PolledHistory - What is History? : Theme

PolledHistory - Theme

Hello! On July 15 marks the start of the third blog, PolledHistory, a history-related blog which, like ScienceForDummies, will have weekly polls. Before we do any topic, we must investigate - What is History? It might seem like a somewhat-simple question, but let's evaluate first:

History simply means, "The study of the past and its events.". Really, though, it is only about human events, or events that affected humans. There are many meanings of history, but its most used one, referring to the field of study means that.

Many people find patterns across history - events that repeat throughout the course of time. Some say, "History repeats itself.". I think that it "rhymes" is better to describe it than "repeats", since history does not completely repeat - how things happen happens in different ways, whether in a different process, different amount of time, etc.

Most people know history through text, oral tradition, archaeology, and the modern ones can be revised with photography. 

But why is History important? What value and importance does it emit for us to have a reason to know about it? It has multiple traits on why it is important:

-  Context and Knowledge: History can be important just for its content: you can know the background behind certain people and places.

- Identity: To know the place of your inhabitance well and to know about your historical details more.

- Vision in Action: We can learn from things in history so we don't have to repeat it.

- Political Vision: We can  see things with a clearer view in other subjects, such as politics and geography, as well as economics.

Those were four practical reasons on why history is important. 

A frequently said statement is that history is boring. It depends on how you are learning, since it can be entertaining in a different method of learning it, and boring in a dull method. If it is boring, it's usually how you're learning, not what you're learning. It also depends on the person.

Let's see some guidelines and terms in history:

Dates & Years

When learning history, we must not only know WHAT it is about, but WHEN it happened, and the year mark is often on many events. Here are some terms to understand the "when":

- BC: Before Common Era, which is before 0 AD, and 0 AD is attributed to when Jesus was born, but He was actually born three years earlier.

Example Sentence:  Rome was founded on 753 BC.

 - AD/CE: Both these terms mean the same. AD means Anna Domini, Latin for "Our Lord", which is Jesus, and starts with the attributed time to the birth of Jesus, CE means "Common Era", and starts in the same time. Currently, it is 2024 AD slash 2024 CE (since AD and CE mean the same thing).

Example Sentence: World War 2 ended on 1945 AD.

- Circa: This term refers to "approximately", but only refers to time. So, you cannot say "There are circa ten apples.". Circa is only used when it refers to the time.

Intervals of Time

In history, there are many terms of intervals of times more than a year. We all know what a year, month, and day is, but some historical terms are not known to everybody:

Decade: A time interval of ten years. For example, if someone was forty years old, he was four decades old. A decade is not only used in history.

Century: Ten decades, or a hundred years. For example, if someone was one hundred years old, he was a century old, or a centennial as people like to call it. 

Millenium: Ten centuries, or a thousand years, or a hundred decades. If, hypothetically, someone was a thousand years old, he was a millenium old. 

Millenia: Plural for millenium.

Practical

There are many historical terms always used, such as:

- Empire: A country under an emperor.

- Monarchy: A type of government in which the leader (kings) pass the leadership onto their sons.

- Democracy: A type of government in which the leader (presidents) pass the leadership into someone who wins next in an election.

- War: A state of conflict between two, typically large parties, often violent.

- Alliance: A political link between two or more nations, which typically benefits the members of one.

- Independence: A state of control over your own land.

- Rebellion: An event when someone from a nation does not want to be part of that nation, and declares himself in another status.

- Civil War: A war between the people of one nation.

Ages and Eras

History has many terms to refer to ages, which in history means a long period of time:

- Neolithic (One of the first "era" or "age", which was a time where humans began to use livestock and farm. Permanant settlements, or cities, began to form.

- Bronze Age: The first well-known age. People began working bronze and other stones, and large civilizations formed. This was an advanced time for how long ago it was. Roughly 3000-1200 BCE.

- Iron Age: An era succeeding the Bronze Age. People began to work iron. 1200-500 BC.

- Classical Era: An era succeeding the Iron Age, between 500 BC and 500 AD. More sophisticated nations arose, such as Rome and Greece in the west. It ended with the fall of Western Rome.

- The Dark Ages: With the Fall of Western Rome, the Western World fell into a period of a thousand years in a not so good state. However, it was only the west experiencing this.

- The Rennaisance: Between 1450-1600 AD, where the western world began to rise again after a millenia of darkness.

- The Early Modern Era: 1600-1800 AD. A time of colonization, expansion, and discovery.

- The Industrial Era: 1800-1900 AD.  This was marked by the Industrial Revolution, a great technological advancement in history.

- The Modern Era: 1900-Present. 

And that was the overview of what history is! Compete in the poll to vote for the topic of your choice next week:

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