian Peninsula|Arabia]] and [[Kingdom of Kush|Kush]], and controlling the [[Red Sea]] trade. They minted their own currency, and carved enormous monolithic [[stele]]s such as the [[Obelisk of Axum]] to mark their Emperors' graves. *Successful regional empires were also established in the [[Americas]], arising from cultures established as early as 2500 BCE.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Ancient North America: The Archaeology of a Continent|url=https://archive.org/details/ancientnorthamer0003faga|last=Fagan|first=Brian M.|publisher=Thames & Hudson Inc.|year=2005|isbn=0-500-28148-3|edition=4th|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/ancientnorthamer0003faga/page/390 390], 396|quote=|via=}}</ref> In [[History of Mesoamerica|Mesoamerica]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Central America |url=http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761574502/Central_America.html |website=MSN Encarta Online Encyclopedia |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/5kwKFvtVa?url=http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761574502/Central_America.html |archivedate=31 October 2009 |date=2006 |deadurl=yes |df=dmy-all }}</ref> vast pre-Columbian societies were built, the most notable being the [[Zapotec civilization|Zapotec Empire]] (700 BCE – 1521 CE),<ref>Zapotec civilization has its beginnings in 700 BCE: see {{Cite book|title=Zapotec Civilization: How Urban Society Evolved in Mexico's Oaxaca Valley|url=https://archive.org/details/zapoteccivilizat0000marc|last=Flannery|first=Kent V.|last2=Marcus|first2=Joyce|publisher=Thames & Hudson|year=1996|isbn=0-500-05078-3|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/zapoteccivilizat0000marc/page/146 146]|quote=|via=}} Zapotec civilization ended in 1521 according to the five archaeological stages presented in {{Cite book|title=The Zapotecs: Princes, Preists, and Peasants|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780806113746|last=Whitecotton|first=Joseph W.|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|year=1977|isbn=|location=Norman|pages=p. 26, LI.1–3|nopp=y|quote=|via=}} </ref> and the [[Maya civilization]], which reached its highest state of development during the Mesoamerican Classic period (c. 250 – 900 CE),<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Maya|url=https://archive.org/details/maya0000coem_h0k7|last=Coe|first=Michael D.|publisher=Thames & Hudson|year=1999|isbn=0-500-28066-5|edition=6th|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/maya0000coem_h0k7/page/81 81]|quote=|via=}}</ref> but continued throughout the Post-Classic period until the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century CE. Maya civilization arose as the [[Olmec]] [[mother culture]] gradually declined.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Olmecs: America's First Civilization|url=https://archive.org/details/olmecsamericasfi0000dieh|last=Diehl|first=Richard|publisher=Thames & Hudson|year=2004|isbn=0-500-02119-8|location=London|pages=|quote=|via=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Olmec to Aztec: Settlement Patterns in the Ancient Gulf Lowlands|url=https://archive.org/details/olmectoaztecsett0000unse|last=Arnold|first=Philip J. III|last2=Stark|first2=Barbara L.|publisher=University of Arizona Press|year=1977|isbn=0-8165-1689-8|location=Tucson|pages=|quote=|via=}}</ref> The great Mayan [[city-state]]s slowly rose in number and prominence, and Maya culture spread throughout the [[Yucatán Peninsula|Yucatán]] and surrounding areas. The later empire of the [[Aztec]]s was built on neighbouring cultures and was influenced by conquered peoples such as the [[Toltec]]s. [[File:PtolemyWorldMap.jpg|thumb|[[Ptolemy's world map|Claudius Ptolemy's world map]], c. 150 CE]] Some areas experienced slow but steady technological advances, with important developments such as the [[stirrup]] and [[moldboard plow|moldboard plough]] arriving every few centuries. There were, however, in some regions, periods of rapid technological progress. Most important, perhaps, was the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] area during the [[Hellenistic period]], when hundreds of technologies were invented.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Camp|first1=John McK.|last2=Dinsmoor|first2=William B.|title=Ancient Athenian building methods|date=1984|publisher=American School of Classical Studies at Athens|series=Excavations of the Athenian Agora|volume=21|location=Princeton, NJ|isbn=9780876616260}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Drachmann|first=A. G.|year=1963|title=The mechanical technology of Greek and Roman antiquity, a study of the literary sources|location=Copenhagen|publisher=Munksgaard}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Oleson|first1=John Peter|authorlink1=John Peter Oleson|title=Greek and Roman mechanical water-lifting devices : the history of a technology|date=1984|publisher=Reidel|location=Dordrecht|isbn=9027716935}}</ref> Such periods were followed by periods of technological decay, as during the [[Roman Empire]]'s decline and [[Fall of the Western Roman Empire|fall]] and the ensuing [[Early Middle Ages|early medieval]] period. ===Declines, falls and resurgence=== The empires faced common problems associated with maintaining huge armies and supporting a central bureaucracy. These costs fell most heavily on the [[peasant]]ry, while land-owning [[magnate]]s increasingly evaded centralized control and its costs. [[Barbarian]] pressure on the frontiers hastened internal dissolution. [[China]]'s [[Han dynasty]] fell into [[civil war]] in 220 CE, beginning the [[Three Kingdoms]] period, while its [[Roman Empire|Roman]] counterpart became increasingly decentralized and divided about the same time in what is known as the [[Crisis of the Third Century]]. The great empires of Eurasia were all located on temperate and subtropical coastal plains. From the [[Central Asia]]n steppes, horse-based nomads (mainly Mongols and Turks) dominated a large part of the continent. The development of the [[stirrup]] and the breeding of horses strong enough to carry a fully armed archer made the nomads a constant threat to the more settled civilizations. The gradual break-up of the [[Roman Empire]],<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire|year=1910|url=https://archive.org/details/declinefallofrom0002gibb|last=Gibbon|first=Edward|publisher=|isbn=|location=|pages=|chapter=General Observations on the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West|quote=|via=Internet Medieval Sourcebook}} Brief excerpts of Gibbon's theories.</ref> spanning several centuries after the 2nd century CE, coincided with the spread of [[Christianity]] westward from the Middle East. The Western Roman Empire fell under the domination of [[Germanic tribes]] in the 5th century, and these [[Polity|polities]] gradually developed into a number of warring states, all associated in one way or another with the [[Catholic Church]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire|last=Gibbon|first=Edward|publisher=Fred de Fau and Co.|year=1906|isbn=|editor-last=Bury|editor-first=J. B.|volume=Volumes II, III, and IX|location=New York|pages=|quote=|via=}}</ref> The remaining part of the Roman Empire, in the eastern Mediterranean, would henceforth be the [[Byzantine Empire]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Bury|first=John Bagnall|authorlink=J. B. Bury|date=1923|url=http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/BURLAT/home.html|title=History of the Later Roman Empire|publisher=Macmillan}}</ref> Centuries later, a limited unity would be restored to [[western Europe]] through the establishment in 962 of the [[Holy Roman Empire]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Bryce|first=J. B.|year=1907|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0jNI4vCO7d8C|title=The Holy Roman empire|location=New York|publisher=Macmillan}}</ref> comprising a number of states in what is now [[Germany]], [[Austria]], [[Switzerland]], [[Czech Republic]], [[Belgium]], [[Italy]], and parts of [[France]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Holy Roman Empire|last=Bryce|first=James|publisher=The MacMillan Company|year=1913|isbn=|location=|pages=183|quote=|via=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Germany and the Holy Roman Empire|last=Whaley|first=Joachim|publisher=|year=2012|isbn=|volume=1|location=|pages=17–20|quote=|via=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Central Europe: Enemies, Neighbors, Friends|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780195100716|last=Johnson|first=Lonnie R.|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1996|isbn=|location=|pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780195100716/page/23 23]|quote=|via=}}</ref> In China, [[Dynasty|dynasties]] would rise and fall, but, by sharp contrast to the Mediterranean-European world, dynastic unity would be restored. After the fall of the [[Eastern Han Dynasty]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/china/early_imperial_china/han.html |title=Dynasties of Early Imperial China: Han Dynasty|publisher=Minnesota State University |accessdate=18 April 2009 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090710041505/http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/china/early_imperial_china/han.html |archivedate=10 July 2009 }}</ref> and the demise of the Three Kingdoms, [[nomad]]ic tribes from the north began to invade in the 4th century, eventually conquering areas of northern China and setting up many small kingdoms. In 581 the [[Sui Dynasty]] successfully reunified the whole of China<ref>{{cite book|title=The Dynasties of China: A History|url=https://archive.org/details/briefhistoryofdy0000gasc|last=Gascoigne|first=Bamber|date=2003|publisher=Carroll & Graf|isbn=1-84119-791-2|location=New York|authorlink=Bamber Gascoigne}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=A history of Chinese civilization|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofchinese0000gern|last=Gernet|first=Jacques|date=1982|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-24130-8|authorlink=Jacques Gernet}}</ref> and laid the foundations for the Chinese golden age under the [[Tang dynasty]] (618-907).<ref name=":6">{{Cite book|title=China's Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynasty|url=https://archive.org/details/chinascosmopolit0000lewi|last=Lewis|first=Mark Edward|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2012|isbn=978-0-674-03306-1|location=|pages=[https://archive.org/details/chinascosmopolit0000lewi/page/1 1]|quote=|via=}}</ref> Over the course of history, [[Polity|polities]] have tended to develop by accretion or takeover, variously amicable or hostile, and have often disintegrated. The histories even of now small countries often show earlier periods of [[Imperialism|imperialist]] expansion. The [[Roman Empire]] is merely one of the more memorable and paradigmatic examples of political expansion and contraction.<ref>{{cite book|first=G.W.|last=Trompf|title=The Idea of [[Historic recurrence|Historical Recurrence]] in Western Thought, from Antiquity to the Reformation|isbn=9780520034792|location=Berkeley|publisher=University of California Press|year=1979}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Paul|last=Kennedy|authorlink=Paul Kennedy|title=[[The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers]]: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000|location=New York|publisher=Random House|year=1987|isbn=0-394-54674-1}}</ref> The [[Chinese Empire]], on the other hand, is an example of long-term political expansion and persistence—of an empire which recovered from all its declines and falls, and which challenges the paradigm of inevitable permanent imperial fall.<ref>{{cite book|first=Yuri|last=Pines|authorlink=Yuri Pines|title=Envisioning Eternal Empire: Chinese Political Thought of the Warring States Era|url=https://archive.org/details/envisioningetern0000pine|location=Honolulu|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|year=2009|isbn=9780824832759}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Yuri|last=Pines|title=The Everlasting Empire: The Political Culture of Ancient China and Its Imperial Legacy|url=https://archive.org/details/everlastingempir0000pine|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2012|isbn=9780691134956}}</ref> A champion of [[world history]], [[Arnold J. Toynbee|Arnold Toynbee]], concludes that the history of the world is not just a cycle of expansions and contractions. The cycle proceeds on a ''spatially'' growing scale. Formerly expansive countries become small relative to greater countries that arise on the periphery. In any historical system, "it had been common form for the states at the centre to be pigmies by comparison with the relatively gigantic size of the states on the periphery, and for the central area ... to be the arena into which the surrounding giants descend to meet and do battle with one another." The "abrupt changes of scale" have brought into existence new constellations of states. The "pigmies of today were apt to be the giants of yesterday." Examples are from the [[Axial Age|Axial]] Mediterranean and China, and early modern Italy. These "examples of ''peripeteia''—the reversal of roles—in the play of the balance of power conform to a uniform pattern; and in Western history, by the time of writing [1954], this pattern of events had repeated itself."