History of the World

WORLD, HISTORY OF THE. People have probably lived on the earth about 2

million years. But the story of world history begins only about 5,500

years ago with the invention of writing. The period before people began to

write is usually called prehistory.

Archaeologists have pieced together the story of prehistory by studying

what the people left behind, including artwork, tools, ruins of buildings,

fossils, and even their own skeletons. Such objects provide the main

evidence of what prehistoric people were like and how they lived. For a

description of life in prehistoric times, see the Information Finder

article PREHISTORIC PEOPLE.

The first traces of writing date from about 3500 B.C. From then on,

people could record their own history. By writing down their experiences,

they could tell future generations what they were like and how they lived.

From these documents, we can learn firsthand about the rise and fall of

civilizations and the course of other important events. The history of the

world--from the first civilizations to the present--is based largely on

what has been written down by peoples through the ages.

The development of agriculture about 9,000 B.C. brought about a great

revolution in human life. Prehistoric people who learned to farm no longer

had to roam in search of food. Instead, they could settle in one place.

Some of their settlements grew to become the world's first cities. People

in the cities learned new skills and developed specialized occupations.

Some became builders and craftworkers. Others became merchants and priests.

Eventually, systems of writing were invented. These developments gave rise

to the first civilizations.

For hundreds of years, the earliest civilizations had little contact

with one another and so developed independently. The progress each

civilization made depended on the natural resources available to it and on

the inventiveness of its people. As time passed, civilizations advanced

and spread, and the world's population rose steadily. The peoples of

various civilizations began to exchange ideas and skills. Within each

civilization, groups of people with distinctive customs and languages

emerged. In time, some peoples, such as the Romans, gained power over

others and built huge empires. Some of these empires flourished for

centuries before collapsing. Great religions and later science and

scholarship developed as people wondered about the meaning of human life

and the mysteries of nature.

About 500 years ago, one civilization--that of western Europe--started

to exert a powerful influence throughout the world. The Europeans began to

make great advances in learning and the arts, and they came to surpass the

rest of the world in scientific and technological achievements. The nations

of Europe sent explorers and military forces to distant lands. They set up

overseas colonies, first in the Americas and then on other continents, and

conquered other regions. As a result, Western customs, skills, political

ideas, and religious beliefs spread across much of the world.

Today, the many peoples of the world continue to be separated by

different cultural traditions. But they also