Human history
Modern humans evolved in Africa around 300,000 years ago. They initially lived as hunter-gatherers and migrated out of Africa during the Last Ice Age. By the end of that Ice Age 12,000 years ago, they had spread to every continent except Antarctica. The genus Homo evolved from Australopithecus. The earliest record of Homo is a 2.8 million-year-old jawbone found in Ethiopia. Homo habilis evolved by 2.3 million years ago with a 50% increase in brain size compared to its predecessor. H. erectus appeared about 2 million years ago and was the first hominin species to leave Africa. Perhaps as early as 1.5 million years ago, but certainly by 400,000 years ago, hominins began using fire for heat and cooking. Early humans buried their dead, wore jewelry, and adorned their bodies with red ochre by 100,000 years ago. One of the most important changes was the development of syntactic language, which dramatically improved communication abilities. Paleolithic humans lived as nomadic hunter-gatherers. Signs of early artistic expression include cave paintings and sculptures made from ivory, stone, and bone. The earliest known musical instruments besides the human voice are bone flutes from the Swabian Jura in Germany, dated around 40,000 years old. Humans migrated out of Africa in multiple waves beginning 194,000, 177,000 years ago. The dominant view among scholars is that all modern non-Africans are descended from a single group that left Africa 70,000, 50,000 years ago. Homo sapiens proceeded to colonize all continents and larger islands, arriving in Australia 65,000 years ago, Europe 45,000 years ago, and the Americas 21,000 years ago.
Beginning around 10,000 BCE, the Neolithic Revolution marked the development of agriculture. Agriculture began independently in different parts of the globe, including at least 11 separate centers of origin. Cereal crop cultivation and animal domestication had occurred in Mesopotamia by at least 8500 BCE in the form of wheat, barley, sheep, and goats. The Yangtze River Valley in China domesticated rice around 8000, 7000 BCE. Pigs were the most important domesticated animal in early China. People in Africa's Sahara cultivated sorghum and several other crops between 8000 and 5000 BCE. In the Indus River Valley, crops were cultivated by 7000 BCE and cattle were domesticated by 6500 BCE. In the Americas, squash was cultivated by at least 8500 BCE in South America. Potatoes were first cultivated in the Andes of South America, where the llama was also domesticated. It is likely that women played a central role in plant domestication throughout these developments. The transition to agriculture created food surpluses that could support people not directly engaged in food production. This permitted far denser populations and the creation of the first cities and states. Cities became centers of trade, manufacturing, and political power. Metalworking was first used in the creation of copper tools and ornaments around 6400 BCE. Gold and silver soon followed, primarily for use in ornaments. The first signs of bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, date to around 4500 BCE.
The Bronze Age saw the development of cities and civilizations. Early civilizations arose close to rivers, first in Mesopotamia (3300 BCE) with the Tigris and Euphrates. Egyptian civilization developed along the Nile River (3200 BCE). The Norte Chico civilization emerged in coastal Peru (3100 BCE). The Indus Valley civilization appeared in Pakistan and northwestern India (2500 BCE). Chinese civilization formed along the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers (2200 BCE). These societies developed shared characteristics including a central government, complex economy, social structure, and systems for keeping records. Writing facilitated the administration of cities and the expression of ideas. It may have independently developed in at least four ancient civilizations: Mesopotamia (3300 BCE), Egypt (around 3250 BCE), China (1200 BCE), and lowland Mesoamerica (by 650 BCE). The earliest system of writing was the Mesopotamian cuneiform script. In China, writing was first used during the Shang dynasty (1766, 1045 BCE). Transport was facilitated by waterways, which fostered the projection of military power and exchange of goods. Trade became increasingly important as urban societies exchanged manufactured goods for raw materials from distant lands. Bronze production in Southwest Asia required the import of tin from as far away as England. In Egypt, the initial division into Upper and Lower Egypt was followed by unification around 3100 BCE. Around 2600 BCE, the Indus Valley civilization built major cities at Harappa and Mohenjo-daro. In Crete, the Minoan civilization emerged by 2000 BCE. By 1600 BCE, Mycenaean Greece began to develop.
From 800 to 200 BCE, the Axial Age saw the emergence of transformative philosophical and religious ideas. Chinese Confucianism, Indian Buddhism and Jainism, and Jewish monotheism all arose during this period. Persian Zoroastrianism began earlier, perhaps around 1000 BCE, but was institutionalized by the Achaemenid Empire during the Axial Age. New philosophies took hold in Greece during the 5th century BCE, epitomized by thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle. The first Olympic Games were held in 776 BCE, marking a period known as classical antiquity. In 508 BCE, the world's first democratic system of government was instituted in Athens. Confucianism looked for political morality not to the force of law but to the power and example of tradition. Confucianism later spread to Korea and Japan. Buddhism reached China in about the 1st century CE and spread widely, with 30,000 Buddhist temples in northern China alone by the 7th century CE. Buddhism became the main religion in much of South, Southeast, and East Asia. The Greek philosophical tradition diffused throughout the Mediterranean world and as far as India, starting in the 4th century BCE after the conquests of Alexander the Great of Macedon. Both Christianity and Islam developed from the beliefs of Judaism.