<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Study of History|last=Toynbee|first=Arnold|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1954|isbn=|volume=9|location=London|pages=486–487|quote=|via=}}</ref> ==Post-classical history== {{Main article|Post-classical history}} The Postclassical Era is named for the more Eurocentric era of "[[Classical antiquity]]," but "the Postclassical Era" refers to a more global outline. The era is commonly dated from the [[fall of the Western Roman Empire]] in the 5th century. The Western Roman Empire fragmented into numerous separate kingdoms, many of which would be later confederated under the [[Holy Roman Empire]]. The Eastern Roman, or [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]], Empire survived until late in the Middle Ages. The Postclassical period also corresponds to the [[Early Muslim conquests]],<ref>{{cite book|first=Fred|last=Donner|url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/donner.html|title=The Early Islamic Conquests|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1981|isbn=1597402001|access-date=2017-04-14|archive-date=2013-12-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224030724/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/donner.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> the subsequent [[Islamic Golden Age]],<ref>{{cite web|first=Gaston|last=Wiet|url=http://trboard.org/modules/makale/makale.php?id=57|title=Golden age of Arab and Islamic Culture|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071222025752/http://trboard.org/modules/makale/makale.php?id=57|archivedate=22 December 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theislamproject.org/education/B04_SpreadofIslam.htm |title=Overview of Muslim History |publisher=The Islam Project |accessdate=18 April 2009}}</ref> and the commencement and expansion of the [[Arab slave trade]], followed by the [[Mongol invasions and conquests|Mongol invasions]] in the Middle East and Central Asia, and the founding (1299)<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|title=History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey|last=Shaw|first=Stanford|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1976|isbn=|volume=1|location=Cambridge|pages=13|quote=|via=}}</ref> of the [[Ottoman Empire]]. [[South Asia]] saw a series of [[middle kingdoms of India]], followed by the establishment of [[Islamic empires in India]]. In western Africa, the [[Mali Empire]] and the [[Songhai Empire]] developed. On the southeast coast of Africa, Arabic ports were established where [[gold]], [[Spice trade|spices]], and other commodities were traded. This allowed Africa to join the [[Southeast Asia]] trading system, bringing it contact with Asia; this, along with Muslim culture, resulted in the [[Swahili culture]]. The [[Mid-Imperial China|Chinese Empire]] experienced the successive [[Sui Dynasty|Sui]], [[Tang dynasty|Tang]], [[Song dynasty|Song]], [[Yuan dynasty|Yuan]], and the beginning of the [[Ming dynasty|Ming]] Dynasty. Middle Eastern trade routes along the Indian Ocean, and the [[Silk Road]] through the Gobi Desert, provided limited economic and cultural contact between Asian and European civilizations. During this same period, civilizations in the Americas, such as the [[Inca]], [[Maya civilization|Maya]], and [[Aztec]], reached their height. All would be seriously compromised by contact with [[European colonization of the Americas|European colonists]] at the beginning of the [[Modern history|Modern period]]. ===Western Asia and North Africa=== {{Main article|History of the Middle East#The medieval Near East|Islamic Golden Age}} Prior to the advent of Islam in the 7th century, the Middle East was dominated by the [[Byzantine Empire]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Byzantine-Empire|title=Byzantine Empire|last=Nicol|first=Donald MacGillivray|last2=Teall|first2=John L.|date=December 23, 2015|website=|publisher=Encyclopaedia Brittanica|access-date=November 22, 2016}}</ref> and the Persian [[Sasanian Empire]],<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /> which constantly fought each other for control of disputed regions such as [[Armenia]]. This was also a cultural battle, with the Byzantine Hellenistic and Christian culture competing against the Persian Iranian traditions and [[Zoroastrianism|Zoroastrian religion]]. The formation of the [[History of Islam|Islamic religion]] created a new contender that quickly surpassed both of these empires. Islam overall greatly impacted the [[political history|political]], [[economic history|economic]], and [[military history]] of the [[Old World]], especially the [[Middle East]]. [[File:Grande Mosquée de Kairouan, vue d'ensemble.jpg|thumb|[[Great Mosque of Kairouan]], [[Tunisia]], founded 670&nbsp;— oldest [[mosque]] in Muslim West]] From their centre on the Arabian Peninsula, Muslims began their expansion during the early Postclassical Era. By 750 CE, they came to conquer most of the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of Europe,<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal|last=Taagepera|first=Rein|year=1997|title=Expansion and Contraction Patterns of Large Polities: Context for Russia|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_international-studies-quarterly_1997-09_41_3/page/475|jstor=2600793|journal=International Studies Quarterly|volume=41|pages=475–504|via=|doi=10.1111/0020-8833.00053}}</ref> ushering in an era of learning, science, and invention known as the [[Islamic Golden Age]]. The knowledge and skills of the ancient Middle East, of Greece, and of Persia were preserved in the Postclassical Era by Muslims, who also added new and important innovations from outside, such as the manufacture of paper from China and decimal positional numbering from India. Much of this learning and development can be linked to geography. Even prior to Islam's presence the city of Mecca had served as a centre of trade in Arabia, and the Islamic prophet [[Muhammad]] himself was a merchant. With the new Islamic tradition of the ''[[Hajj]]'', the pilgrimage to Mecca, the city became even more a centre for exchanging goods and ideas. The influence held by Muslim merchants over African-Arabian and Arabian-Asian trade routes was tremendous. As a result, Islamic civilization grew and expanded on the basis of its merchant economy, in contrast to the Europeans, Indians, and Chinese who based their societies on an agricultural landholding nobility. Merchants brought goods and their faith to [[Islam in China|China]], [[Muslim conquests on the Indian subcontinent|India]], [[Islam in Southeast Asia|southeast Asia]], and the kingdoms of western [[Islam in Africa|Africa]], and returned with new discoveries and inventions. Motivated by religion and dreams of conquest, the kings of Europe launched a number of [[Crusades]] to try to roll back Muslim power and retake the [[Holy Land]]. The Crusades were ultimately unsuccessful, and served more to weaken the [[Byzantine Empire]] especially with the [[Sack of Constantinople (1204)|sack of Constantinople]] in 1204, which began to lose increasing amounts of territory to the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman Turks]]. Arab domination of the region ended in the mid-11th century with the arrival of the [[Seljuq dynasty|Seljuq Turks]], migrating south from the Turkic homelands in [[Central Asia]]. In the early 13th century, a new wave of invaders, the [[Mongols|Mongol]] armies of the [[Mongol Empire]], swept through the region, but were eventually eclipsed by the Turks and the founding of the [[Ottoman Empire]] in 1299.<ref name=":4" /> ===Europe=== {{main article|Middle Ages}} [[File:Alcazar05 5-4-04.JPG|thumb|[[Castle]]s like [[Alcázar of Segovia|Segovia Castle]], [[Spain]], were common in [[High Middle Ages]] Europe.]] Europe during the [[Early Middle Ages]] was characterized by depopulation, deurbanization, and [[barbarian]] invasion, all of which had begun in [[Late Antiquity]]. The barbarian invaders formed their own new kingdoms in the remains of the [[Western Roman Empire]]. In the 7th century, [[North Africa]] and the [[Middle East]], once part of the eastern empire, became part of the [[Caliphate]] after conquest by [[Muhammad]]'s successors. Although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break was not as extreme as once put forth by historians, with most of the new kingdoms incorporating as many of the existing Roman institutions as they could. Christianity expanded in western Europe and monasteries were founded. In the 7th and 8th centuries the [[Franks]], under the [[Carolingian dynasty]], established an empire covering much of western Europe;<ref>{{Cite book|title=Byzantium: A World Civilization|last=Laiou|first=Angeliki|last2=Maguire|first2=Henry P.|publisher=Dumbarton Oaks|year=1992|isbn=978-0-88402-200-8|location=|pages=62|quote=|via=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=The Earth and Its Peoples|url=https://archive.org/details/earthitspeoplesg0000bull_n4v9|last=Bulliett|first=Richard W. et alii|publisher=Cengage Learning|year=2011|isbn=978-0-495-91310-8|location=|pages=333|quote=|via=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=The Frankist World|url=https://archive.org/details/frankishworld7500000nels|last=Nelson|first=Janet L.|publisher=Continuum International|year=2003|isbn=978-1-85285-105-7|location=|pages=xii|quote=|via=}}</ref> it lasted until the 9th century, when it succumbed to pressure from new invaders&nbsp;– the [[Vikings]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Viking-people|title=Viking|last=|first=|date=February 8, 2015|website=|publisher=Encyclopaedia Brittanica|access-date=November 23, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=The Vikings|url=https://archive.org/details/vikingsreviseded00else|last=Roesdahl|first=Else|publisher=Penguin Books|year=1998|isbn=978-0140252828|location=|pages=|quote=|via=}}</ref> [[Hungarians#Entering the Carpathian Basin .28c. 895.29|Magyars]], and [[Saracen]]s. During the [[High Middle Ages]], which began after 1000, the population of Europe increased greatly as new technological and agricultural innovations allowed trade to flourish and crop yields to increase. [[Manorialism]]&nbsp;– the organization of peasants into villages that owed rents and labour service to nobles&nbsp;– and [[feudalism]]&nbsp;– a political structure whereby [[knight]]s and lower-status nobles owed military service to their overlords in return for the right to rents from lands and [[manor]]s&nbsp;– were two of the ways of organizing medieval society that developed during the High Middle Ages. Kingdoms became more centralized after the decentralizing effects of the breakup of the [[Carolingian Empire]]. The [[Crusades]], which were first preached in 1095, were an attempt by western Christians to regain control of the [[Holy Land]] from the [[Muslim]]s, and succeeded long enough to establish some Christian states in the Near East. Intellectual life was marked by [[scholasticism]] and the founding of universities, while the building of [[Gothic cathedrals]] was one of the outstanding artistic achievements of the age. [[File:Da Vinci Vitruve Luc Viatour.jpg|thumb|right|[[Leonardo da Vinci]]'s ''[[Vitruvian Man]]'' epitomizes [[Renaissance]] artistic and scientific advances.]] The [[Late Middle Ages]] were marked by difficulties and calamities. Famine, plague and war devastated the population of western Europe. The [[Black Death]] alone killed approximately 75 to 200 million people between 1347 and 1350.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/01/29/2149185.htm|title=Black death 'discriminated' between victims|last=Dunham|first=Will|date=January 29, 2008|work=ABC Science|access-date=November 24, 2016|via=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1576875.stm|title=De-coding the Black Death|last=|first=|date=October 3, 2001|work=BBC|access-date=November 24, 2016|via=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.wired.com/2001/10/black-deaths-gene-code-cracked/|title=Black Death's Gene Code Cracked|last=Philipkoski|first=Kristen|date=October 3, 2001|work=WIRED|access-date=November 24, 2016|via=}}</ref> It was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history. Starting in [[Asia]], the disease reached Mediterranean and western [[Europe]] during the late 1340s,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/health-and-human-body/human-diseases/plague-article.html|title=Plague: The Black Death|publisher=National Geographic|accessdate=3 November 2008|archive-date=28 November 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071128194106/http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/health-and-human-body/human-diseases/plague-article.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> and killed tens of millions of Europeans in six years; between a third and a half of the population.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Cohn|first1=S. K.|last2=Weaver|first2=L. T.|title=The Black Death and AIDS: CCR5-Δ32 in genetics and history|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_qjm_2006-08_99_8/page/497|journal=QJM|date=1 August 2006|volume=99|issue=8|pages=497–503|doi=10.1093/qjmed/hcl076|pmid=16880184}}</ref> The Middle Ages<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Strayer|editor1-first=Joseph R.|title=Dictionary of the Middle Ages|url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofmidd0001unse_g7l4|date=1982|publisher=Scribner|location=New York|isbn=0-684-19073-7}}</ref> witnessed the first sustained [[urbanization]] of northern and western Europe. Many modern European states owe their origins to events unfolding in the Middle Ages; present European political boundaries are, in many regards, the result of the military and dynastic achievements during this tumultuous period.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Law|first1=Edward|title=Rudimentary chronology of civil and ecclesiastical history, art, literature and civilisation, from the earliest period to 1856|date=1857|publisher=John Weale|location=London|url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=r2gBAAAAQAAJ}}</ref> The Middle Ages lasted until the beginning of the [[Early modern period]]<ref name="rice1970"/> in the 16th century, marked by the rise of [[nation state]]s, the division of Western [[Christianity]] in the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]],<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=McManners|editor1-first=John|title=The Oxford history of Christianity|date=2002|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780192803368}}</ref> the rise of [[humanism]] in the [[Italian Renaissance]],<ref>{{cite book|last1=Pater|first1=Walter|authorlink=Walter Pater|title=Studies in the History of the Renaissance|date=1873|publisher=Macmillan|location=London|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aS4CAAAAQAAJ}}</ref> and the beginnings of European overseas expansion which allowed for the [[Columbian Exchange]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Europe/The-Middle-Ages|title=History of Europe: The Middle Ages|last=Aubin|first=Hermann|last2=Champion|first2=Timothy C.