7 Major Eras That Defined World Civilization

Epoch I: The Nomads

Ever wonder how humans went from living in caves to building space shuttles and walking on the moon? The history of human civilization is punctuated with pivotal moments that have fundamentally altered the way we all exist. From the discovery of fire by our ancestors to the digital age, few periods in the history of human culture have been more transformative than the Renaissance.

Such transformative periods did not spring up overnight. One productive generation gave rise to the next, and so on up through the ages until now. Some came about because people stumbled upon new technologies, while others were effects of new ways of thinking or organizing society. Revisiting them can be a way to understand what created many of these fundamental supports that have kept civilization perking along, even while many today seem like they’re sucked into a new dark age.

The Stone Age: When Early Humans Learned to Thrive

Time Frame: 2,500,000 years ago – 3rd millennium BCE

The Stone Age is the longest, by far, and it’s where our story really starts. At the same time, our early human ancestors were effectively learning how to be human. They weren’t founding cities or writing books, but they were discovering things about the natural world that would undergird all subsequent progress.

The most important advance during this time was learning to create and use tools. Early humans would pick up stones and fashion them into things they could use, like blades for cutting or scrapers and hammers. That might hardly be impressive compared with phones and computers, but try to survive in the wild without any tools whatsoever. These simple stone tools were the difference between life and death.

Fire Changes Everything

Humans mastered fire some 1.5 million years ago. By itself, this one single factor was revolutionary. By providing heat during cold nights, protection from wild animals and a way to cook food, fire became essential. Cooking food also made it more easily digestible and killed harmful bacteria, so people could eat a wider range of foods — and stayed healthier. Fire also turned into a time for socializing and people sitting together, sharing stories, and strengthening community ties.

The Most Important Stone Age Accomplishments:

• Development of simple stone tools to kill animals and for survival
• Discovery of fire for cooking and warmth
• The dawn of art, such as cave painting
• Development of language for communication
• Emergence of social structures and communal living

About the end of the Stone Age humans also began making art. Cave paintings from France and Spain prove our ancestors didn’t only focus on survival. They were seeking freedom to convey their emotions, document their experiences and make beauty. This art bears testament to the complex thoughts and emotions that human beings were evolving.

The Agricultural Revolution: Cultivating the Wild

Timeline: 10,000 – 3,000 BCE

For millions of years, humans hunted and foraged to survive. They were moving all the time, tracking herds of animals and locating edible plants. Then, some time around 10,000 BCE, something momentous occurred. It was also what many people independently realized they could do to plant seeds and grow their own food in different parts of the world.

This upended human society entirely. Instead of constantly traveling from one spot to another, people could stay put in one place and cultivate the land. They erected permanent houses and villages, remaining year after year in the same place. This move from a nomadic way of life to settled communities that farm is known as the Agricultural Revolution, and it’s one of the most pivotal changes in human history.

How Farming Changed Society

Farming produced something that had never existed before: food surplus. When you were hunting and gathering, you can only carry so much food with you. But in the meantime farmers could produce more food than they needed immediately and store it. This abundance meant that not everyone had to spend the entire day hunting and gathering food. A few could be craftsmen, producing pottery, tools or cloth. Others might have grown up to be priests, or leaders, or builders.

Domestication of animals also occurred during the Agricultural Revolution. Rather than hunting wild animals, people began raising sheep, goats, cattle and pigs. These animals supplied meat, milk and wool, and some could be harnessed to work on the farm. The dynamic between humans and animals became one of symbiosis that has since made farming and transportation both simpler.

However, farming wasn’t all positive. It resulted in social inequality, since some people had more land than others. Crowded villages help diseases to spread. And farmers worked longer hours than hunter-gatherers, with days that stretched into the fields. Despite these obstacles, the Agricultural Revolution was the progenitor of everything that followed.

The Classical Age: Empires Great and Small Rise

Timeline: 800 BCE – 500 CE

Farm villages turned into cities, and some societies grew so big and powerful that they became empires. The Classical Age saw the birth and rise to fantastic civilizations such as ancient Greece, Rome, Persia, China and India. These empires weren’t just land grabs; they were systems of government, philosophy, art and science that we live with today.