The post-classical period, dated roughly from 500 to 1500 CE, was characterized by the rise and spread of major religions while civilization expanded to new parts of the world. From the 10th to 13th centuries, the Medieval Warm Period in the northern hemisphere aided agriculture and led to population growth. It was followed by the Little Ice Age, which put downward pressure on the population of Eurasia. Major inventions of the period were gunpowder, guns, and printing, all originating in China. Before the advent of Islam in the 7th century, the Middle East was dominated by the Byzantine and Sasanian Empires. Muhammad, the founder of Islam, initiated the early Muslim conquests in the 7th century. The subsequent Abbasid Caliphate oversaw the Islamic Golden Age, an era of learning, science, and invention during which philosophy, art, and literature flourished. In Europe, since at least the 4th century, Christianity has played a prominent role in shaping Western civilization. During the High Middle Ages, which began after 1000, the population of Europe increased as technological and agricultural innovations allowed trade to flourish. The Black Death alone killed approximately 75 to 200 million people between 1347 and 1350. It was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history. Starting in Asia, the disease reached the Mediterranean and Western Europe during the late 1340s.
The early modern period is the era following the European Middle Ages until 1789 or 1800. A common break with the medieval period is placed between 1450 and 1500 which includes significant events like the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire. The nature of warfare evolved as the size and organization of military forces on land and sea increased alongside wider propagation of gunpowder. European powers began colonizing large parts of the world through maritime empires: first the Portuguese and Spanish Empires, then the French, English, and Dutch Empires. Capitalist economies emerged, initially in northern Italian republics and some Asian port cities. Starting at the end of the 15th century, the Portuguese established trading posts across Africa, Asia, and Brazil for commodities like gold and spices while also practicing slavery. In the 17th century, private chartered companies were established, such as the English East India Company in 1600 and the Dutch East India Company in 1602. The Age of Discovery was the first period in which the Old World engaged in substantial cultural, material, and biological exchange with the New World. It began in the late 15th century when Portugal and Castile sent the first exploratory voyages to the Americas where Christopher Columbus first arrived in 1492.
The long nineteenth century traditionally starts with the French Revolution in 1789 and lasts until the outbreak of World War I in 1914. It saw the global spread of the Industrial Revolution, the greatest transformation of the world economy since the Neolithic Revolution. The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain around 1770 and used new modes of production, the factory, mass production, and mechanization, to manufacture goods faster while using less labor. Along with industrialization came modern globalization, the increasing interconnection of world regions in economic, political, and cultural spheres. Globalization began in the early 19th century and was enabled by improved transportation technologies such as railroads and steamships. In the late 19th century to early 20th century, European powers rapidly conquered and colonized almost the entirety of Africa. Only Ethiopia and Liberia remained independent. World War I was a global conflict from 1914 to 1918 between the Allies and the Central Powers. It had an estimated death toll ranging from 10 to 22.5 million and resulted in the collapse of four empires: the Austro-Hungarian, German, Ottoman, and Russian Empires. From 1918 to 1920, the Spanish flu caused the deaths of at least 25 million people.
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Common questions
When and where did modern humans evolve?
Modern humans evolved in Africa around 300,000 years ago. They initially lived as hunter-gatherers before migrating out of Africa during the Last Ice Age.
What was the Neolithic Revolution and when did it begin?
The Neolithic Revolution marked the development of agriculture beginning around 10,000 BCE. Agriculture began independently in different parts of the globe including at least 11 separate centers of origin such as Mesopotamia and the Yangtze River Valley in China.
Which civilizations emerged during the Bronze Age and when?
Early civilizations arose close to rivers first in Mesopotamia in 3300 BCE with the Tigris and Euphrates. Egyptian civilization developed along the Nile River in 3200 BCE and the Norte Chico civilization emerged in coastal Peru in 3100 BCE.
What philosophical ideas emerged during the Axial Age from 800 to 200 BCE?
Transformative philosophical and religious ideas emerged during this period including Chinese Confucianism Indian Buddhism and Jainism and Jewish monotheism. New philosophies took hold in Greece during the 5th century BCE epitomized by thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle.
How many people died during the Black Death between 1347 and 1350?
The Black Death alone killed approximately 75 to 200 million people between 1347 and 1350. It was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history starting in Asia before reaching the Mediterranean and Western Europe during the late 1340s.
When did the Industrial Revolution begin and where did it start?
The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain around 1770 and used new modes of production like the factory mass production and mechanization. This era saw the global spread of industrialization along with modern globalization enabled by improved transportation technologies such as railroads and steamships.