|date=November 12, 2015|website=|publisher=Encyclopaedia Brittanica|access-date=November 24, 2016|last3=Parker|first3=N. Geoffrey|last4=Salmon|first4=John Hearsey McMillan|last5=Treasure|first5=Geoffrey Russell Richards|last6=Weinstein|first6=Donald}}</ref> ===Sub-Saharan Africa=== [[File:Ife Kings Head.jpg|thumb|right|[[Yoruba people|Yoruba]] [[bronze]] head, [[Ife]], 11th–14th century]] {{Main article|History of Africa}} Medieval [[Sub-Saharan Africa]] was home to many different civilizations. The [[Kingdom of Aksum]] declined in the 7th century as Islam cut it off from its Christian allies and its people moved further into the [[Ethiopian Highlands]] for protection. They eventually gave way to the [[Zagwe dynasty]] who are famed for their rock cut architecture at [[Lalibela]]. The Zagwe would then fall to the [[Solomonic dynasty]] who claimed descent from the Aksumite emperors{{Citation needed|date=November 2016}} and would rule the country well into the 20th century. In the [[West Africa]]n [[Sahel]] region, many Islamic empires rose, such as the [[Ghana Empire]], the [[Mali Empire]], the [[Songhai Empire]], and the [[Kanem Empire]]. They controlled the [[trans-Saharan trade]] in gold, ivory, salt and slaves. South of the Sahel civilizations rose in the coastal forests where horses and camels could not survive. These include the [[Yoruba people|Yoruba]] city of [[Ife]] (noted for its naturalistic art<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Blier|first=Suzanne Preston|year=2012|title=Art in Ancient Ife, Birthplace of the Yoruba|url=http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/blier/files/blier.pdf|journal=African Arts|volume=45|pages=70–85|via=|doi=10.1162/afar_a_00029}}</ref>) and the [[Oyo Empire]], the [[Benin Empire]] of the [[Edo people]] centred in [[Benin City]], the [[Igbo people|Igbo]] [[Kingdom of Nri]] which produced advanced bronze art at [[Igbo-Ukwu]], and the [[Akan people|Akan]] who are noted for their intricate architecture.{{Citation needed|date=November 2016}} In what is now modern [[Zimbabwe]] various kingdoms evolved from the [[Kingdom of Mapungubwe]] in modern [[South Africa]]. They flourished through trade with the [[Swahili people]] on the [[East Africa]]n coast. They built large defensive stone structures without mortar such as [[Great Zimbabwe]], capital of the [[Kingdom of Zimbabwe]], [[Khami]], capital of [[Kingdom of Butua]], and [[Danangombe]] (Dhlo-Dhlo), capital of the [[Rozwi Empire]]. The [[Swahili people]] themselves were the inhabitants of the East African coast from Kenya to Mozambique who traded extensively with Asians and Arabs, who introduced them to Islam. They built many port cities such as [[Mombasa]], [[Zanzibar]], and [[Kilwa Kisiwani|Kilwa]], which were known to Chinese sailors under [[Zheng He]] and Islamic geographers. ===South Asia=== In northern [[History of India|India]], after the fall (550 CE<ref name=":5" />) of the [[Gupta Empire]], the region divided into a complex and fluid network of smaller kingly states.<ref>{{cite book |first=Virbhadra |last=Singhji |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NYK7ZSpPzkUC&pg=PR6 |title=The Rajputs of Saurashtra |publisher=Popular Prakashan |date=1994 |isbn=978-81-7154-546-9 |page=vi}}</ref> Early Muslim incursions began in the west in 712 CE, when the Arab [[Umayyad Caliphate]] annexed much of present-day [[Pakistan]]. Arab military advance was largely halted at that point, but Islam still spread in India, largely due to the influence of Arab merchants along the western coast. Post-classical dynasties in Southern India included those of the [[Chalukya dynasty|Chalukyas]], the [[Rashtrakuta dynasty|Rashtrakutas]], the [[Hoysala dynasty|Hoysalas]], the [[Chola dynasty|Cholas]], the Islamic [[Mughal Empire|Mughals]], the Marathas and the [[Kingdom of Mysore|Mysores]]. [[Science]], [[engineering]], [[art]], [[literature]], [[astronomy]], and [[philosophy]] flourished under the patronage of these kings.{{Citation needed|date=November 2016}} ===East Asia=== After a period of relative disunity, the [[Sui dynasty]] reunified China in 581, and under the succeeding [[Tang dynasty]] (618–907) China entered a second [[Golden Age]].<ref name=":6" /> The Tang dynasty eventually splintered, however, and after [[Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period|half a century of turmoil]] the [[Northern Song Dynasty|Song Dynasty]] reunified China, making it the richest, most skilled, and most populous country on Earth.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Pursuit of Power: Technology, Armed Force, and Society Since A.D. 1000|url=https://archive.org/details/pursuitofpower00will|last=McNeill|first=William H.|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=1982|isbn=0226561577|location=|pages=[https://archive.org/details/pursuitofpower00will/page/50 50]|quote=|via=}}</ref> Pressure from nomadic empires to the north became increasingly urgent. By 1142, [[North China]] had been lost to the [[Jurchen people|Jurchens]] in the [[Jin–Song Wars]], and the [[Mongol Empire]]<ref>{{cite book|last1=Buell|first1=Paul D.|title=Historical dictionary of the Mongol world empire|date=2003|publisher=Scarecrow Press|location=Lanham (Maryland)|isbn=0-8108-4571-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Howorth|first=Henry H.|title=History of the Mongols from the 9th to the 19th Century: Part I: The Mongols Proper and the Kalmuks|location=New York|publisher=Burt Frankin|date=1965|orig-year=reprint of London edition, 1876}}</ref> [[Mongol invasion of China|conquered all of China]] in 1279, along with almost half of [[Eurasia]]'s landmass. After about a century of Mongol [[Yuan dynasty]] rule, the ethnic Chinese reasserted control with the founding of the [[Ming dynasty]] (1368). In [[History of Japan|Japan]], the imperial lineage had been established by this time, and during the [[Asuka period]] (538 to 710) the [[Yamato Province]] developed into a clearly centralized state.<ref name="HOJ">{{cite book|title=A History of Japan|last2=Caiger|first2=J.G.|date=2011|publisher=Tuttle Publishing|year=|isbn=9781462900978|edition=Revised|location=New York|pages=|quote=|via=|last1=Mason|first1=R.H.P.}}</ref> [[Buddhism]] was introduced,<ref>{{Cite book|title=[[Nihon Shoki]]|last=[[Prince Toneri]]|first=|last2=[[Ō no Yasumaro]]|publisher=|year=720|isbn=|volume=19|location=|pages=|chapter=Story of Kinmei|quote=|via=}}</ref> and there was an emphasis on the adoption of elements of Chinese culture and [[Confucianism]]. The [[Nara period]] of the 8th century<ref>{{Cite book|title=Japan: A Country Study|last=|first=|publisher=Library of Congress, Federal Research Division|year=1994|isbn=|editor-last=Dolan|editor-first=Ronald E.|location=|pages=|chapter=Nara and Heian Periods, A.D. 710–1185|quote=|editor-last2=Worden|editor-first2=Robert L.|via=}}</ref> marked the emergence of a strong Japanese state and is often portrayed as a golden age.{{Citation needed|date=November 2016}} During this period, the imperial government undertook great public works, including government offices, temples, roads, and irrigation systems. The [[Heian period]] (794 to 1185<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Heian-period|title=Heian period|last=|first=|date=December 16, 2010|website=|publisher=Encyclopaedia Brittanica|access-date=November 24, 2016}}</ref>) saw the peak of imperial power, followed by the rise of militarized clans, and the beginning of [[Medieval Japan|Japanese feudalism]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Sansom|first1=George Bailey|authorlink=George Bailey Sansom|title=A history of Japan to 1334|date=1958|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=9780804705233|pages=210–211|url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=t2c4t4yw21gC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA210}}</ref> The feudal period of Japanese history, dominated by powerful regional families ([[daimyō]]) and the military rule of warlords ([[shogun]]), stretched from 1185 to 1868. The emperor remained, but mostly as a figurehead, and the power of merchants was weak. Postclassical [[History of Korea|Korea]] saw the end of the [[Three Kingdoms of Korea|Three Kingdoms]] era, the three kingdoms being [[Goguryeo]], [[Baekje]] and [[Silla]]. Silla conquered Baekje in 660, and Goguryeo in 668,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Three Kingdoms, Korea|editor1-last=Ackerman|editor1-first=Marsha E.|editor2-last=Schroeder|editor2-first=Michael J.|editor3-last=Terry|editor3-first=Janice J.|editor4-last=Upshur|editor4-first=Jiu-Hwa Lo|editor5-last=Whitters|editor5-first=Mark F.|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of world history|date=2008|publisher=Facts on File|location=New York|isbn=978-0-8160-6386-4|page=464|display-editors=1}}</ref> marking the beginning of the ''[[North–South States Period]]'' (남북국시대), with [[Later Silla|Unified Silla]] in the south and [[Balhae]], a successor state to Goguryeo, in the north.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?docId=1075074&cid=40942&categoryId=33373|title=남북국시대 (North-South States Period)|last=|first=|date=|website=Encyclopedia|publisher=Naver|access-date=November 24, 2016|archive-date=February 25, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225085147/https://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?docId=1075074&cid=40942&categoryId=33373|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 892 CE, this arrangement reverted to the [[Later Three Kingdoms]], with Goguryeo (then called [[Taebong]] and eventually named [[Goryeo]]) emerging as dominant, unifying the entire peninsula by 936.<ref name="kta p113">{{cite book|author=The Association of Korean History Teachers|title=Korea through the ages; Volume One: Ancient|date=2005|publisher=The Center for Information on Korean Culture, The Academy of Korean Studies|location=Seongnam-si|isbn=978-8971055458|page=113}}</ref> The founding Goryeo dynasty ruled until 1392, succeeded by the [[Joseon Dynasty]], which ruled for approximately 500 years. ===Central Asia=== Starting with the [[Sui Dynasty]] (581-618), the Chinese began expansion into eastern Central Asia, and had to deal with [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]] nomads, who were becoming the most dominant ethnic group in Central Asia.<ref name="ebrey 2006 113">{{Harvnb|Ebrey|Walthall|Palais|2006|p=113}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Xue|1992|pp=149–152, 257–264}}</ref> Originally the relationship was largely cooperative, but in 630 the [[Tang dynasty]] began an offensive against the Turks,<ref>{{Harvnb|Xue|1992|pp=226–227}}</ref> capturing areas of the Mongolian Ordos Desert. The Tang Empire competed with the [[Tibetan Empire]] for control of areas in Inner and Central Asia.<ref name="whitfield 2004 193">{{Harvnb|Whitfield|2004|p=193}}</ref> In the 8th century, Islam began to penetrate the region and soon became the sole faith of most of the population, though Buddhism remained strong in the east.{{Citation needed|date=December 2016}} The desert nomads of [[Arabian Peninsula|Arabia]] could militarily match the nomads of the steppe, and the early [[Caliphate|Arab Empire]] gained control over parts of Central Asia. The [[Hephthalite Empire|Hephthalites]] were the most powerful of the nomad groups in the 6th and 7th centuries, and controlled much of the region.<ref>{{Cite book|title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The Crossroads of Civilizations, AD 250 to 750|last=|first=|publisher=[[UNESCO]]|year=1996|isbn=9231028464|location=|pages=135–163|quote=|via=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofpe0000west|last=West|first=Barbara A.|publisher=Infobase Publishing|year=2009|isbn=1438119135|location=|pages=274–277|quote=|via=}}</ref> In the 9th through 13th centuries the region was divided between several powerful states including the [[Samanid Empire|Samanid dynasty]],<ref name=":7" /> the [[Seljuq dynasty]],<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Empire of the Steppes|last=Grousset|first=Rene|publisher=Rutgers University Press|year=1991|isbn=|location=|pages=161, 164|quote=|via=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=The History of the Seljuq Turks from the Jami' al-Tawarikh: An Ilkahnid Adaptation of the [[Saljuq-nama]] of Zahir al-Din Nishapuri|last=Nishapuri|first=Zahir al-Din|publisher=C. E. Bosworth|year=2001|isbn=|editor-last=Luther|editor-first=K. A.|location=Richmond, UK|pages=9|quote=[T]he Turks were illiterate and uncultivated when they arrived in Khurasan and had to depend on Iranian scribes, poets, jurists and theologians to man the institution of the Empire.|via=}}</ref> and the [[Khwarazmian dynasty|Khwarezmid Empire]]. The most spectacular power to rise out of Central Asia developed when [[Genghis Khan]] united the tribes of Mongolia. The [[Mongol Empire]] spread to comprise all of Central Asia and China as well as large parts of Russia, and the Middle East. After Genghis Khan died in 1227,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Genghis Khan: His Life and Legacy|url=https://archive.org/details/genghiskhanhisli0000paul|last=Ratchnevsky|first=Paul|publisher=Blackwell Publishing|year=1991|isbn=0-631-16785-4|location=|pages=[https://archive.org/details/genghiskhanhisli0000paul/page/142 142]|quote=It is possible, however, to say with certainty that Genghis Khan died in August 1227; only in specifying the actual day of his death do our sources disagree.