Greece: Birthplace of Western Thought

Ancient Greece bequeathed democracy, philosophy and scientific thinking to the world. Athenians would come together to vote on the important decisions, which led to one of the world’s first democratic governments. The ancient Greek philosophers — Socrates, Plato and Aristotle among them — always sought big answers about life, knowledge and morality. And their ideas about logic, ethics and politics are still being taught in schools today.

Greeks were also great mathematicians: one of them, Pythagoras, created the famous theorem named after him; another one was Euclid who wrote about geometry. Greek architecture featured beautiful columns and temples, which architects still study as a model to build on. Greek theater bequeathed us drama and comedy, and probably also high kings stepping out in feathered armor, but the form did help develop story lines that persist to today’s movies and plays.

Rome: Masters of Organization

The empire, later known as the Roman Empire at its zenith in the 2nd century, covered or controlled most of the continent. Romans were extraordinary engineers and organizers. They constructed thousands of miles of roads that united their empire, some fragments of which still hold fast today. They built aqueducts to bring fresh water to cities, engineered concrete for construction and constructed massive wonders like the Colosseum.

Roman law set up a legal system based on written codes, which were the same for everyone. The idea of legal principles, for example, claiming individuals are innocent until proven guilty also originated in Roman law. The Romans likewise disseminated Latin, which eventually served as a basis for the Romance Languages (French, Italian, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese and Romanian).

Summary of the Major Classical Civilizations:

• Greece: 500+ years of dominance
• Rome: 1,000+ cumulative years of Roman Empire with continuity through Byzantine period

  

Eastern Powers: China and India

Greece and Rome had been preeminent in the West, but there were no such great civilizations in the East. China invented a host of complex technologies — including paper, gunpowder, the compass and printing — well before Europe did. Chinese traditions promoted harmony, respect and balance (including Confucianism and Taoism). The Great Wall of China – the largest structure ever made by man, constructed against military threats from barbarians.

In India, mathematicians (with the idea of zero), advanced astronomers & complex philosophers! Buddhism and Hinduism traveled from India across Asia, reaching billions of people. Indian literature, such as Mahabharata and Ramayana served as compendia of historical incidents that involved moral lessons, along with the use of a vehicle for an example.

The Middle Ages: Religion and Feudalism

Timeline: 500 CE – 1400 CE

Following the disintegration of the Roman Empire in 476 AD, Europe plunged into what historians refer to as the Medieval Period or Middle Ages. This era has kind of a bad rap as the “Dark Ages,” but that name is not entirely fair. While Europe was mired in political upheaval, the rest of the world entered golden ages of learning and culture.

The Islamic Golden Age

While Europe was regrouping, the Islamic world was exploding. Between the 8th and 14th centuries Muslim scholars made astounding contributions to math, astronomy, medicine and chemistry. They rescued ancient Greek and Roman texts that would otherwise have been lost, translated them into Arabic, and then added their own discoveries.

Muslim mathematicians such as Al-Khwarizmi contributed to the furtherance of algebra (the word comes from Arabic). Doctors like Ibn Sina were also the authors of medical textbooks that Europeans used for hundreds of years. Architects created awe-inspiring mosques using complex geometric carvings and advanced engineering. Cities such as Baghdad, Cairo and Cordoba were centers of learning where scholars from different cultures mingled.

Europe’s Feudal System

Europe in the Dark and Middle ages, also known as medieval times, was organized by a social system called feudalism. The people of the time were so divided that no one even questioned it — there were kings and queens, then nobles and knights, and peasants and serfs at the bottom. The majority were peasants, who served the landholders who ruled over them. Peasants agreed to work and pay the lords a share of their crops in exchange for protection.

There was the great power of the Catholic Church at this time, which seemed to permeate everything. Monasteries copied ancient texts by hand to keep knowledge alive. The Church administered schools, hospitals, and social services. Religion influenced art, architecture and daily life in profound ways.

The medieval period was a time of great hardship, and plague epidemics and nearly constant warring had devastating effects. These were times of displacement and destruction in which so much was lost. Universities were, of course, established in cities such as Bologna, Paris and Oxford – the oldest of these. The gothic cathedrals proved to be the extent of human engineering and artistic ability. There were new trade links over long distances. At the close of this period, Europe was prepared for a radical cultural change.

