History is an account of man’s achievements during the last five thousand years. Though man has been on this planet for about 500,000 years, history only covers a part of this period. The reason for this is that history is essentially based on written documents However the art of writing become known to man, only after 3000 B. C. The word ’history’ is derived from the Greek noun ’historia’ meaning ’inquiry or research. ’ Aristotle regarded it as a “systematic account of a set of natural phenomena, whether or not chronological ordering was a factor in the account.
The term “history” has now come to be applied to accounts of events that are narrated in a chronological order, and deal with the past of mankind. Learning by inquiry about the past of mankind was later developed into a discipline by the Greek historians Thucydides and Heredeotus (who is popularly known as ’Father of History’). E. H. Carn defined history as an “unending dialogue between the present and the past. ” Jawaharlal Nehru observed that man’s growth from barbarism to civilization is supposed to be the theme of history. ” Will Durant called history “a narrative of what civilized men have thought or done in the past time.
World history is primarily concerned with the evolution of mankind. It traces the whole story of man as well as of his progress in civilization a culture from the dim past up to the present day. It indicates his failures and his successes, describes his laws and his wars, and reveals his religions and his arts. It gives an account of the significant developments that took place in the past with reference to the countries and the men and women who played a noteworthy part. Thomas Carlyle, a famous historian of the French revolution regards world history as the “biography of great men.
The importance of history is in its capacity to help one to draw conclusions from the past events. It may be said that history is to the human race, what memory is to each man. It sheds the light of the past upon the present, thus helping one to understand oneself, by making one acquainted with other peoples. Also, as one studies the rise and fall of empires and civilizations, the lessons of the past help one to avoid the pitfalls of the present. History makes one’s life richer by giving meaning to the books one reads, the cities one visits or the music one hears.
It also broadens one’s outlook by presenting to one an admixture of races, a mingling of cultures and a spectacular drama of the making of the modern world out of diverse forces. Another importance of history is that it enables one to grasp one’s relationship with one’s past. For example if one wonders why the U. S. flag has 48 stars or why Great Britain follows monarchy, one has to turn to history for an answer. History is of immense value to social scientists engaged in research. Thus the political scientist doing research on the parliamentary form of government, has to draw his materials from the treasure trove of history.
It preserves the traditional and cultural values of a nation, and serves as a beacon light, guiding society in confronting various crises. History is indeed, as Allen Nerins puts it, “a bridge connecting the past with the present and pointing the road to the future. ” According to W. N. Weech, “The story of mankind forms only a small fragment of the earth’s long life, and little of the fragment has been set down in written history. ” Though history reveals the story of mankind for about five thousand years, much is known of man’s past of a period even prior to the invention of the art of writing.
This period, for which written historical records are not found, is known as pre-history. Knowledge about this period is based on the relics of the past, such as tools and weapons, fossils and rocks, fallen buildings and standing monuments. Archaeologists and the anthropologists are able to reconstruct the story of mankind right from man’s first appearance on this earth, on the basis of a few human skulls and bones found in different parts of the world, as also on the tools and weapons used at that time. Pre-history is divided into 3 periods, according to the materiel used for making tools, namely, .
The Stone Age (50,000 BC to 4000 BC), 2. The Bronze Age (4000 to 2000 BC), and The Stone Age is divided into two periods, the Old Stone Age or the Paleolithic Age (50000 to 12000 BC) and the New Stone Age or the Neolithic Age (12000 to 4000 BC). This distinction is based on the stone implements which were crude, rough and unpolished in the Old Stone Age, and they were pointed, smooth and polished in the New Stone Age. The Old Stone Age is also considered to be the Age of food-gatherers, while the New Stone Age is referred to as the Age of food producers.
The Age of civilization began to dawn towards the end of the Neolithic Age. World history gives a picture of the progress of civilization, which denotes the material progress achieved by man in the economic, political, moral and psychological spheres. Civilization comes from the Latin word ’civitas’ meaning city. According to H. A. Davies “Civilization implies settlement in definite territories, the building of cities, the evolution of ordered methods of government, the development of trade and commerce, and a capacity for progress which is unrestricted. ”
The earliest civilizations developed almost simultaneously in the three great river valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates called Mesopotamia, the Indus (now in Pakistan) and the Nile in North Africa in Egypt. The Egyptian civilization is probably the oldest known to man. The world acknowledges the contribution of the Egyptians who were the first to give one a calendar and a shadow-clock to measure time; a census and postal system; glass; paper and ink. Distinctive Egyptian architecture emerged during the period 4000-30 BC. The best representatives of this architecture are Egypt’s tombs, pyramids and temples.
The fertile land of Mesopotamia was only a part of a narrow but fertile strip of land which was called the ’Fertile Crescent. ’ It was open to invasion by so many tribes that it became a melting pot of cultures namely the Sumerian, the Babylonian, the Assyrian, the Chaldean and a host of others. The Sumerians who occupied the lower portion of the Tigris Euphrates Valley, excelled in metal-works, gem-carving and sculpture. Their weapons, vessels and jewelry had humans and animals carved on them. They were also excellent in the art of making seals that they used in trade and commerce, to indicate the identity of a merchant.
