Page 155 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

1456 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

beyond the city, that different technologies imply differ- clopedia will adopt more specific periodizations that are
ent ways of living, different systems of ethics, and differ- appropriate for particular questions or regions.
ent types of political and social action. Karl Marx Of the three major eras, the first is by far the longest,
(1818–1883) formalized this insight within the notion lasting for more than 95 percent of the time that humans
of a mode of production. The best justification for such have lived on Earth, while the modern era is the shortest,
an approach to the challenge of periodization is that fun- lasting just 250 years. On the other hand, populations
damental technologies shape so many other aspects of were small in the foraging era, so that, measured by the
human history, including living standards, demography, number of human lives lived, the agrarian and modern
gender relations, political structures, and the pace and eras loom larger. Perhaps 12 percent of the roughly 100
nature of historical change. billion humans who have ever lived, lived during the for-
aging era, while 68 percent lived in the agrarian era and
A Periodization for 20 percent in the modern era. Increasing life expectan-
World History as a Whole cies in the modern era mean that, measured by human
The scheme that follows is intended to provide a loose years lived, the modern era looms even larger, account-
framework for discussing world history at the largest ing for almost 30 percent of all human years lived, while
scales. It offers a three-part periodization for human his- the agrarian era may have accounted for just over 60 per-
tory as a whole, with subordinate periodizations within cent and the foraging era for just under 10 percent.
each of those major periods, which may vary from region This periodization tackles the central theoretical chal-
to region.This nested structure is, inevitably, an imperfect lenge of world history by taking as its framework three
compromise between various different goals, but it reflects fundamental technological changes.These are the emer-
a broad consensus within contemporary writings on world gence of the first distinctively human societies, all of
history. At lower levels of generality, articles in this ency- which relied on foraging for survival, the emergence of

Table 1.
Three Major Eras of World History
Approximate Dates Approximate Dates
(before present [BP] (before present [BP]
Major Eras and BCE/CE) Subordinate Eras and BCE/CE)
The foraging era 250,000–10,000 BP African origins 250,000–100,000 BP
Societies mainly based on Global migrations 100,000–10,000 BP
foraging lifeways
The agrarian era 8000 BCE–1750 CE Agrarian communities before cities 8000–3000 BCE
Societies mainly based on (10,000–250 BP) (later dates outside of Afro-Eurasia) (10,000–5,000 BP)
agrarian lifeways Agrarian communities and the 3000 BCE–500 BCE
earliest cities and states (later
dates outside of Afro-Eurasia)
Agriculture, cities, and empires 500 BCE–1000 CE
(later dates outside of Afro-Eurasia)
Agricultural societies on the eve 1000–1750
of the modern revolution
The modern era 1750–today The Industrial Revolution 1750–1914
Societies mainly based on Twentieth-century crisis 1914–1945
modern industrial technologies The contemporary era 1945–Today