The Renaissance and Age of Exploration: Rebirth and Discovery

Timeline: 1400 CE – 1650 CE

With the word “renaissance” meaning “rebirth,” that’s precisely what occurred in Europe beginning in the 1400s. People were becoming interested once more in ancient Greek and Roman learning, after centuries concentrated on religion and tradition. But they didn’t exactly copy the past; they used it as a source of inspiration, to make something original and thrilling.

Art and Science Flourish

The Renaissance gave us some of history’s great artists. Leonardo da Vinci was a man who could paint the Mona Lisa, do pioneering work in anatomy, and sketch out plans for flying machines and armored vehicles all at the same time. Michelangelo chiseled David and painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling. These artists were not only making beautiful objects; they were studying light, perspective and anatomy with scientific exactitude.

Science took massive strides during the period. Copernicus posited that the Earth orbits around the Sun and not vice-versa. This concept stood in defiance of what people had believed for hundreds of years, and revolutionized the way humans looked at the universe. Galileo Galilei perfected the telescope and saw Jupiter’s moons, all of which revolved around that planet, not Earth. These findings brought with them the rules of modern astronomy.

The Printing Revolution

The printing press with movable type was invented by Johannes Gutenberg in 1440. Until then, books had to be written by hand — which made them very expensive and rare. The printing press made it possible to produce books quickly and cheaply. This invention propagated knowledge at greater speeds than at any previous time, allowing ideas to travel across Europe, and democratizing education for more people.

Exploring New Worlds

The development of better ships and navigational aids enabled Europeans to venture farther than they ever had before. Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas in 1492, linking two hemispheres that had been separated for thousands of years. When Spanish sailors in Ferdinand Magellan’s crew first circumnavigated the world, they demonstrated why it is that we live on a round planet and showed just how big its watery expanses are.

These voyages had enormous consequences. They resulted in the Columbian Exchange, which involved the transfer of plants, animals and diseases between continents. Europeans introduced wheat, horses and cattle to the Americas, while taking back potatoes, tomatoes and corn. Tragically, they also brought with them terrible diseases for which the native people had no immunity, illness that killed millions.

Game-Changing Renaissance Innovations:

• Printing press: Made it cheap and widespread knowledge quickly
• Scientific method: An orderly way of investigating things and finding answers to our questions about the world around us. It is based on asking good questions, constructing a hypothesis—or idea—and then testing the idea with experiments.
• Academic approaches to painting: New perspective and anatomy studies changed art forever
• Navigational tools: Compass and astrolabe made long-distance ocean trips possible
• Banking: The foundation of modern banking arose, allowing for trade and exploration

The Renaissance spirit of asking questions and finding answers paved the way for larger changes yet. People began to value observation and experiment over tradition and authority. This shift in thinking would ignite scientific and political revolutions that would change the world.

The Industrial Revolution: Machines Operate on the Rise of Machine Society

Timeline: 1760 CE – 1900 CE

Once upon a time, folks made stuff by hand. Clothing was woven on tiny looms, tools were made by blacksmiths singly and agriculture depended upon man- and animal-power. Then, in the late 1700s in Britain, everything changed. The world had moved from hand tools to machines, human power to steam engines and small workshops to huge factories, all hallmarks of the Industrial Revolution.

Steam Power Changes Everything

The discovery of the steam engine by James Watt in 1769 began this process and the rest is history, so to speak. Steam engines could drive machines that were faster and worked longer than any human. We had steam-powered factories, with the ability to create goods of unprecedented scale and in quantities that had previously been inconceivable. Now a single textile factory could produce more cloth in one day than one hundred hand weavers could turn out in a week.

Steam locomotives transformed the way people got around. Horse and carriage made it possible to travel from one city to another in days. Trains could travel the same distance in hours, and accommodate hundreds of passengers or tons of cargo. Railways linked cities and the countryside, facilitating trade as never before.

Cities Grow and Society Changes

People left farms to find work in cities, as factories opened. Cities mushroomed in size, often faster than they could evolve a plan. Early factories were harsh places to work. Men, women (including children) worked 12 to 16 hours a day in hazardous conditions for very little money. In the cities, there was overcrowding and problems with disease, pollution and poverty.