|via=}}</ref> most of Central Asia continued to be dominated by the successor [[Chagatai Khanate]]. In 1369, [[Timur]], a Turkic leader in the Mongol military tradition, conquered most of the region. Timur's large empire collapsed soon after his death, however. The region then became divided among a series of smaller Khanates, including the [[Khanate of Khiva]], the [[Khanate of Bukhara]], the [[Khanate of Kokand]], and the [[Khanate of Kashgar]]. [[File:Angkor wat temple.jpg|thumb|[[Angkor Wat]] [[temple]], [[Cambodia]], early 12th century]] ===Southeast Asia=== The beginning of the Middle Ages in [[Southeast Asia]] saw the fall (550 CE) of the [[Funan (Southeast Asia)|Kingdom of Funan]] to the [[Chenla|Chenla Empire]], which was then replaced by the [[Khmer Empire]] (802 CE). The Khmer's capital city [[Angkor]] was the largest city in the world prior to the industrial age and contained over a thousand temples, the most famous being [[Angkor Wat]]. The [[Sukhothai Kingdom|Sukhothai]] (1238 CE) and [[Ayutthaya Kingdom|Ayutthaya]] (1351 CE) kingdoms were major powers of the [[Thai people]], who were influenced by the Khmer. Starting in the 9th century, the [[Pagan Kingdom]] rose to prominence in modern [[Myanmar]]. Other notable kingdoms of the period include the [[Srivijaya|Srivijayan Empire]] and the [[Lavo Kingdom]] (both coming into prominence in the 7th century), the [[Champa]] and the [[Hariphunchai]] (both about 750), the [[Dai Viet]] (968), [[Lan Na]] (13th century), [[Majapahit]] (1293), [[Lan Xang]] (1354), and the [[Kingdom of Ava]] (1364). It was also during this period that [[Islam]] spread to present-day [[Indonesia]] (beginning in the 13th century), and the [[Malay states]] began to emerge. ===Oceania=== The [[Tuʻi Tonga Empire]] was founded in the 10th century CE and expanded between 1200 and 1500. Tongan culture, language, and hegemony spread widely throughout Eastern Melanesia, Micronesia and Central Polynesia during this period,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Sand|editor1-last=Addison|editor1-first=David J|editor2-last=Sand|editor2-first=Christophe|title=Recent advances in the archaeology of the Fiji/West-Polynesia region|date=2008|publisher=Dept. of Anthropology, Gender and Sociology, University of Otago|location=Dunedin, N.Z.|isbn=978-0-473-14586-6|url=http://www.anthropology.hawaii.edu/Alumni/addison/publications/Sand_Addison_2008.pdf|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090918031030/http://www.anthropology.hawaii.edu/Alumni/addison/publications/Sand_Addison_2008.pdf|archivedate=18 September 2009|series=University of Otago Studies in Prehistoric Anthropology|volume=21}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Kirch|first1=Patrick Vinton|last2=Green|first2=Roger C.|title=Hawaiki, ancestral Polynesia: an essay in historical anthropology|date=2001|publisher=Cambridge University press|isbn=9780521788793|page=87|url=https://books.google.com/?id=WRapfjQ_iTEC&lpg=PA87&pg=PA87}}</ref> influencing East 'Uvea, Rotuma, Futuna, Samoa and Niue, as well as specific islands / parts of Micronesia (Kiribati, Pohnpei, miscellaneous outliers), Vanuatu, and New Caledonia (specifically, the [[Loyalty Islands]], with the main island being predominantly populated by the Melanesian [[Kanak people]] and their cultures).<ref>{{cite book|last1=Geraghty|first1=Paul|chapter=Linguistic evidence for the Tongan empire|editor1-last=Dutton|editor1-first=Tom|title=Language contact and change in the Austronesian world|date=1994|publisher=Gruyter|location=Berlin|isbn=9783110127867|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xOlI8czLshIC&pg=PA233|series=Trends in linguistics: Studies and monographs|volume=77|pages=236–39}}</ref> At around the same time, a powerful [[thalassocracy]] appeared in Eastern Polynesia centred around the [[Society Islands]], specifically on the sacred [[Taputapuatea marae]], which drew in Eastern Polynesian colonists from places as far away as Hawai'i, New Zealand ([[Aotearoa]]), and the Tuamotu Islands for political, spiritual and economic reasons, until the unexplained collapse of regular long-distance voyaging in the Eastern Pacific a few centuries before Europeans began exploring the area. Indigenous written records from this period are virtually non-existent, as it seems that all Pacific Islanders, with the possible exception of the enigmatic [[Rapa Nui people|Rapa Nui]] and their currently undecipherable [[Rongorongo]] script, had no writing systems of any kind until after their introduction by European colonists; however, some indigenous prehistories can be estimated and academically reconstructed through careful, judicious analysis of native oral traditions, colonial ethnography, archaeology, physical anthropology and linguistics research. [[File:80 - Machu Picchu - Juin 2009 - edit.jpg|thumbnail|[[Machu Picchu]]—leading icon of [[Inca]] [[civilization]]]] ===The Americas=== In North America, this period saw the rise of the [[Mississippian culture]] in the modern [[United States]] c. 800 CE, marked by the extensive 12th-century urban complex at [[Cahokia]]. The [[Ancestral Puebloans]] and their predecessors (9th - 13th centuries) built extensive permanent settlements, including stone structures that would remain the largest buildings in North America until the 19th century.<ref name="Strutin_1994_6">{{harvnb|Strutin|1994|p=6}}</ref><ref name="Fagan_2005_35">{{harvnb|Fagan|2005|p=35}}</ref> In [[Mesoamerica]], the [[Teotihuacan]] civilization fell and the [[Classic Maya collapse]] occurred. The [[Aztec]] came to dominate much of [[Mesoamerica]] in the 14th and 15th centuries. In [[South America]], the 14th and 15th centuries saw the rise of the [[Inca]]. The [[Inca Empire]] of Tawantinsuyu, with its capital at [[Cusco]], spanned the entire [[Andes]] [[Mountain range|Mountain Range]], making it the most extensive Pre-Columbian civilization.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Clayton|first1=Dave|title=A History of the Inca Empire|url=http://trailingincas.info/|website=Trailing Incas|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080827052828/http://trailingincas.info/|archivedate=27 August 2008}}</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20160304103759/http://www.timespacemap.com/search/eventsearch.htm?_what=%22inca+empire%22&_maptype=1 Map and Timeline] of Inca events</ref> The Inca were prosperous and advanced, known for an excellent [[Inca road system|road system]] and unrivaled [[masonry]]. ==Modern history== {{main article|Modern history}} [[Modern history]] (the "modern period," the "modern era," "modern times") is history of the period following the Middle Ages. "[[Contemporary history]]" is history that only covers events from c. 1900 to the present day. ===Early modern period=== {{Main article|Early modern period}} "[[Early modern period]]"<ref>"Early Modern," historically speaking, refers to [[Western Europe]]an history from 1501 (after the widely accepted end of the [[Late Middle Ages]]; the transition period was the 15th century) to either 1750 or c. 1790–1800, by which ever [[Epoch (reference date)|epoch]] is favored by a school of scholars defining the period—which, in many cases of [[periodization]], differs as well within a discipline such as art, philosophy or history.</ref> is a term used by historians to refer to the period between the [[Middle Ages]] ([[Post-classical history]]) and the [[Industrial Revolution]]&nbsp;– roughly 1500 to 1800. The Early Modern period is characterized by the rise of [[science]], and by increasingly rapid [[History of technology|technological progress]], [[Secularization|secular]]ized civic [[politics]], and the [[nation state]]. [[capitalist economy|Capitalist economies]] began their rise, initially in northern [[Italy|Italian]] [[republic]]s such as [[Genoa]]. The Early Modern period also saw the rise and dominance of the [[mercantilism|mercantilist]] economic theory. As such, the Early Modern period represents the decline and eventual disappearance, in much of the European sphere, of [[feudalism]], serfdom and the power of the [[Catholic Church]]. The period includes the [[Protestant Reformation]], the disastrous [[Thirty Years' War]], the [[Age of Discovery]], European [[Colonialism|colonial expansion]], the peak of European [[witch-hunt]]ing, the [[Scientific revolution]],<ref name="Sedgwick1917">{{cite book|last1=Sedgwick|first1=W. T.|last2=Tyler|first2=H. W.|date=1917|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KdsEAAAAYAAJ|title=A short history of science|location=New York|publisher=Macmillan}}</ref> and the [[Age of Enlightenment]].<ref>The Age of Enlightenment has also been referred to as the [[Age of Reason]]. Historians also include the late 17th century, which is typically known as the Age of Reason or [[Age of Rationalism]], as part of the Enlightenment; however, contemporary historians have considered the Age of Reason distinct to the ideas developed in the Enlightenment. The use of the term here includes both Ages under a single all-inclusive time-frame.</ref> ====Renaissance==== {{main article|Renaissance}} [[Europe]]'s [[Renaissance]], beginning in the 14th century,<ref>{{cite book|title=The Americana: A Universal Reference Library|url=https://archive.org/details/americanaaunive03rinegoog|date=1911|editor1-last=Beach|editor1-first=Frederick Converse|editor2-last=Rimes|editor2-first=George Edwin|location=New York|publisher=Scientific American Compiling Department|page=539|quote=The European Renaissance which flourished from the 14th to the 16th century}}</ref> consisted of the rediscovery of the [[classical antiquity|classical]] world's scientific contributions, and of the [[Economy|economic]] and social rise of Europe. The Renaissance also engendered a culture of [[curiosity|inquisitiveness]] which ultimately led to [[Humanism]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Briffault|first=R.|date=1919|title=The making of humanity|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924029765819|location=London|publisher=G. Allen & Unwin|quote=[...] humanism of the Renaissance [...]}}</ref> and the [[Scientific Revolution]].<ref>The freethinker. (1881). London: G.W. Foote. Page 394 (cf. [...] scientific revolution began with the Italian Renaissance about 1500 [...])</ref> Although it saw social and political upheaval and revolutions in many [[intellectual]] pursuits, the Renaissance is perhaps known best for its [[art]]istic developments and the contributions of such [[polymath]]s as [[Leonardo da Vinci]] and [[Michelangelo]], who inspired the term "[[Polymath|Renaissance man]]."<ref>{{cite web|title=Leonardo da Vinci|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/leonardo/|website=BBC Science & Nature}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Michelangelo|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/michelangelo.shtml|website=BBC History}}</ref> ====European expansion==== {{Further information|History of Europe|Age of Discovery|Colonialism|16th century|17th century}} [[File:OrteliusWorldMap.jpeg|thumb|World map by [[Abraham Ortelius]], 1570, incorporating new discoveries by Europeans]] [[File:Gutenburg bible.jpg|thumb|[[movable type|Movable-type]] [[printing press]] arose in mid-15th century. 50 years later, nine million books were in print.]] During this period, European powers came to dominate most of the world. Although the most developed regions of European classical civilization were more urbanized than any other region of the world, European civilization had undergone a lengthy period of gradual decline and collapse. During the Early Modern Period, Europe was able to regain its dominance; historians still debate the causes. This success of Europe in this period stands in contrast to that of other regions. For example, one of the most advanced civilizations of the Middle Ages was China. It had developed an advanced [[monetary economy]] by 1,000 CE. China had a free [[peasant]]ry who were no longer subsistence farmers, and could sell their produce and actively participate in the market. According to [[Adam Smith]], writing in the 18th century, China had long been one of the richest, most fertile, best cultivated, most industrious, most urbanized, and most prosperous countries in the world.<ref name = "Adam">"[[The Wealth of Nations]]", [[Adam Smith]], 1776</ref> It enjoyed a technological advantage and had a monopoly in [[cast iron]] production, piston bellows, [[suspension bridge]] construction, [[printing]], and the [[compass]]. However, it seemed to have long since stopped progressing. Marco Polo, who visited China in the 13th century, describes its cultivation, industry, and populousness, almost in the same terms as travellers in the 18th century describe them.<ref name = "Adam"/> One theory of Europe's rise holds that Europe's [[geography]] played an important role in its success. The [[Middle East]], [[India]] and [[China]] are all ringed by [[mountain]]s and [[ocean]]s but, once past these outer barriers, are nearly flat. By contrast, the [[Pyrenees]], [[Alps]], [[Apennine Mountains|Apennines]], [[Carpathian Mountains|Carpathians]] and other mountain ranges run through Europe, and the continent is also divided by several [[sea]]s. This gave Europe some degree of protection from the peril of [[Central Asia]]n invaders. Before the era of firearms, these nomads were militarily superior to the agricultural states on the periphery of the [[Eurasia]]n continent and, as they broke out into the plains of northern India or the valleys of China, were all but unstoppable. These invasions were often devastating. The [[Islamic Golden Age|Golden Age of Islam]]<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kraemer|first1=Joel L.