181-661: Contemporary history , in English-language historiography , is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from about 1945 to the present. In the social sciences, contemporary history is also continuous with, and related to, the rise of postmodernity . Contemporary history is politically dominated by the Cold War (1947–1991) between the Western Bloc , led by the United States, and
362-529: A chronological form that abstained from analysis and focused on moralistic teaching. In 281 AD the tomb of King Xiang of Wei ( d. 296 BC ) was opened, inside of which was found a historical text called the Bamboo Annals , after the writing material. It is similar in style to the Spring and Autumn Annals and covers events from the mythical Yellow Emperor to 299 BC. Opinions on
543-424: A decline in birth rates in the industrialized world, which had multiple second-order effects. Many regions have also made divorce much easier to officially procure. However, the decline in birth rate is not a universal trend; many nations continue to have high birth rates , and the world's overall population is still growing as of 2022. One of the yet evolving and unknown impacts in the contemporary era has been
724-690: A history of Egypt in Greek for the Ptolemaic royal court during the 3rd century BC. The Romans adopted the Greek tradition, writing at first in Greek, but eventually chronicling their history in a freshly non-Greek language. Early Roman works were still written in Greek, such as the annals of Quintus Fabius Pictor . However, the Origines , composed by the Roman statesman Cato the Elder (234–149 BC),
905-535: A universal history , the Bibliotheca historica , that sought to explain various known civilizations from their origins up until his own day in the 1st century BC. The Chaldean priest Berossus ( fl. 3rd century BC) composed a Greek-language History of Babylonia for the Seleucid king Antiochus I , combining Hellenistic methods of historiography and Mesopotamian accounts to form
1086-401: A "web of data". With the rise of information technology, computer security , and information security in general, is a concern for computers and networks. Concerns include information and services which are protected from unintended or unauthorized access, change or destruction. This has also raised questions of Internet privacy and personal privacy globally. The Space Race was one of
1267-475: A combination of genuine popularity and legal rollbacks, Russia gradually moved toward being a one-party state , a democracy but one where Putin's party always won. Russia has since intervened in a variety of military conflicts in its neighboring countries including the 2008 Russo-Georgian War ; the 2014 Russo-Ukrainian War and Annexation of Crimea ; a 2015 intervention in the Syrian Civil War ; and
1448-452: A commanding large slice of the sources of energy. Even if diminished, coal is still a popular and common style of power plant; it made up a huge proportion of South Africa and India's power grid from 1945 to the present, for example. That said, increasing price, as well as concerns both over the air pollution generated when it is burnt and the landscape destruction when it is mined (such as mountaintop removal mining ), have caused setbacks for
1629-572: A cooling of East-West relations. Germany split into two countries in 1949, liberal-democratic West Germany and communist East Germany . The conflict as a whole would become known as the Cold War . The Western Bloc formed NATO in 1949 while the Eastern Bloc formed the Warsaw Pact in 1955. Direct combat between the new Great Powers was generally avoided, although proxy wars fought in other countries by factions equipped by one side against
1810-548: A debated question. In Europe, the academic discipline of historiography was established in the 5th century BC with the Histories , by Herodotus , who thus established Greek historiography . In the 2nd century BC, the Roman statesman Cato the Elder produced the Origines , which is the first Roman historiography . In Asia, the father and son intellectuals Sima Tan and Sima Qian established Chinese historiography with
1991-552: A history opens with a chronological outline of court affairs, and then continues with detailed biographies of prominent people who lived during the period in question. The scope of his work extended as far back as the 16th century BC with the founding of the Shang dynasty . It included many treatises on specific subjects and individual biographies of prominent people. He also explored the lives and deeds of commoners, both contemporary and those of previous eras. Whereas Sima's had been
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#17327648983482172-480: A large disincentive to burn oil except when absolutely necessary (such as in the case of aviation fuel ), although oil continues to be one of the most popular sources of energy. Other fossil fuels have continued a prominent role in the world's energy production. Coal energy , usually credited as helping kickstart the Industrial Revolution , has declined somewhat in prominence, but it started from
2353-725: A lesser extent, during the Cold War, something similar happened with the Russian language in the Eastern Bloc and among communist-aligned factions; however, this status was mostly reversed after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The French and German languages saw their prestige as global languages decline after World War II. Religious trends have been disparate and not consistent across countries, often with sharply varying results even between similar and nearby groups. In industrialized and economically prosperous regions, there has been
2534-549: A loose trend toward secularization that deprioritized the role of religion, even among people who still identified as adherents. The decline of Christianity in the Western world has been perhaps the most notable of these trends, although many non-Western cultures have been affected as well, such as the rise of irreligion in China (buttressed by antireligious campaigns ). As an example of how localized this process can be, during
2715-452: A model for later historians. This has led to Gibbon being called the first "modern historian". The book sold impressively, earning its author a total of about £9000. Biographer Leslie Stephen wrote that thereafter, "His fame was as rapid as it has been lasting." Gibbon's work has been praised for its style, its piquant epigrams and its effective irony. Winston Churchill memorably noted, "I set out upon ... Gibbon's Decline and Fall of