The Babylonians or Amorites had a famous king Hammurabi who gave to his people and the world, the earliest code of laws. The Babylonians achieved great success in science. Their special field was astronomy. The Assyrians set up for the Persians an example in the management of a vast expire. Secondly, Assyria established a military organization and built an empire on its strength. This served as a lesson for the Romans in later days. Thus the Assyrians influenced later-day cultures. The Chaldeans made wonderful contributions in the field of astronomy. They were the first to make this subject a methodical and systematized science.
The Phoenicians, who occupied the narrow strip of land between Syria and the Mediterranean Sea, were carriers of cultures. They blended the cultures of Egypt and Babylonia, thus becoming a link between the East and the West. The Hebrews made great contributions in the spiritual and ethical spheres. The two great religions of Judaism and Christianity are based upon their philosophy. Will Durant has rightly remarked, “the numerically and geographically insignificant Jews gave to the world one of its greatest literatures, two of its most influential religions, and so many of its profoundest men.
India also passed through the Stone Age, the Iron Age and the Copper Age. Paleolithic remains were found in the Deccan and Southern India, while Neolithic sites were found almost all over India. The main centers of the Indus Valley civilization India’s story was supposed to begin with the arrival of the Aryans. However the discovery of buried cities like Harappa and Mohenjodaro, made historians aware of a very prosperous and advanced civilization belonging to the non-Aryan people in the Indus Valley.
The Aryans, arrived in India around 1500 BC, drove away the original inhabitants of the lands, the non-Aryans or Dasyus, and settled in the fertile land of the Sapt-Sindhu. The Rig Veda, the Yajur Veda, the Sama Veda and the Atharva Veda are the sources for the history of the Aryans. The Rig Vedic society had the family as its unit. The king or ’rajan’ was the protector of the people. He worked with the help of a council of ministers. Society was divided into certain classes based on profession, namely Brahmans (Priests and teachers), Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaisyas (trades) and Sudras (Menial workers).
The Brahmanical religion required numerous ceremonies and sacrifices. The two religions, Jainism and Buddhism arose as a revolt against Brahmanism. The Mauryan Empire (324187 BC) came into power under Chandragupta, a great conqueror and administrator, who built the first great empire in India’s history. One of its rulers was Ashoka, who is regarded as one of the greatest kings in the world. He gave up conquest, at the height of his glory, and ruled according to the principles of ’Dharma’. H. G. Wells regards Ashoka as one of the greatest monarchs of history.
The Gupta Age (320 526 AD) is called the Golden Age or the Augustan Age of ancient India. Its great emperors such as Chandra Gupta I, Samudra Gupta and Chandra Gupta II, brought great progress and prosperity to the country. The Vardhana Empire was established after the fall of the Guptas. One of its greatest kings was Harsha, a great warrior, an able administrator, and a patron of art and learning. The Chinese civilization is certainly one of the oldest in the world. One of the important dynasties was the Chou dynasty, during whose rule, there lived the two great philosophers, Confucius and Lao-Tze.
Lao-Tze established Taoism, an abstract, speculative philosophy. Confucianism became extremely popular, since it was essentially a religion of morals. The Chinese made valuable contributions to the history of mankind, such as the art of making paper, the invention of black ink, the mariner’s compass a gun-powder, as well as the art of silk-weaving. The Great Wall of China, one of the wonders of the modern world, was built in 214 BC by the Qin dynasty to prevent Mongol and Turkish attacks from the North. It was extended towards the West by the Han dynasty.
It is the only man-made structure that can be spotted from the moon with the naked eye. The Greeks and the Romans laid the foundations on which the edifice of the European civilization was built. The contribution of Greece was spiritual rather than material. The Greek language, with its rich literature is a great legacy from Greece to the west. The Greeks learnt the alphabet of 22 consonants from the Phoenicians. By adding the vowels, they gave to the west, the alphabet as is used currently. The Greeks gave the earliest lessons in direct democracy: freedom of speech and thought.
They made an inestimable contribution to philosophy. The foundations laid by Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle should be regarded as the basis of western philosophy. Rome, a city covering seven hills, later made its inhabitants the masters of an empire extending to the Tigris and Euphrates in the east, the Rhine and Danube in the north and the Sahara in the south. Rome is well known in history for the administration of an empire, the maintenance of peace through law and justice, its military strategy and for its transmission of the classical Greek heritage to the west.
Were it not for Rome, the Barbarians would have wiped out the achievements of the Greeks from human history. The Romans who left a legacy of laws were also known for the building of roads, bridges and aqueducts. Ernest Barker rightly remarks that “Rome built a culture, Greek in origin, but Roman in application and result. ” Both Greece and Rome blended harmoniously to give the world a well-balanced society. There is a lot of controversy over the origins of the Indians in America.
The existence of Indians in the American continent, the various tribes, languages, customs and occupations reveal that much before the Europeans set foot in the ’new’ world, an entire civilization existed in the Americas. Historians claim that the archaeological history of the Indians goes back to more than 30,000 years. As Betty and Ian Ballantine put it: “By the time Columbus landed in the ’New World’, it was a very old world that already had seen entire civilizations rise and fall through the centuries. These linked continents were, by then populated by some 75,000,000 people who spoke 2,000 distinct languages… “