|title=Humanism in the renaissance of Islam: the cultural revival during the Buyid Age|date=1986|publisher=E.J. Brill|location=Leiden|isbn=90-04-07259-4|pages=1 & 148}}</ref> was ended by the [[Mongol invasions and conquests|Mongol]] [[Siege of Baghdad (1258)|sack of Baghdad]] in 1258. India and China were subject to periodic [[invasion]]s, and [[Russia]] spent a couple of centuries under the [[Tatar invasions|Mongol-Tatar]] yoke. [[Central Europe|Central]] and [[western Europe]], logistically more distant from the [[Central Asia]]n heartland, proved less vulnerable to these threats. Geography contributed to important [[Geopolitics|geopolitical]] differences. For most of their histories, China, India, and the Middle East were each unified under a single dominant power that expanded until it reached the surrounding mountains and deserts. In 1600 the [[Ottoman Empire]]<ref>{{cite book|last1=Imber|first1=Colin|title=The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: the structure of power|url=https://archive.org/details/ottomanempire1300000imbe|date=2002|publisher=Palgrave|location=New York|isbn=0-333-61386-4}}</ref> controlled almost all the Middle East, the [[Ming dynasty]] ruled China,<ref name="ebrey 2006">{{Harvnb|Ebrey|Walthall|Palais|2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Ebrey|first1=Patricia Buckley|title=The Cambridge illustrated history of China|url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgeillustr00ebre_0|date=1996|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-66991-X}}</ref> and the [[Mughal Empire]] held sway over India. By contrast, Europe was almost always divided into a number of warring states. Pan-European empires, with the notable exception of the [[Roman Empire]], tended to collapse soon after they arose. 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. Nearly all the agricultural civilizations have been heavily constrained by their [[Natural environment|environments]]. Productivity remained low, and [[Climate|climatic]] changes easily instigated [[boom-and-bust]] [[Business cycle|cycles]] that brought about civilizations' rise and fall. By about 1500, however, there was a qualitative change in world history. [[Technology|Technological]] advance and the [[wealth]] generated by [[trade]] gradually brought about a widening of possibilities.<ref>{{cite book|last=Grant|first=A. J.|date=1913|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YJBCAAAAIAAJ|title=A history of Europe|location=London|publisher=Longmans, Green and Co.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Lavisse|first=E. |date=1891 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nHk4AAAAMAAJ |title=General view of the political history of Europe |location=New York |publisher=Longmans, Green and Co.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Miller|editor1-first=Edward|editor2-last=Postan|editor2-first=Cynthia|editor3-last=Postan|editor3-first=M. M.|title=The Cambridge economic history of Europe: Volume 2, Trade and Industry in the Middle Ages|date=1987|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=9780521087094|edition=2nd}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Breasted |first1=J. H. |last2=Robinson |first2=J. H. |date=1920 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BFsAAAAAYAAJ |title=History of Europe, ancient and medieval: Earliest man, the Orient, Greece and Rome |location=Boston |publisher=Ginn}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Thatcher |first1=O. J |last2=Schwill |first2=F. |last3=Hassall |first3=A. |date=1909 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ORAMAAAAYAAJ |title=A general history of Europe, 350–1900 |location=London |publisher=Murray}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Nida| first=W. L. |date=1913 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zLcXAAAAIAAJ |title=The dawn of American history in Europe |location=New York |publisher=Macmillian}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last1=Robinson |first1=J. H. |last2=Breasted |first2=J. H. |last3=Smith |first3=E. P. |date=1921 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wl0AAAAAYAAJ |title=A general history of Europe, from the origins of civilization to the present time| location=Boston |publisher=Ginn}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Goodrich |first=S. G. |date=1840 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ETMFAAAAYAAJ |title=The second book of history, combined with geography; containing the modern history of Europe, Asia, and Africa| location=Boston |publisher=Hickling, Swan and Brewer}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last=Turner |first=E. R. |date=1921 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tNoLAAAAYAAJ |title=Europe since 1870|location=Garden City, N.Y.|publisher=Doubleday}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last=Weir |first=A. |date=1886 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tLkfAAAAMAAJ |title=The historical basis of modern Europe (1760–1815): an introductory study to the general history of Europe in the nineteenth century| location=London |publisher=S. Sonnenschein, Lowrey}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last=Hallam |first=H. |date=1837 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ixjAAAAMAAJ |title=View of the state of Europe during the middle ages|location=London|publisher=J. Murray}}</ref> Many have also argued that Europe's institutions allowed it to expand,<ref>{{cite book|last=Russell |first=William | date=1810| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X5a28RAi25AC | title=The history of modern Europe, particularly France, England, and Scotland with a view of the progress of society, from the rise of those kingdoms, to the late revolutions on the continent| location=Hanover, N.H.| publisher=Charles and Wm. S. Spear}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Ogg |first1=F. A. |last2=Sharp |first2=W. R. |date=1926 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=McA9AAAAIAAJ |title=Economic development of modern Europe |location=New York |publisher=Macmillan}}</ref> that [[property right]]s and [[free market|free-market]] economics were stronger than elsewhere due to an ideal of [[Political freedom|freedom]] peculiar to Europe. In recent years, however, scholars such as [[Kenneth Pomeranz]] have challenged this view. Europe's maritime expansion unsurprisingly&nbsp;— given the continent's geography&nbsp;— was largely the work of its Atlantic states: [[Portugal]], [[Spain]], [[England]], [[France]], and the [[Netherlands]]. Initially the [[Portuguese Empire|Portuguese]] and [[Spanish Empire]]s were the predominant conquerors and sources of influence, and their union resulted in the [[Iberian Union]],<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hart|first1=Jonathan|title=Empires and colonies|date=2008|publisher=Polity|location=Cambridge|isbn=9780745626130|page=54|url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=LnevC1FYdnEC&pg=PA54}}</ref> the first [[global empire]] on which the "[[The empire on which the sun never sets|sun never set]]". Soon the more northern [[England|English]], [[France|French]] and [[Netherlands|Dutch]] began to dominate the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]]. In a series of wars fought in the 17th and 18th centuries, culminating with the [[Napoleonic Wars]], Britain emerged as the new world power. ====Regional developments==== [[Persia]] came under the rule of the [[Safavid Empire]] in 1501, succeeded by the [[Afsharid dynasty|Afsharid Empire]] in 1736, and the [[Qajar dynasty|Qajar Empire]] in 1796. Areas to the north and east were held by [[Uzbeks]] and [[Pashtuns]]. The [[Ottoman Empire]], after taking [[Constantinople]] in 1453, quickly gained control of the [[Middle East]], the [[Balkans]], and most of [[North Africa]]. In [[History of Africa|Africa]], this period saw a decline in many civilizations and an advancement in others. The [[History of Africa#Swahili Coast|Swahili Coast]] declined after coming under Portuguese (and later [[History of Oman|Omani]]) control. In west Africa, the [[Songhai Empire]] fell to the Moroccans in 1591 when they invaded with guns. The South African [[Kingdom of Zimbabwe]] gave way to smaller kingdoms such as [[Kingdom of Mutapa|Mutapa]], [[Kingdom of Butua|Butua]], and [[Rozwi Empire|Rozwi]]. [[Ethiopia]] suffered from the 1531 invasion from neighbouring Muslim [[Adal Sultanate]], and in 1769 entered the [[Zemene Mesafint]] (Age of Princes) during which the Emperor became a figurehead and the country was ruled by warlords, though the royal line later would recover under Emperor [[Tewodros II]]. The [[Ajuran Sultanate|Ajuran Empire]], in the [[Horn of Africa]], began to decline in the 17th century, succeeded by the [[Sultanate of the Geledi|Geledi Sultanate]]. Other civilizations in Africa advanced during this period. The [[Oyo Empire]] experienced its golden age, as did the [[Benin Empire]]. The [[Ashanti Empire]] rose to power in what is modern day [[Ghana]] in 1670. The [[Kingdom of Kongo]] also thrived during this period. European [[exploration of Africa]] reached its zenith at this time. In the Far East, the [[History of China|Chinese]] [[Ming Dynasty]] gave way (1644) to the [[Qing dynasty|Qing]], the last Chinese imperial dynasty, which would rule until 1912. [[History of Japan|Japan]] experienced its [[Azuchi–Momoyama period]] (1568 – 1603), followed by the [[Edo period]] (1603-1868). The [[History of Korea|Korean]] [[Joseon Dynasty]] (1392-1910) ruled throughout this period, successfully repelling 16th- and 17th-century invasions from Japan and China. Japan and China were significantly affected during this period by expanded maritime trade with Europe, particularly the Portuguese in Japan. During the Edo period, Japan would pursue isolationist policies, to eliminate foreign influences. On the [[Indian subcontinent]], the [[Delhi Sultanate]] and the [[Deccan sultanates]] would give way, beginning in the 16th century, to the [[Mughal Empire]]. Starting in the northwest, the Mughal Empire would by the late 17th century come to rule the entire subcontinent,<ref>{{cite web|last1=Lal|first1=Vinay|url=https://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Mughals/mughals.html|title=The Mughal Empire|work=Manas: India and its Neighbors|publisher=University of California, Los Angeles|date=2001|accessdate=12 April 2015}}</ref> except for the southernmost Indian provinces, which would remain independent. Against the Muslim Mughal Empire, the Hindu [[Maratha Empire]] was founded on the west coast in 1674, gradually gaining territory – a majority of present-day India—from the Mughals over several decades, particularly in the [[Mughal–Maratha Wars]] (1681-1701). The Maratha Empire would fall to the British in 1818, under the control of the British [[East India Company]], with all former Maratha and Mughal authority devolving to the [[British Raj]] in 1858. In 1511, the Portuguese overthrew the [[Malacca Sultanate]] in present-day [[Malaysia]] and [[Indonesia]]n [[Sumatra]]. The Portuguese held this important trading territory (and the valuable associated navigational strait) until overthrown by the Dutch in 1641. The [[Johor Sultanate]], centred on the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, became the dominant trading power in the region. [[Western imperialism in Asia|European colonization]] would affect the whole of Southeast Asia – the British in [[History of Myanmar|Myanmar]] and [[History of Malaysia|Malaysia]], the French in [[Indochina]], the Dutch in the [[Dutch East Indies|Netherlands East Indies]], and the Spanish in the [[History of the Philippines|Philippines]]. Only [[History of Thailand|Thailand]] would successfully resist colonization. The Pacific islands of [[History of Oceania|Oceania]] would also be affected by European contact, starting with the circumnavigational voyage of [[Ferdinand Magellan]], who landed on the [[Mariana Islands|Marianas]] and other islands in 1521. Also notable were the voyages (1642–44) of [[Abel Tasman]] to present-day [[Australia]], [[New Zealand]] and nearby islands, and the voyages (1768-1779) of Captain [[James Cook]], who made the first recorded European contact with [[History of Hawaii|Hawaii]]. Britain would found its first colony on Australia in 1788. In the [[History of the Americas|Americas]], the [[European colonization of the Americas|western European powers]] vigorously colonized the newly discovered continents, largely displacing the [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|indigenous populations]], and destroying the advanced civilizations of the [[Aztec]]s and the [[Inca]]. Spain, Portugal, Britain, and France all made extensive territorial claims, and undertook large-scale settlement, including the importation of large numbers of African [[Slavery in the Americas|slaves]]. Portugal claimed [[History of Brazil|Brazil]]. Spain claimed the rest of [[History of South America|South America]], [[Mesoamerica]], and southern [[History of North America|North America]]. Britain colonized the east coast of North America, and France colonized the central region of North America. Russia made incursions onto the northwest coast of North America, with a first colony in present-day [[History of Alaska|Alaska]] in 1784,<ref name="Black2004,p.102">{{harvnb|Black|2004|p=102}}</ref> and the outpost of [[Fort Ross, California|Fort Ross]] in present-day [[History of California|California]] in 1812.