2896-455: A passage or a fact were reduced to depend." In this insistence upon the importance of primary sources, Gibbon broke new ground in the methodical study of history: In accuracy, thoroughness, lucidity, and comprehensive grasp of a vast subject, the 'History' is unsurpassable. It is the one English history which may be regarded as definitive. ... Whatever its shortcomings the book is artistically imposing as well as historically unimpeachable as
3077-577: A phenomenon called the Japanese economic miracle . Many explanations are proffered for the enviable results of these years: relative peace (at least outside the " Third World "); a reduction in average family size; technological improvements; and others. The Eastern Bloc, meanwhile, established Comecon as their equivalent to the Marshall Plan and to establish internal trading rules between communist states. The 1970s saw economic headwinds. Notably,
3258-551: A policy of perestroika in the 1980s which allowed tentative market reforms. The fall of the USSR saw differing approaches in the 1990s in the East: some newly independent states went in a capitalist direction such as Estonia , some maintained a strong governmental presence in their economy, and some opted for a mix. The privatization of government firms and resources drew accusations of crony capitalism in many states, however, including
3439-492: A precedent for subsequent Western historical writings. He was also the first to distinguish between cause and immediate origins of an event, while his successor Xenophon ( c. 431 – 355 BC) introduced autobiographical elements and biographical character studies in his Anabasis . The proverbial Philippic attacks of the Athenian orator Demosthenes (384–322 BC) on Philip II of Macedon marked
3620-612: A pro-Western stance. The Federation of Malaya was granted independence in 1957, with the concurrent fighting of the Malayan Emergency against communist forces from 1948–1960. The French unsuccessfully fought the First Indochina War in an attempt to hold on to French Indochina ; at the 1954 Geneva Conference , the new states of Cambodia , Laos , the Democratic Republic of Vietnam , and
3801-620: A second €130-billion Greek bailout. In 2013, the European Union agreed to a €10 billion economic bailout for Cyprus. The 2020 coronavirus pandemic caused economic disruption, with wide-ranging economic impacts of COVID-19 such as supply chain changes and an increase in working-from-home, along with the COVID-19 recession . Social changes since 1945 have been vast and disparate, affecting countries and subgroups within those countries in ways specific to each population, meaning there
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#17327648983483982-755: A series of Yugoslav Wars ; NATO eventually intervened in the Kosovo War . In the Middle East, the Israeli–Palestinian peace process offered the prospect of a long-term peace deal to many; the Oslo Accords signed in 1993 seemed to offer a "roadmap" to resolving the conflict . Despite these high hopes, they would be largely dashed in 2000–2001 after a breakdown of negotiations and the Second Intifada . The September 11 attacks were
4163-697: A series of coordinated suicide attacks by al-Qaeda upon the United States on 11 September 2001. On that morning, nineteen al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners . The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board and many others working in the buildings. Both buildings collapsed within two hours, destroying nearby buildings and damaging others. The hijackers crashed
4344-464: A sharp drop in international trade , rising unemployment and slumping commodity prices. The recession renewed interest in Keynesian economic ideas on how to combat recessionary conditions. However, various industrial countries continued to undertake austerity policies to cut deficits , reduced spending , as opposed to following Keynesian theories. From late 2009 European debt crisis , fears of
4525-460: A shift away from traditional diplomatic, economic, and political history toward newer approaches, especially social and cultural studies . From 1975 to 1995 the proportion of professors of history in American universities identifying with social history increased from 31 to 41 percent, while the proportion of political historians decreased from 40 to 30 percent. In 2007, of 5,723 faculty members in
4706-949: A shuttle: the Challenger disaster and the Columbia disaster ). The program ultimately had 135 missions. The retirement of NASA's Space Shuttle fleet took place from March to July 2011. The end of the Cold War saw a new era of international cooperation with the International Space Station (ISS). Commercial spaceflight also became possible as governments loosened what had previously been their firm control over satellites, opening new possibilities, but also new risks such as light pollution from satellites . The Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program began in 2006. There are various spaceports , including spaceports of human spaceflight and other launch systems ( space logistics ). Private spaceflight
4887-692: A significant marketing feature through the early 2000s (decade), was similarly displaced by emphasis on relevancy ranking, the methods by which search engines attempt to sort the best results first. " Web 2.0 " is characterized as facilitating communication, information sharing , interoperability , User-centered design and collaboration on the World Wide Web . It has led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services , and web applications . Examples include social-networking sites , video-sharing sites , wikis , blogs, mashups and folksonomies . Social networking emerged in
5068-419: A singularly personal point of view. Michelet was one of the first historians to shift the emphasis of history to the common people, rather than the leaders and institutions of the country. He had a decisive impact on scholars. Gayana Jurkevich argues that led by Michelet: 19th-century French historians no longer saw history as the chronicling of royal dynasties, armies, treaties, and great men of state, but as
