The Universal history covers all the facts and processes that concern the human beingfrom the appearance of man as a species to the present day.
Whom AboutHistory We will make a division of this Universal History to make it easier for you to read all the articles that we have published and that we will continue to publish.
- the beginning of the story
- what is history
- Space, change and permanence… elements to understand history
- Social actors and conflict, the engines of History
- Historical fact and historical process
- History: past, present and future
- History and the problem of subjectivity
- Historical sources, raw material of History
- Christmas
- Antiquity (From the origin of man to the beginning of the Middle Ages)
- origin of man
- Prehistory
- Mesolithic
- Neolithic
- Age of metals
- Far East
- Ancient Eastern Civilization
- Egyptian civilization
- Greek civilization
- Roman civilization
- Middle Ages (From the year 476 to 1492)
- Early Middle Ages (5th century to 10th century)
- Late Middle Ages (11th century to 15th century)
- Modern Age (Period of history spanning the 16th to 18th centuries)
- The Renaissance
- XVII century
- Century XVIII
- Contemporary Age (Period of history that goes from 1789 to the present)
- the Industrial Revolution (1750-1800)
- The era of the Revolution (1776-1848)
- Victorian era, Imperialism and «Belle Époque» (1848-1914)
- World War I (1914-1918)
- World War II (1938-1945)
- The world after World War II (1945-1973)
- The end of the Cold War (1973-1989)
- History Spain
The different periods of Universal History
After the initial scheme, we briefly explain the main periods of universal history since the appearance of the human being:
Keep in mind that history cannot be divided into watertight periods. No one went to bed one day a man of the Middle Ages and woke up in the Renaissance! However, since it is impossible to cover everything, historians have divided History into different periods for better understanding and analysis. Despite this, we must also take into account that the different historiographical schools have applied different criteria when separating the different periods. Thus, for example, it is very common in British and American historiography that the period known as the Modern Age extends from the end of the Middle Ages to the 20th century, while the denomination of Contemporary History is used very rarely and, in general, to refer to the history of the world from the end of the Second World War, that is, 1945. However, below we are going to present the periodization system linked to the French school, which is the most widespread in Europe , Central and South America, and which divides Universal History into five main parts: Prehistory, Ancient Age, Middle Ages, Modern Age and Contemporary Age.
Prehistory: With the generic title of Prehistory, the period of time that goes from the detection of the remains of the first hominids to the appearance of writing is usually referred to. This periodization, quite vague in general, implies that Prehistory can last more or less time depending on the geographical environment to which we refer. For example, according to this system, it can be considered that the American continent or Oceania were still in Prehistory when Europe had already been immersed in the Middle Ages or even the Modern Age for several centuries, despite having very advanced civilizations in many ways. Therefore, the date has generally been marked as 3,300 BC. C. as the end of Prehistory, marking this the approximate time from which the first writings found in the Far East date. However, it is an acquired convention and it must be taken into account that Prehistory is a period in which there are still countless things to discover, which means that the dates linked to it change constantly, as well as their consideration by historians. In any case, this very long period of thousands and thousands of years, very different depending on the parts of the world to which we refer, in the absence of a new conventionalism, is called Prehistory.
Old age: The period that marks the beginning of the Ancient Age experiences the same problems as the fixing of the limits of Prehistory, since not all places in the world experienced the same development at the same time. Therefore, it could easily be considered that, while some parts of the world were in full Ancient age, other places, even within the same continent, were still in full Prehistory. However, in order to divide the period, it is necessary to go back to conventionalisms and the invention of writing (with the referred year 3,300 BC) is marked as the beginning of the Ancient Age. The Ancient Age is especially known for being the moment in which the great empires of History arose, since it was during this period that civilizations such as the Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Greek and Roman civilizations were born, developed and fell. Thus, such important figures as Hammurabi, Nebuchadnezzar, Ramses II, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Cleopatra and Augustus, to name just a few names, also lived in this period. In fact, it will be the fall of the last great empire of the Ancient Age, the Roman Empire, which marks the end of this broad period. The fall of the Western Roman Empire to the Goths in the year 476 marks, by all conventions, the end of the Ancient Age and the entry into the Middle Ages.
Middle Ages: The beginning of the Middle Ages, as we have just mentioned, is usually set in the year 476, when the fall of the Western Roman Empire finally occurs. This is a fairly accepted convention, although there are some historians who argue that such a date should be pushed back a little more, at least until the beginning of the barbarian invasions or set at the time when the Western and Eastern Roman Empires were definitively separated. , in the year 395. On the other hand, historians specialized in the study of territories outside Europe indicate that another periodization should be applied to their study areas, especially in the case of America, Oceania and the Far East, for which the fall of Rome was not the same shock as in the case of Europe. However, until an agreement is reached, the year 476 is still considered by the vast majority of historians as the beginning of the Middle Ages.
During this period, which will last almost a thousand years, we witnessed events as disparate as the spread of Christianity, the creation of the direct antecedents of the current European states, the creation of universities, the development of cities and the origin of complex hierarchical societies, to cite just a few cases. The end of the Middle Ages comes, as most experts have agreed, in the fifteenth century, but it is linked to two different years depending on the historiographical school we are talking about. In the case of most European historiographical schools, their end is marked by the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, which was a huge political and cultural shock for Europe at the time. However, for the Spanish school and the majority of American schools, the fact that marks the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of modernity is the discovery of America, carried out by Christopher Columbus in 1492. Therefore, depending on of the case, we can find ourselves with a lag of almost forty years when it comes to talking about the end of the Middle Ages.
Modern age: At the beginning, we have talked about the fact that, for the Anglo-Saxon school, the Modern Age extends practically until the Second World War, differentiating at times the so-called “Early Modern History” (16th, 17th and first half of the 18th centuries) from the rest of the period to make its periodization easier. However, in the case at hand, the Modern age usually refers to the period of time that elapsed from the fall of Constantinople or the discovery of America until the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789. During this period, a social development was experienced , political and cultural without precedent, carrying out milestones such as the invention of the printing press, the development of scientific knowledge, the appearance of the National States and the first steps that led to the appearance of the Industrial Revolution, to name just a few outstanding cases . Characters such as Carlos V, Felipe II, Galileo, Newton, Shakespeare or Cervantes, among many others, lived during this period and, together with numerous contemporaries, laid the foundations for the development that the following centuries would see. The outbreak of the French Revolution, with the immense number of changes that it brought with it, is considered a key event in European evolution and, therefore, is considered to mark the beginning of a new era: the arrival of the contemporary world.
Contemporary age: In general, it is considered that the Contemporary Age is that which has been developing since the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 to the present day. As we mentioned at the beginning, this is not the same in Anglo-Saxon historiography, which generally extends the Modern age well into the 20th century, but this is still the most accepted convention. In recent years, there have been historians who have defended the need to divide history into a new period, given that the world has changed a lot since the beginning of the 20th century, also using the end of World War II as a new date of court. This new period is usually called, in the absence of a total agreement, as “Current World History” or “Current History”, but it is far from convincing the vast majority of historians, so the denomination of Contemporary age continues to predominate. today. It is worth noting that, between the beginning of this period and the date in which we find ourselves, the world has totally changed politically, socially, culturally and economically. From the Industrial Revolution to the rise of the Internet age, through two World Wars, the emergence of modern democracies, universal suffrage, political parties and capitalism, the Contemporary age is not over yet. What events will continue to grace the pages of your History? Only time will tell.