<ref name="Black2004,p.181">{{harvnb|Black|2004|p=181}}</ref> In 1762, in the midst of the [[Seven Years' War]], France secretly ceded most of its North American claims to Spain in the [[Treaty of Fontainebleau (1762)|Treaty of Fontainebleau]]. Thirteen of the British colonies declared independence as the [[History of the United States|United States of America]] in 1776, ratified by the [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|Treaty of Paris]] in 1783, ending the [[American Revolutionary War]]. [[Napoleon|Napoleon Bonaparte]] won France’s claims back from Spain in the [[Napoleonic Wars]] in 1800, but sold them to the United States in 1803 as the [[Louisiana Purchase]]. In [[History of Russia|Russia]], [[Ivan the Terrible]] was crowned (1547) the first [[Tsar]] of Russia, and by annexing the Turkic Khanates in the east, transformed Russia into a regional power. The countries of western Europe, while expanding prodigiously through technological advancement and colonial conquest, competed with each other economically and militarily in a state of almost constant [[List of wars 1500–1799|war]]. Often the wars had a [[European wars of religion|religious dimension]], either Catholic versus Protestant, or (primarily in eastern Europe) Christian versus Muslim. Wars of particular note include the [[Thirty Years' War]], the [[War of the Spanish Succession]], the [[Seven Years' War]], and the [[French Revolutionary Wars]]. Napoleon came to power in France in 1799, an event foreshadowing the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century. ===Late Modern period=== ====1750–1914==== {{Main article|18th century|19th century|Long nineteenth century}} {{further information|Age of Imperialism|Age of Revolution|Diplomatic Revolution|Industrial Revolution}} [[File:Declaration of Independence (1819), by John Trumbull.jpg|thumb|alt=Founding Fathers listen to the draft of the Declaration of Independence|[[John Trumbull]]'s ''[[Declaration of Independence (Trumbull)|Declaration of Independence]]'', showing the [[Committee of Five]] presenting its work to Congress.]] The [[Scientific Revolution]] changed humanity's understanding of the world and led to the [[Industrial Revolution]], a major transformation of the world's economies.<ref name="Sedgwick1917" /><ref name="beard1902">{{cite book|last=Beard |first=C. |date=1902 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dnJMAAAAIAAJ |title=The industrial revolution|publisher=S. Sonnenschein}}</ref> The [[Scientific Revolution]] in the 17th century had made little immediate impact on industrial [[technology]]; only in the second half of the 18th century did scientific advances begin to be applied significantly to practical [[invention]]. The Industrial Revolution began in [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|Great Britain]] and used new modes of production&nbsp;— the [[factory]], [[mass production]], and [[mechanization]]&nbsp;— to manufacture a wide array of goods faster and using less labour than previously. The Age of Enlightenment also led to the beginnings of modern [[democracy]] in the late-18th century [[American Revolution|American]] and [[French Revolution]]s. [[Democracy]] and [[republicanism]] would grow to have a profound effect on world events and on [[quality of life]]. After Europeans had achieved influence and control over the Americas, the [[Imperialism|imperial]] activities turned to the lands of the Asia and Oceania.<ref>{{cite book| last=Grosvenor |first=E. A. |date=1899 |title=Contemporary history of the world, Partition of Africa, Asia, and Oceania|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DVQPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA141|location=New York and Boston|publisher=T.Y. Crowell}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Imperialism|url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook34.html|website=Internet Modern History Sourcebook|publisher=Fordham University|access-date=2017-04-14|archive-date=2010-01-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100109120927/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook34.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> In the 19th century the European states had social and technological advantage over Eastern lands.<ref name="Robinson1914" /> Britain gained control of the [[Indian subcontinent]], [[Egypt]] and the [[Peninsular Malaysia|Malay Peninsula]];<ref name="McIntyre1977">{{cite book|last1=McIntyre|first1=W. David|title=The Commonwealth of nations: Origins and impact, 1869–1971|url=https://archive.org/details/commonwealthofna0000mcin|date=1977|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|location=Minneapolis|isbn=978-0816607921}}</ref> the [[Cochinchina Campaign|French took Indochina]]; while the Dutch cemented their control over the [[Dutch East Indies]]. The British also colonized [[Australia]], [[New Zealand]] and [[South Africa]] with large numbers of British colonists emigrating to these colonies.<ref name="McIntyre1977" /> Russia colonized large pre-agricultural areas of Siberia.<ref>Russia., Crawford, J. M., & World's Columbian Exposition. (1893). [https://books.google.com/books?id=eulxAAAAIAAJ Siberia and the Great Siberian Railway: With a general map]. Industries of Russia, v. 5. St. Petersburg: The Department</ref><ref>Korff, S. A. (1921). Russia in the Far East. Washington: The Endowment.</ref> In the late 19th century, the European powers [[Scramble for Africa|divided the remaining areas of Africa]]. Within Europe, economic and military challenges created a system of [[nation state]]s, and ethno-linguistic groupings began to identify themselves as distinctive [[nation]]s with aspirations for cultural and political autonomy. This [[nationalism]] would become important to peoples across the world in the 20th century.[[File:WorldEmpires.png|thumb|World empires, 1900]] During the Second Industrial Revolution, the world economy became reliant on [[coal]] as a fuel, as new methods of [[transport]], such as [[railways]] and [[steamship]]s, effectively shrank the world.<ref name="beard1902" /> Meanwhile, industrial [[pollution]] and [[Natural environment|environmental]] damage, present since the discovery of fire and the beginning of civilization, accelerated drastically. The advantages that Europe had developed by the mid-18th century were two: an [[Entrepreneurship|entrepreneurial]] culture,<ref name="Robinson1914">{{cite book |last1=Robinson |first1=J. H. |last2=Breasted |first2=J. H. |last3=Beard |first3=C. A. |date=1914 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s0AiAAAAMAAJ |title=Outlines of European history |location=Boston |publisher=Ginn}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Wood|first1=Neal|title=John Locke and agrarian capitalism|date=1984|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|isbn=9780520050464|url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=2KIpqQ9QHBkC&printsec=frontcover}}</ref> and the wealth generated by the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]] trade<ref name="Robinson1914"/> (including the [[African slave trade]]). By the late 16th century, [[silver]] from the Americas accounted for the Spanish empire's wealth.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Walton|first1=Timothy R.|title=The Spanish treasure fleets|url=https://archive.org/details/spanishtreasuref0000walt|date=1994|publisher=Pineapple Press|location=Sarasota, Fla.|isbn=9781561640492}}</ref> The profits of the [[slave trade]] and of [[West Indies|West Indian]] plantations amounted to 5% of the [[Economic history of the United Kingdom|British economy]] at the time of the [[Industrial Revolution]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Mintz |first1=S. |last2=McNeil |first2=S. |title=Was slavery the engine of economic growth? |url=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/topic_display.cfm?tcid=104 |website=Digital History |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090226000000/http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/con_economic.cfm |archivedate=26 February 2009 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> While some historians conclude that, in 1750, [[Workforce productivity|labour productivity]] in the most developed regions of China was still on a par with that of Europe's Atlantic economy (see the NBER Publications by Carol H. Shiue and Wolfgang Keller<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20060528213159/http://www.nber.org/cgi-bin/author_papers.pl?author=carol_shiue Wolfgang Keller and Carol Shiue], nber.org.</ref>), other historians like [[Angus Maddison]] hold that the per-capita productivity of [[western Europe]] had by the late [[Middle Ages]] surpassed that of all other regions.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ggdc.net/maddison/ |title=Homepage of Angus Maddison |publisher=Ggdc.net |accessdate=18 April 2009 |archive-date=28 July 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100728181613/http://www.ggdc.net/Maddison/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> ====1914–1945==== {{Main article|20th century}} {{further information|Interwar period|Roaring Twenties|Great Depression}} [[File:Royal Irish Rifles ration party Somme July 1916.jpg|thumb|[[World War I]] static [[trench warfare]], western Europe]] [[File:Nagasakibomb.jpg|thumb|History's only use of [[nuclear weapon]]s in war—[[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|Hiroshima and Nagasaki]], 1945]] The 20th century<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.20th-century.net |title=The 20th Century Research Project |publisher=20th-century.net |accessdate=18 April 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://econ161.berkeley.edu/TCEH/Slouch_Old.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120206080625/http://econ161.berkeley.edu/TCEH/Slouch_Old.html|archivedate=6 February 2012 |title=Slouching Towards Utopia: The Economic History of the Twentieth Century |publisher=Econ161.berkeley.edu |date=1 March 2000 |accessdate=18 April 2009}}</ref> opened with [[Europe]] at an apex of wealth and power, and with much of the world under its direct [[Colonialism|colonial]] control or its indirect domination.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Etemad|first1=Bouda|title=Possessing the world: taking the measurements of colonisation from the eighteenth to the twentieth century|url=https://archive.org/details/possessingworldt0006etem|date=2007|publisher=Berghahn Books|location=New York|isbn=9781845453381|translator-first=Andrene |translator-last=Everson}}</ref> Much of the rest of the world was influenced by heavily Europeanized nations: the [[United States]] and [[Japan]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Wells |first=H. G. |authorlink=H. G. Wells |date=1922 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FGgMAAAAIAAJ |title=The Outline of History: Being A Plain History of Life and Mankind |location=New York |publisher=The Review of Reviews |page=1200}}</ref> As the century unfolded, however, the global system dominated by rival powers was subjected to severe strains, and ultimately seemed to yield to a more fluid structure of independent nations organized on Western models. This transformation was [[catalysis|catalysed]] by [[war]]s of unparalleled scope and devastation. [[World War I]]<ref>{{cite book|last1=Herrmann|first1=David G.|title=The arming of Europe and the making of the First World War|url=https://archive.org/details/armingofeuropema0000herr|date=1996|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=0691033749}}</ref> destroyed many of Europe's empires and monarchies, and weakened [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|Britain]] and [[France]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.firstworldwar.com/ |title=A multimedia history of World War I |publisher=Firstworldwar.com |accessdate=18 April 2009}}</ref> In its aftermath, powerful ideologies arose. The [[Russian Revolution]]<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Bunyan |editor1-first=James |editor2-first=Harold Henry |editor2-last=Fisher |title=The Bolshevik Revolution, 1917–1918: Documents and Materials |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=dTGsAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover | publisher=Stanford University Press |date=1961 |isbn=9780804703444 |orig-year=first published 1934}}</ref><ref>[[John Reed (journalist)|Reed, John]]. [http://www.marxists.org/archive/reed/1919/10days/10days/index.htm Ten Days that Shook the World]. 1919, 1st Edition, published by BONI & Liveright, Inc. for International Publishers. Transcribed and marked by David Walters for [http://www.marxists.org/archive/reed/works/index.htm John Reed Internet Archive]. Penguin Books; 1st edition. 1 June 1980. ISBN 0-14-018293-4. Retrieved 14 May 2005. {{cite web|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/reed/1919/10days/10days/index.htm |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2016-02-09 |deadurl=bot: unknown |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516062956/http://www.marxists.org/archive/reed/1919/10days/10days/index.htm |archivedate=16 May 2008 |df=dmy-all }}</ref><ref>[[Leon Trotsky|Trotsky, Leon]]. [http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-hrr/index.htm The History of the Russian Revolution]. Translated by Max Eastman, 1932. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 8083994. ISBN 0-913460-83-4. Transcribed for the World Wide Web by John Gowland (Australia), Alphanos Pangas (Greece) and David Walters (United States). Pathfinder Press edition. 1 June 1980. ISBN 0-87348-829-6. Retrieved 14 May 2005. {{cite web|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-hrr/index.htm |title=Archived copy |accessdate=2016-02-09 |deadurl=bot: unknown |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081205021833/http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-hrr/index.htm |archivedate=5 December 2008 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> of 1917 created the first [[communism|communist]] state, while the 1920s and 1930s saw [[militarism|militaristic]] [[fascism|fascist]] dictatorships gain control in [[Italy]], [[Germany]], [[Spain]] and elsewhere.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Davis |first1=W. S. |last2=Anderson |first2=W. |last3=Tyler |first3=M. W. |date=1918 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DOtGAAAAIAAJ |title=The roots of the war; a non-technical history of Europe, 1870–1914, AD |location=New York |publisher=Century}}</ref> Ongoing national rivalries, exacerbated by the economic turmoil of the [[Great Depression]], helped precipitate [[World War II]].