Page 96 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol I - Abraham to Coal

Our World:

The Modern

Era

he modern era is the briefest and most turbulent of or even earlier. Determining the end date of the modern
Tthe three main eras of human history. Whereas the era is even trickier. Some scholars have argued that it
era of foragers lasted more than 200,000 years and the ended during the twentieth century and that we now live
agrarian era about 10,000 years, the modern era has in a postmodern era.Yet, many features of the modern era
lasted just 250 years.Yet, during this brief era change has persist today and will persist for some time into the
been more rapid and more fundamental than ever before; future; thus, it makes more sense to see our contemporary
indeed, populations have grown so fast that 20 percent period as part of the modern era.This fact means that we
of all humans may have lived during these two and a half do not know when the modern era will end, nor can we
centuries.The modern era is also the most interconnected see its overall shape as clearly as we might wish.
of the three eras. Whereas new ideas and technologies The fact that we cannot see the modern era as a
once took thousands of years to circle the globe, today whole makes it difficult to specify its main features, and
people from different continents can converse as easily as justifies using the deliberately vague label “modern.” At
if they lived in a single global village. History has become present the diagnostic feature of the modern era seems to
world history in the most literal sense. be a sharp increase in rates of innovation. New tech-
For our purposes the modern era is assumed to begin nologies enhanced human control over natural resources
about 1750.Yet, its roots lay deep in the agrarian era, and and stimulated rapid population growth. In their turn,
we could make a good case for a starting date of 1500 technological and demographic changes transformed

250,000 Years of Human History
(not drawn to scale)
= 10 billion humans Foraging Era
Modern humans spread across Africa ■ >95% of human history

■ 12% of population

250,000 bce 200,000 bce