The Industrial Revolution, however, had its bright side. It produced new jobs, economic prospects, and business opportunities. More people could afford to obtain education, as well as better living conditions, and the middle class expanded. New inventions brought ever greater comfort to life: electric lighting replaced candles, indoor plumbing reduced the spread of waste, and then cars gave everyone personal transportation.

Social Movements Emerge

The dangerous and exploitative ways of life within industry gave rise to social movements which sought the rights of workers. The labor unions, created to fight for higher wages, shorter work days and safer working conditions. Reformers advocated laws to keep children out of factories and in school. Women started to demand equal rights, launching movements that would eventually get them the vote and more opportunities.

The Industrial Revolution diffused from Britain to Europe, North America, and soon the world. It was the generator of a modern industrial and trading economy. It also led to environmental issues, with factories polluting air and water. The gulf between rich and poor widened, strain of a kind that lingers in society today. But for all its ills, industrialization did in fact improve living standards and life expectancy for millions.

The Digital Era: Knowledge In Your Hands

Timeline: 1970 CE – Present

We’re in the middle of another revolution at this very moment: the Digital Age. Much as the Industrial Revolution changed how goods were made, the Digital Age is fundamentally changing not only how information is shared and people communicate but also systems of power. The pace of this change is so rapid that the world really is radically different from the one we inhabited a mere thirty years ago.

The Computer Revolution

Early computers were like giant, stone-age appliances, with mile-long cords and blinking lights that definitely qualified as the “cool” part. The personal computer had become available to ordinary people in the 1970s. Companies such as Apple and Microsoft created computers that were small enough for homes and uncomplicated enough for anyone to operate. Suddenly, people could use their own computers to type documents, play games and run programs.

The 90s ushered in the internet, uniting computers around the globe into a single vast network. Email permitted instant messages to fly across continents. Websites were dedicated to everything under the sun. Shopping, learning and socializing could all be done online. The internet went from a few thousand users to billions in just a couple of decades.

Smartphones Pack the World Into Your Pocket

The first iPhone was released by Apple in 2007, and smartphones reshaped everything yet again. Now people had incredibly powerful computers all the time in their pockets. Smartphones were cameras; music players; internet tools; GPS devices and handheld video game machines — pretty much everything wrapped into one. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter enable people to broadcast the most intimate details of their lives instantly to friends around the world as well as complete strangers.

The Speed of Digital Adoption:

• 5.5B+ people who go online around the world
• 7B+ mobile phone subscriptions globally

How Digital Technology Changed Society

It’s an entirely new era of education. Students can attend virtual lectures from leading universities, get an education on-demand with online courses, and look up any information they need in seconds. Learning is now no bound of distance. But there’s a flip side of this coin: misinformation spreads as quickly as truth.

Work has changed dramatically too. Now many people are working remotely and spending their days conducting video calls with colleagues and sharing documents online. E-commerce enables companies to serve customers around the globe. The gig economy was born, in which people perform freelance work through apps or websites rather than through employment.

Social networks have grown, but enmeshed and complicated. People have their friends all over the world but less of their daily lives are physically local. On one hand, social media can link communities and disseminate critical messages; on the other, it also can share misinformation and produce echo chambers where people hear only points of view with which they already agree.

The Future Is Already Arriving

AI is getting smarter and beginning to be able to identify faces, translate languages and even produce art and writing. Self driving cars are being tested on the roads. Virtual reality builds immersive realities out of software. Biotech is creating ways to cure diseases and extend the life of humans. Space companies are mounting missions to Mars and even beyond.

Opportunities and Challenges of the Digital Age. The privacy question becomes more pressing as companies vacuum up ever larger troves of personal data. Automation will kill some jobs and create others. As more of our lives migrate to the internet, cybersecurity becomes ever more critical. Climate change is a problem that needs global cooperation and technological solutions. The way we respond to these challenges will determine the future for countless generations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What was the most influential era on human civilization?