<ref>{{cite web|first=C. Peter |last=Chen |url=http://www.ww2db.com/ |title=World War II Database |publisher=Ww2db.com |accessdate=18 April 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=226140 |title=World War II Encyclopedia by the History Channel |publisher=History.com |accessdate=18 April 2009}}</ref> The [[Militarism|militaristic]] [[dictatorship]]s of [[Europe]] and [[Japan]] pursued an ultimately doomed course of [[Imperialism|imperialist]] [[expansionism]]. Their defeat opened the way for the advance of [[Socialism]] and Communism into [[Central Europe]], [[Yugoslavia]], [[Bulgaria]], [[Romania]], [[Albania]], [[China]], [[North Vietnam]] and [[North Korea]]. ====1945–2000==== {{Main article|20th century}} {{further information|Cold War|Green Revolution|Space exploration|Digital Revolution}} After [[World War II]] ended in 1945, the [[United Nations]] was founded in the hope of allaying conflicts among nations and preventing future wars.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Fasulo|first1=Linda|title=An insider's guide to the UN|date=2004|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven, Conn.|isbn=0-300-10155-4}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Meisler|first1=Stanley|title=United Nations: the first fifty years|url=https://archive.org/details/unset0000unse_z7w4|date=1995|publisher=The Atlantic Monthly Press|location=New York|isbn=0-87113-656-2}}</ref> The [[Soviet Union]], the [[United States]], the [[United Kingdom]] and [[Republic of China (1912–49)|China]] were recognized as the Allied "[[Four Policemen|Big Four]]" during the war and considered as the primary victors of World War II.<ref name = Justus>{{cite book |last1=Doenecke |first1=Justus D. |last2=Stoler |first2=Mark A. |title=Debating Franklin D. Roosevelt's foreign policies, 1933–1945 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xdMF9rX6mX8C&pg=PA62 |year=2005 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |accessdate=7 September 2009 |isbn=0-8476-9416-X }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|first=Walter L.|last=Hixson|title=The American Experience in World War II: American diplomacy in the Second World War|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2003|isbn=9780415940368|url=https://books.google.com.au/books?id=8pRqUV1ue4IC&pg=PA204|ref=refHixson|accessdate=12 February 2016}}</ref> With the addition of France, these five countries became the [[Permanent members of the United Nations Security Council|permanent seats]] in the [[United Nations Security Council]]. The war had, however, left two nations, the [[United States]]<ref>{{cite book|last1=Avery|first1=Samuel|title=The globalist papers|url=https://archive.org/details/globalistpapers0000samu|date=2004|publisher=Compari|location=Louisville, Ky.|isbn=0974197610}}</ref> and the [[Soviet Union]], with principal power to guide international affairs.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Zinn|first=Howard|title=A People's History of the United States|url=https://books.google.com/?id=9-FtlblxbLgC&printsec=frontcover|date=2003|edition=5th|place=New York|publisher=HarperPerennial Modern Classics [2005 reprint]|isbn=0-06-083865-5}}</ref> Each was suspicious of the other and feared a global spread of the other's political-economic model. This led to the [[Cold War]], a forty-five-year stand-off between the United States, the Soviet Union, and their respective allies. With the development of [[nuclear weapon]]s<ref>{{cite web|title=Race for the Super Bomb|url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/|website=American Experience|publisher=PBS}}</ref> and the subsequent [[arms race]], all of humanity were put at risk of [[Nuclear warfare|nuclear war]] between the two superpowers.<ref>As irrefutably demonstrated by a number of incidents, most prominently the October 1962 [[Cuban Missile Crisis]].</ref> Such war [[Global catastrophic risk|being viewed as impractical]], [[proxy war]]s were instead waged, at the expense of non-nuclear-armed [[Third World]] countries. The Cold War lasted to the 1990s, when the Soviet Union's communist system began to collapse, unable to compete economically with the United States and western Europe; the Soviets' [[Central Europe]]an "[[satellite state|satellites]]" reasserted their national sovereignty, and in 1991 the Soviet Union itself [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|disintegrated]].<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Brown|editor1-first=Archie|title=The Cambridge encyclopedia of Russia and the Soviet Union|date=1984|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521231695}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Gilbert|first1=Martin|title=The Routledge atlas of Russian history|date=2006|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=0415281199|edition=3rd}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Goldman|first1=Minton F.|title=The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe|url=https://archive.org/details/sovietuniongloba0000mint|date=1986|publisher=Dushkin|location=Guilford, Conn.|isbn=9780879675615}}</ref> The United States for the time being was left as the "sole remaining superpower".<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Shultz|editor1-first=Richard H.|editor2-last=Pfaltzgraff|editor2-first=Robert L.|editor3-last=Stock|editor3-first=W. Bradley|title=Special operations forces: roles and missions in the aftermath of the cold war|date=1996|publisher=Diane Pub Co|isbn=0788171402|page=59}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Caraley|editor1-first=Demetrios James|title=American hegemony: preventive war, Iraq, and imposing democracy|url=https://archive.org/details/americanhegemony00cara|date=2004|publisher=Academy of Political Science|location=New York|isbn=1884853048|page=viii}}</ref> After the 1970s, the United States' superpower status came into question as that country's economic supremacy began to show signs of slippage.<ref>{{cite book|last1=McCormick|first1=Thomas J.|title=America's half-century: United States foreign policy in the cold war and after|url=https://archive.org/details/americashalfcent0000mcco_m1h2|date=1995|publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press|location=Baltimore|isbn=0801850118|page=[https://archive.org/details/americashalfcent0000mcco_m1h2/page/155 155]}}</ref> In the early postwar decades, the [[Africa]]n and [[Asia]]n colonies of the Belgian, British, Dutch, French and other west European empires won their formal independence.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Chamberlain|first1=Muriel Evelyn|title=Decolonization : the fall of the European empires|url=https://archive.org/details/decolonizationfa0000cham|date=1999|publisher=Blackwell|location=Oxford|isbn=9780631216025}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Abernethy|first1=David B.|title=The dynamics of global dominance : European overseas empires, 1415-1980|url=https://archive.org/details/dynamicsofglobal0000aber|date=2000|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven|isbn=9780300093148}}</ref> These nations faced challenges in the form of [[neocolonialism]], poverty, illiteracy and [[Endemic (epidemiology)|endemic]] [[tropical disease]]s.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Stern|first1=Nicholas|last2=Rogers|first2=F. Halsey|last3=Dethier|first3=Jean-Jacques|title=Growth and Empowerment: Making Development Happen|url=https://archive.org/details/growthempowermen00ster|date=2006|publisher=MIT Press|location=Cambridge, Mass|series=Munich lectures in economics|isbn=9780262264747}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Weiss|first1=Thomas G.|title=UN voices: the struggle for development and social justice|date=2005|publisher=Indiana University Press|location=Bloomington|isbn=9780253217882|page=3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5cxA4LwpKVoC&pg=PA3|series=United Nations intellectual history project|volume=6}}</ref> Many [[Western Europe|Western]] and [[Central Europe]]an nations gradually formed a political and economic community, the [[European Union]], which expanded eastward to include former Soviet satellites.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Dinan|first1=Desmond|title=Europe recast: a history of European Union|date=2004|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|location=Basingstoke|isbn=978-0-333-98734-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=McCormick|first=John|authorlink=John McCormick (political scientist)|title=Understanding the European Union: a concise introduction|url=https://archive.org/details/understandingeu000mcco|date=2005|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|location=Houndmills|isbn=978-1-4039-4451-1|edition=3rd}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Peterson|editor1-first=John|editor2-last=Shackleton|editor2-first=Michael|title=The institutions of the European Union|url=https://archive.org/details/institutionsofeu0000pete|date=2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199574988|edition=3rd}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Rifkin|first1=Jeremy|title=The European dream: how Europe's vision of the future is quietly eclipsing the American dream|date=2004|publisher=Jeremy P. Tarcher|location=New York|isbn=978-1-58542-345-3}}</ref> [[File:Apollo 17 Cernan on moon.jpg|thumb|Last [[Moon]] landing&nbsp;– [[Apollo 17]] (1972)]] The 20th century saw explosive progress in [[science]] and [[technology]], and increased [[life expectancy]] and [[standard of living]] for much of humanity. As the developed world shifted from a [[coal]]-based to a [[petroleum]]-based economy, new transport technologies, along with the dawn of the [[Information Age]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lallana |first1=Emmanuel C. |first2=Margaret N. |last2=Uy |title=[[b:The Information Age|The Information Age]]|publisher=UNDP-APDIP|date=2003}}</ref> led to increased [[globalization]].<ref>{{cite book|editor-last1=von Braun |editor-first1=Joachim |editor-first2=Eugenio|editor-last2=Diaz-Bonilla |title=Globalization of Food and Agriculture and the Poor |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2007 |url=https://www.ifpri.org/publication/globalization-food-and-agriculture-and-poor |isbn=978-0-19-569528-1 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Friedman | first = Thomas L. | authorlink = Thomas Friedman | title = [[The World Is Flat]] | publisher = Farrar, Straus and Giroux | date = 2005 | location = New York | isbn = 0-374-29288-4 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Murray | first = Warwick E. | title = Geographies of Globalization | url = https://archive.org/details/geographiesofglo0000murr | publisher = Routledge/Taylor and Francis | date = 2006 | location = New York | isbn = 0-415-31799-1 }}</ref> [[Space exploration]] reached throughout the [[Solar System]]. The structure of [[DNA]], the template of [[life]], was discovered,<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Clayton|editor1-first=Julie|editor2-last=Dennis|editor2-first=Carina|title=50 years of DNA|url=https://archive.org/details/50yearsofdna00clay|date=2003|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|location=New York|isbn=978-1-4039-1479-8}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Watson|first1=James D.|author1-link=James Watson |editor1-last=Stent|editor1-first=Gunther S.|title-link=The Double Helix|title=The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA|date=1980|publisher=W. W. Norton|location=New York|isbn=978-0-393-95075-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Calladine|first1=Chris R.|last2=Drew|first2=Horace R.|last3=Luisi|first3=Ben F.|last4=Travers|first4=Andrew A.|title=Understanding DNA the molecule & how it works|url=https://archive.org/details/understandingdna0000call_h6a9|date=2008|publisher=Elsevier Academic Press|location=Amsterdam|isbn=978-0-12-155089-9}}</ref> and the [[human genome]] was sequenced, a major milestone in the understanding of [[human biology]] and the treatment of [[disease]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.genome.gov/ |title=The National Human Genome Research Institute |publisher=Genome.gov |accessdate=18 April 2009}}</ref><ref>[http://www.ensembl.org/ Ensembl] The [[Ensembl]] Genome Browser Project</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=mapview |url=http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mapview/map_search.cgi?taxid=9606 |title=National Library of Medicine human genome viewer |publisher=Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov |date=26 March 2008 |accessdate=18 April 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://genome.ucsc.edu/ |title=UCSC Genome Browser |publisher=Genome.ucsc.edu |accessdate=18 April 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/project/info.shtml |title=Human Genome Project |publisher=Ornl.gov |date=26 March 2008 |accessdate=18 April 2009 |archive-date=2 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130102065343/http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/project/info.shtml |url-status=dead }}</ref> Global [[literacy]] rates continued to rise, and the percentage of the world's [[Labour economics|labour]] pool needed to produce [[humankind]]'s [[food]] supply continued to drop. The technologies of sound recordings, motion pictures, and radio and television broadcasting produced a means for rapid dissemination of information and entertainment. In the last decade of the twentieth century, a rapid increase took place in the use of computers, including [[personal computer]]s. A global communication network emerged in the [[Internet]]. The century saw several global threats emerge or become more serious or more widely recognized, including [[nuclear proliferation]], [[global climate change]],<ref>{{cite web|last1=Mun|first1=Yuri|title=Earth Radiation Budget|url=http://marine.rutgers.edu/cool/education/class/yuri/erb.html|website=marine.rutgers.edu|access-date=2017-04-14|archive-date=2016-06-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603005248/http://marine.rutgers.edu/cool/education/class/yuri/erb.