Periodization facts for kids
Have you ever wondered how historians make sense of the past? They use something called periodization. This is a way of dividing history into different time blocks or "periods." Think of it like organizing a really long story into chapters. Each chapter, or period, has its own name and usually shares similar characteristics or events.
Historians do this to help us understand how things changed over time and why certain events happened. It makes studying history much easier! However, deciding exactly when one period ends and another begins can sometimes be tricky. These divisions can change as new discoveries are made or as historians look at the past in new ways. But once a period name becomes popular, it often sticks around because it's so useful.
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How We Divide History
People have been dividing history into ages or periods for a very long time, even since ancient times.
Ancient Ideas of Time
One of the earliest examples comes from the ancient Sumerians. Their Sumerian King List tried to organize history by listing different kings and their ruling times.
The ancient Greeks also had their own way of dividing time. The poet Hesiod, who lived around 800-700 BC, described history as a series of "ages":
- The Golden Age
- The Silver Age
- The Bronze Age
- The Heroic Age
- The Iron Age
Middle Ages Divisions
During the Middle Ages, people often used religious ideas to divide history. For example, Saint Paul divided history into three ages based on religious law.
Another popular idea was the Six Ages of the World. This scheme suggested that the world's history was divided into six periods, each lasting a thousand years, starting from Adam. People in the Middle Ages believed they were living in the sixth and final age.
Different Ways to Name Periods
Periods can be named in many ways. Some names come from cultural trends, like the "Gilded Age" in America. Others are named after important events, such as the "Interwar period" (the time between World War I and World War II).
Sometimes, periods are simply named by their decade or century, like "the 1960s" or "the 17th century." Famous people can also give their names to periods, such as the "Victorian Era" (named after Queen Victoria) or the "Napoleonic Era" (named after Napoleon Bonaparte).
Where Do Periods Apply?
It's important to remember that these period names don't always apply everywhere in the world. For example:
- The "Jacksonian Era" refers to a time in American history.
- The "Meiji Era" is specific to Japan.
- The "Merovingian Period" is about France.
Cultural terms, like the "Romantic period" in art and literature, mostly make sense in Europe and countries influenced by European culture.
Even a simple term like "the 1960s" can have different meanings. While it technically refers to the years 1960-1969 everywhere, the cultural ideas associated with "the 1960s" (like youth rebellion and new music) might not have happened in every country during those exact years. For instance, in Spain, under a strict government, the "1960s" culture didn't really take hold.
Historians sometimes use terms like "the long 19th century" (1789–1914) or "the short twentieth century" (from World War I to the end of the Cold War). This is because the cultural or social changes that define a period might start earlier or end later than a simple 10-year or 100-year block.
Positive and Negative Meanings
Period names can also carry positive or negative feelings. For example, the term Victorian sometimes suggests old-fashioned ideas or social problems. On the other hand, Renaissance (meaning "rebirth") has a very positive feeling.
Because of this, terms can sometimes be used more broadly. The English Renaissance refers to a period in England that happened much later than the Italian Renaissance. There was also a Carolingian Renaissance during the time of the Frankish king Charlemagne, and even an American Renaissance and Harlem Renaissance that focused on literature and art in the United States. These "renaissances" didn't always mean a "rebirth" in the same way as the Italian one, but they marked times of great cultural growth.
The idea of a "rebirth" of classical learning was first suggested by the Italian poet Petrarch (1304–1374). He thought his own time was a rebirth after a "dark" period in between. This "dark intermediate period" is what we now call the Middle Ages.
The term Renaissance is most often used for the amazing cultural changes in Italy around 1500-1530, especially in visual arts with artists like Michelangelo, Raphael, and Leonardo da Vinci. Many historians now call the Renaissance and the Reformation the start of the Early Modern Period. This new name helps show that the period covers a wider area and looks at how Europe connected with the rest of the world.
The term "Middle Ages" is still used today and is often divided into the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages. The term "Dark Ages" is not used much by historians anymore because it sounds too negative.
Changing Meanings of Words
Sometimes, words that were once used negatively change their meaning over time. For example, "Gothic architecture" was first used as an insult, meaning "barbarian," by people who preferred classical styles. But now, Gothic architecture is admired for its beauty.
The word baroque also started as a criticism. It comes from a word meaning "irregular" or "misshapen pearl." It was first used to describe music that seemed too complicated. Later, it was used for art and architecture. The Baroque period is generally thought to have started around 1600. In music, it ended in 1750 with the death of J. S. Bach, while in art, it ended earlier in most places.
Three-Age System
In archeology, which is the study of human history through digging up old things, a common way to divide the very distant past is by looking at the materials people used. This is called the Three-age system.
- The Stone Age: When tools were made of stone.
- The Bronze Age: When people started using bronze.
- The Iron Age: When people started using iron.
These ages are further divided based on different styles of tools and artifacts. Even though we can now use scientific methods like radiocarbon dating to find exact dates for ancient sites, these old systems are still very useful for organizing our understanding of prehistory. For example, the Stone Age was divided into the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic periods by John Lubbock in 1865.
Big Changes in History
Some events are so huge that they create a natural break in history. These events often lead to terms like "pre-Reformation" and "post-Reformation" (referring to the time before and after the Protestant Reformation).
Similarly, "pre-war" and "post-war" are still commonly understood to refer to World War II. These phrases show how a major event can divide time into a clear "before" and "after."
Major World History Periods
Historians often use these big periods to talk about world history:
- Prehistory: The time before written records.
- Ancient history: From the invention of writing to the fall of major ancient empires.
- Late antiquity: A period of transition between ancient and medieval times.
- Post-classical history: Often similar to the Middle Ages in Europe, but used for a wider global context.
- Early modern period: A time of big changes, including exploration and new scientific ideas.
- Modern history: From roughly the late 18th century to recent times.
- Contemporary history: The very recent past, often within living memory.
Sometimes, historians use "long" or "short" to describe these periods:
- Long eighteenth century
- Long nineteenth century
- Short twentieth century
See also
In Spanish: Periodización para niños
- List of archaeological periods
- Regnal year
- Geological era
- Cosmological epoch
- Japanese era name
- Logarithmic timeline
- Chronological dating
- Second Hundred Years' War
Images for kids
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Example of periodizations in history