It’s difficult to single out just one, but the Agricultural Revolution around 10,000 BCE was perhaps the most fundamental shift. It turned humanity from wandering hunter-gatherers into settled farmers, and made all other civilizations possible. Without farming, we wouldn’t have cities or writing or government, or any of the other forms of culture that emerged in its wake.

Q: How long did each of these big eras last?

The durations varied greatly. The Stone Age lasted millions of years; we are the people of 2019, near the end (you can only hope) of decade No. b That said, each era has generally been shorter than its predecessor as changes happen more rapidly as they accumulate change. This acceleration means we are witnessing more drastic changes in our lives than our ancestors saw over centuries.

Q: Were all empires on these eras in the same time?

No, some areas grew farther along. As an example, when Alchemy was a prevalent practice in Europe during the Medieval Period, the Islamic civilization flourished and entered a golden age of science and knowledge. Some societies continued as hunter-gatherers and made few extra advancements whereas others also built empires. These timelines are illustrative of general developments rather than homogeneous experiences that occurred simultaneously for all.

Q: What ends one age and begins another?

Eras tend to turn when powerful new technologies, novel ways of organizing the economy and society, or radically different justifications for knowledge emerge. Change is usually the result of many forces working together. For example, the Renaissance brought together rediscovered ancient knowledge, new technologies like printing and increased trade and wealth giving more people time to study and create art. You can learn more about how historical eras transition through comprehensive historical resources.

Q: What will be the next great age?

We can’t say for sure, but many experts believe we are entering an era of artificial intelligence, biotechnology and space exploration. Some describe this as the “Intelligence Age” or a “Biotech Revolution.” Climate change is almost certainly going to require sweeping changes in how we live and produce energy. The next age will likely be defined by how we address these new technologies and global threats.

Q: What were lives like in between eras?

The changeover from one era to another was typically long and arduous. And when farming got started, it took thousands of years to spread around the planet. Many found themselves lost in the transition to factory work and life in the city during the Industrial Revolution. Today, older generations can get exasperated by digital technology while younger people grow up with it as their native tongue. Individuals undergoing significant change are frequently filled with some degree of excitement about new opportunities and, simultaneously, anxiety at the prospect of losing what was familiar.

Q: Were all the changes during these periods beneficial to human life?

Not always. Each period was marked by improvement but also triggered new challenges. Domestication meant disease and inequality. The Industrial Revolution made for pollution and harsh working conditions. The Digital Age has spawned a new set of concerns about the privacy of personal data, mental health and misinformation. ‘Progress’ is complicated and comes with trade-offs that our societies need to negotiate.

Looking Back to Move Forward

From the advent of stone tools to today’s smartphones, seven very different human eras have loaned their characteristics to the times that followed in unusual ways. The Stone Age trained us in how to survive and adapt. The Agricultural Revolution taught us how to farm and settle down. By contrast the Classical Age provided us with government, philosophy and organized society. The Middle Ages compiled information and exchanged thoughts throughout continents.

Curiosity flared back up during the Renaissance and Age of Discovery and served to tie the world together. Mechanized production and the Industrial Revolution changed the nature of work. Now, in the Digital Age, we are all being connected (literally) by billions of people and have opportunities that our ancestors never could have imagined.

With each era, old problems were solved but new issues surfaced. Our hunter-gatherer forebears didn’t have to worry much about pollution or cybersecurity, but they faced constant physical challenges from predators and the environment that rival anything the modern world can offer. We have comforts and opportunities beyond anything they dreamed of but also challenges that take us out to a complex world, where we need each other, and wisdom.

The story of civilization is not only the past. It’s about understanding patterns, and trying to not repeat history but rather make better choices for the future. There were people who made decisions in every period, there were distinctions to be drawn; ideas and inventions were developed and shared for the purposes of problem-solving. We find ourselves in another such time of reckoning, and the choices we make today will shape the next chapter of humanity’s ongoing story.

By coming to understand these seven major eras, we get a perspective on where we have been and a sense of what may be next. We know from history that humans are extremely adaptable and resourceful. We adapt, we mitigate, we solve problems. We find new tools and ideas, and we use them to create better lives. The road from stone tools to a life exploring space has been arduous and complicated, however it reveals the awesome potential of human civilization. Whatever comes next, we will meet it with the lessons of the past and the tools of today.