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Wood |first=R.W. |date=1909 |title=Note on the Theory of the Greenhouse| journal=Philosophical Magazine| volume=17| pages=319–320| url=http://www.wmconnolley.org.uk/sci/wood_rw.1909.html | doi=10.1080/14786440208636602}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url =http://www.vox.com/2015/12/12/9894234/climate-change-explained |title = Why climate change is so important, in one chart |first1=Joss |last1=Fong |first2=Estelle |last2=Caswell |publisher =Vox.com |date = April 22, 2016 |accessdate = 28 April 2016}}</ref> [[deforestation]], [[Human overpopulation|overpopulation]], deadly [[epidemic]]s of diseases such as [[Ebola virus]], [[Near-Earth object|near-Earth asteroids and comets]],<ref name = "BROWN02">{{cite news|url =https://www.sciencenews.org/archive/call-catastrophes?mode=magazine&context=4378&tgt=nr|title = The Call of Catastrophes|first = Richard | last = Monastersky|work = Science News Online|date = 1 March 1997|subscription=y|accessdate = 23 October 2007}}</ref> [[supervolcano]] eruptions, and the dwindling of global [[natural resource]]s (particularly [[fossil fuel]]s).<ref>{{cite book|last1=Edwards|first1=Andres R.|title=The sustainability revolution: portrait of a paradigm shift|url=https://archive.org/details/sustainabilityre00edwa_0|date=2005|publisher=New Society Publishers|location=Gabriola, B.C.|isbn=1550923250|page=[https://archive.org/details/sustainabilityre00edwa_0/page/53 52]}}</ref> ===Contemporary history=== {{Main article|Contemporary history}} ====21st century==== [[File:Internet map 1024.jpg|thumb|Depiction of the [[Internet]], a source of [[information]] and [[communication]]]] {{Main article|21st century}} A man-made hazard to world survival that dominated concerns in the second half of the 20th century, continues into the 21st. Countries ambitious to develop and deploy [[nuclear weapons]] are discouraged from doing so by countries that already possess them. At the same time, nuclear-armed countries have shown little urgency about honoring their 20th-century pledge to eventually eliminate all nuclear weapons. Such weapons continue to be equally hazardous to their owners as to their potential targets.<ref>[[Eric Schlosser]], ''[[Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety]]'', [[Penguin Press]], 2013, ISBN 1594202273.</ref> The 21st century has been marked by growing [[economic globalization]] and integration, with consequent increased risk to interlinked economies, and by the expansion of communications with [[mobile phone]]s and the [[Internet]]. The rise of the [[personal computer]] and the the [[Worldwide Web]] has caused fundamental changes in multiple aspects of human society, in both business and personal spheres. The early 21st century saw escalating intra- and international strife in the [[Middle East]] and [[Afghanistan]], stimulated by vast economic disparities, by dissatisfaction with governments dominated by Western interests, by inter-ethnic and inter-sectarian feuds, and by the longest war in the history of the [[United States]], the proximate cause for which was [[Osama bin Laden]]'s provocative 2001 destruction of [[New York City]]'s [[World Trade Center (1973–2001)|World Trade Center]]. U.S. military involvements in the Middle East and Afghanistan drained U.S. economic resources at a time when the U.S. and other Western countries were experiencing mounting socioeconomic dislocations aggravated by the [[robotization]] of work and the exportation of industries to cheaper-workforce countries. Worldwide [[demand]] and [[competition]] for [[Natural resource|resources]] has risen due to growing populations and industrialization, especially in India, China and [[Brazil]] (see [[List of countries by carbon dioxide emissions per capita]]). This increased demand is causing increased levels of environmental degradation and a growing threat of [[global warming]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Energy and power: a Scientific American book|url=https://archive.org/details/energypower0000unse_a6n2|date=1971|publisher=W H Freeman|location=San Francisco|isbn=9780716709398|pages=vii–viii|chapter=Foreword}}</ref> That, and a need for reliable energy supplies independent of politically volatile regions, has spurred the development of alternate, [[renewable energy|renewable]] sources of [[energy]] (notably [[solar energy]] and [[Wind power|wind energy]]), proposals for cleaner [[fossil fuel|fossil-fuel]] technologies<ref>Critiqued in {{cite journal |first=David |last=Biello |title=The Carbon Capture Fallacy |journal=Scientific American |volume=314 |issue=1 |date=January 2016 |pages=58–65|pmid=26887197 |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0116-58}}.</ref> and for expanded use of [[Nuclear power|nuclear energy]] (somewhat dampened by [[Nuclear accidents#Nuclear power plant accidents|nuclear-plant accidents]]),<ref>{{cite book |first=M. King |last=Hubbert |authorlink=M. King Hubbert |chapter=The Energy Resources of the Earth |title=Energy and power: a Scientific American book|date=1971|publisher=W H Freeman|location=San Francisco|isbn=9780716709398|pages=31–40}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| title=Global Trends In Sustainable Energy Investment 2008| url=http://sefi.unep.org/english/globaltrends |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081221140323/http://sefi.unep.org/english/globaltrends|archive-date=21 December 2008| website=Sustainable Energy Finance Initiative|publisher=[[United Nations Environment Programme|UNEP]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Home Page|url=http://www.nrel.gov/|website=National Renewable Energy Laboratory}}</ref> and, conversely, calls to eschew the indiscriminate large-scale employment of the "fissile-fossil complex" of fissile- (nuclear) and fossil-fuel (coal, petroleum, natural-gas) energy generation.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Christopher |last=Kasparek |title=A Futurological Note: [[Bolesław Prus|Prus]] on [[H. G. Wells]] and the Year 2000 |journal=[[The Polish Review]] |volume=XLVIII |issue=1 |date=2003 |pages=98–99|jstor=25779372}}</ref> ==See also== {{Human history and prehistory}} ===History topics=== {{div col|2}} * [[Economic history of the world]] * [[Civilization]] * [[Historical powers]] * [[Medieval demography]] * [[Historic recurrence]] * [[History of science]] * [[History of technology]] * [[Technological singularity]] * [[Historiography]] * [[Development criticism]] * [[Flood myth]] * [[List of millennia]] {{div col end}} ===History by period=== * [[List of archaeological periods]] * [[List of time periods]] ===History by region=== {{div col|3}} * [[History of Africa]] * [[History of Asia]] ** [[History of Central Asia]] ** [[History of East Asia]] ** [[History of South Asia]] ** [[History of Southeast Asia]] * [[History of Europe]] * [[History of the Middle East]] * [[History of Oceania]] ** [[History of Australia]] ** [[History of New Zealand]] ** [[History of the Pacific Islands]] * [[History of the Americas]] ** [[History of Central America]] *** [[History of the Maya civilization]] ** [[History of South America]] ** [[History of North America]] ** [[History of the Caribbean]] * [[History of Antarctica]] {{div col end}} {{clear}} ==Notes== {{Reflist|35em}} ==References== {{Spoken Wikipedia|History_of_the_world.ogg|2005-04-19}} {{refbegin|30em}} * [[Martin Rees]], interviewed by Erin Biba, "An Apocalypse Think Tank", ''[[Scientific American]]'', vol. 312, no. 6 (June 2015), p.&nbsp;26. * Williams, H. S. (1904). ''[[The Historians' History of the World]]''; a comprehensive narrative of the rise and development of nations as recorded by over two thousand of the great writers of all ages. New York: The Outlook Company; [etc.]. * Blainey, Geoffery (2000). ''[[A Short History of the World (Geoffrey Blainey)|A Short History Of The World]]''. Penguin Books, Victoria. ISBN 0-670-88036-1 * Gombrich, Ernst H. ''[[A Little History of the World]]''. Yale. UK and USA, 2005. * [[H. G. Wells]] (1920), ''[[The Outline of History]]'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=-64EAAAAYAAJ Volume One], New York, MacMillan. * [[Howard Spodek|H. Spodek]] (2001), ''[[The World's History]]: combined volume'', Upper Saddle River, NJ, Prentice Hall. * G.W. Trompf, ''The Idea of [[Historic recurrence|Historical Recurrence]] in Western Thought, from Antiquity to the Reformation'', Berkeley, University of California Press, 1979, ISBN 0-520-03479-1. * G. Parker (1997), ''[[The Times Atlas of World History]]'', London, Times Books. * [[Paul Kennedy]], ''[[The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers]]: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000'', New York, [[Random House]], 1987, ISBN 0-394-54674-1 * ''The [[Biosphere]]'' (A ''[[Scientific American]]'' Book), San Francisco, W.H. Freeman and Co., 1970, ISBN 0-7167-0945-7. This seminal book, originally a 1970 ''[[Scientific American]]'' magazine issue, covered virtually every major concern and concept that has since been debated regarding materials and [[energy resource]]s, [[population]] trends and [[environmental degradation]]. * David Biello, "The Carbon Capture Fallacy", ''[[Scientific American]]'', vol. 314, no. 1 (January 2016), pp.&nbsp;58–65. * {{cite book|title=East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History|url=https://archive.org/details/eastasiacultural00ebre_0|first=|last2=Walthall|last3=Palais|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Company|year=2006|isbn=0-618-13384-4|location=Boston|pages=|quote=|ref=harv|via=|last1=Ebrey}} * ''Energy and Power'' (A ''[[Scientific American]]'' Book), San Francisco, W.H. Freeman and Co., 1971, ISBN 0-7167-0938-4. * {{cite book | title=[[Guns, Germs, and Steel|Guns, Germs, and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies]]. |first=| date=1996 | publisher=W. W. Norton |year=| isbn=0-393-03891-2| location=New York |pages=|quote=|via=| author=[[Jared Diamond]] }} * {{cite book | title=The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II |first=| date=1996 | publisher=University of California Press |year=| isbn=0-520-20308-9| location=Berkeley, Calif. |pages=|quote=|via=| author=[[Fernand Braudel]] }} * {{cite book | title=Capitalism and Material Life, 1400–1800 | url=https://archive.org/details/capitalismmateri0000fern |first=| date=1973 | publisher=HarperCollins |year=| isbn=0-06-010454-6| location=New York |pages=|quote=|via=| author=[[Fernand Braudel]] }} * [[Francis Fukuyama]], ''[[The End of History and the Last Man]]'', Free Press, 1992, ISBN 0-02-910975-2. * [[Marshall Hodgson]], ''Rethinking World History: Essays on Europe, Islam, and World History'', Cambridge, 1993. * [[William Nordhaus]], "A New Solution: the Climate Club" (a review of Gernot Wagner and [[Martin Weitzman]], ''Climate Shock: The Economic Consequences of a Hotter Planet'', [[Princeton University Press]], 250 pp, $27.95), ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'', vol. LXII, no. 10 (4 June 2015), pp.&nbsp;36–39. * [[Kenneth Pomeranz]], ''The Great Divergence: China, Europe and the Making of the Modern World Economy'', Princeton, 2000. * [[Clive Ponting]], ''World History: a New Perspective'', London, 2000. * W.N.Weech (editor), [[History of the World (book)|''History of the World'']], Odhams, Long Acre, London, WC2 (no ISBN), 1944. * [[Ronald Wright]], ''[[A Short History of Progress]]'', Toronto, Anansi, 2004, ISBN 0-88784-706-4. * Guy Ankerl, ''Coexisting Contemporary Civilizations: Arabo-Muslim, Bharati, Chinese, and Western'', Geneva, INUPRESS, 2000, ISBN 2-88155-004-5. * Zongzheng, Xue (1992). ''A History of Turks''. Beijing: Chinese Social Sciences Press. * Whitfield, Susan (2004). ''The Silk Road: Trade, Travel, War, and Faith''. Serendia Publications, Inc. ISBN 978-1-932476-13-2. * [[Eric Schlosser]], ''[[Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety]]'', [[Penguin Press]], 2013, ISBN 1594202273. {{refend}} ==Further reading== * Baten, Joerg (ed.)(2016). ''A History of the Global Economy: 1500 to present.'' ISBN 978-1-107-50718-0. * Fournet, Louis-Henri (1986). ''Diagrammatic Chart of World History.'' Editions Sides. ISBN 978-2-868-61096-6 * [[Peter Frankopan|Frankopan, Peter]] (2015). ''[[The Silk Roads: A New History of the World]]'' Knopf. ISBN 978-1101946329. * [[Larry Gonick|Gonick, Larry]] (1997). ''[[The Cartoon History of the Universe]]'', Volume One, Main Street Books. ISBN 978-0-385-26520-1; Volume Two, Main Street Books, 1994, ISBN 978-0-385-42093-8, Volume Three, [[W. W. Norton & Company]], 2002, ISBN 978-0-393-32403-7. * [[David Landes|Landes, David]] (1999). ''[[The Wealth and Poverty of Nations]]'' W. W. Norton & Company, New York. ISBN 978-0-393-31888-3. * Landes, David, [http://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/jep.20.2.3 "Why Europe and the West? Why Not China?"], ''[[Journal of Economic Perspectives]]'', 20:2, 3, 2006. * [[William H. McNeill (historian)|McNeill, William H.]] (1963). ''[https://books.google.de/books/about/The_Rise_of_the_West.html The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community]''. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. * Novick, Sheldon, ''The Careless Atom'', Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1969. ==External links== {{Sister project links}} * [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBDA2E52FB1EF80C9 Crash Course World History] * [[British Museum]] - [https://web.archive.org/web/20150224042828/http://www.britishmuseum.org/channel/object_stories/a_history_of_the_world.aspx A History of the World] (archived). * Pella, John & Erik Ringmar, [https://web.archive.org/web/20141226114621/http://69.164.215.25/irhistory/ History of International Relations Open Textbook Project], Cambridge: Open Book. (archived). {{Social sciences}} {{Earth}} {{DEFAULTSORT:History Of The World}} [[वर्ग:History by topic|World]] [[वर्ग:World history]] [[वर्ग:Articles which contain graphical timelines]] [[वर्ग:Romi panam]] 10hk1tfavges0k4vgl3jx4vlxsw9rpa