5249-445: A source of vast revenue that did not require traditional government revenue-raising measures, such as tariffs or income taxation. The rising cost of oil led to the 1970s energy crisis and various adaptations in energy conservation to better conserve oil, such as more efficient engines and better insulation. It has also led to concerns of " peak oil ," that the rising extraction costs of oil will eventually lead to massive shortages and
5430-565: A sovereign debt crisis developed among investors concerning rising government debt levels across the globe together with a wave of downgrading of government debt of certain European states. Concerns intensified early 2010 and thereafter making it difficult or impossible for sovereigns to re-finance their debts. On 9 May 2010, Europe's Finance Ministers approved a rescue package worth €750 billion aimed at ensuring financial stability across Europe. The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF)
5611-442: A spate of local histories of the individual city-states ( poleis ), written by the first of the local historians who employed the written archives of city and sanctuary. Dionysius of Halicarnassus characterized these historians as the forerunners of Thucydides, and these local histories continued to be written into Late Antiquity , as long as the city-states survived. Two early figures stand out: Hippias of Elis , who produced
Contemporary history - Misplaced Pages Continue
5792-640: A specifically Christian historiography can be seen in Clement of Alexandria in the second century. The growth of Christianity and its enhanced status in the Roman Empire after Constantine I (see State church of the Roman Empire ) led to the development of a distinct Christian historiography, influenced by both Christian theology and the nature of the Christian Bible , encompassing new areas of study and views of history. The central role of
5973-650: A third airliner into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia . The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville in rural Somerset County, Pennsylvania , after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of the plane. In response, the United States under President George W. Bush enacted the Patriot Act . Many other countries also strengthened their anti-terrorism legislation and expanded law enforcement powers. Major terrorist events after
6154-511: A unique composite. Reports exist of other near-eastern histories, such as that of the Phoenician historian Sanchuniathon ; but he is considered semi-legendary and writings attributed to him are fragmentary, known only through the later historians Philo of Byblos and Eusebius , who asserted that he wrote before even the Trojan war . The native Egyptian priest and historian Manetho composed
6335-519: A universal history from the beginning of time down to the time of writing, his successor Ban Gu wrote an annals-biography history limiting its coverage to only the Western Han dynasty , the Book of Han (96 AD). This established the notion of using dynastic boundaries as start- and end-points, and most later Chinese histories would focus on a single dynasty or group of dynasties. The Records of
6516-475: A vast increase in demand for energy development , both to power vehicles such as personal cars as well as on public electrical grids . In particular, petroleum oil has been in ravenous demand across the world. Many of the cheapest and easiest sources of oil to access were largely drained in the 19th and early 20th centuries, leading to a hunt for new sources of oil. The value of oil has spilled over into politics as well, as " petrostates " with access to oil found
6697-590: A vast panorama of a great period. The tumultuous events surrounding the French Revolution inspired much of the historiography and analysis of the early 19th century. Interest in the 1688 Glorious Revolution was also rekindled by the Great Reform Act of 1832 in England . Nineteenth century historiography, especially among American historians, featured conflicting viewpoints that represented
6878-491: A way that was less true in the 20th century. For example, diaspora groups of immigrants can more easily stay in contact with their family and friends in their origin region, compared to earlier eras where travel and communication was far more expensive, making a narrative of strictly increasing global homogenization incomplete. International telephone networks, and later Internet telephony, allowed cheaper and easier long-distance communication than previous eras. Language usage in
7059-779: Is classified as part of the Indosphere and the Sinosphere . The archipelago had direct contact with China during the Song dynasty (960–1279), and was a part of the Srivijaya and Majapahit empires. The pre-colonial Philippines widely used the abugida system in writing and seals on documents, though it was for communication and no recorded writings of early literature or history. Ancient Filipinos usually wrote documents on bamboo, bark, and leaves, which did not survive, unlike inscriptions on clay, metal, and ivory did, such as
7240-658: Is flight beyond the Kármán line that is conducted and paid for by an entity other than a government agency. Commercialization of space is the use of equipment sent into or through outer space to provide goods or services of commercial value, either by a corporation or state. Space trade plans and predictions began in the 1960s. Spacecraft propulsion is any method used to accelerate spacecraft and artificial satellites . NASA announced in 2011 that its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured photographic evidence of possible liquid water on Mars during warm seasons. On 6 August 2012,
7421-419: Is heavily linked to the concept of a Digital Age or Digital Revolution , and carries the ramifications of a shift from traditional industry that the Industrial Revolution brought through industrialization, to an economy based around the manipulation of information. The period is generally said to have begun in the latter half of the 20th century, though the particular date varies. The term began its use around
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7602-616: Is important", "keen sense of drama", and "grasp of the fact that a whole civilization is a unit of study". At the same time, philosopher David Hume was having a similar effect on the study of history in Great Britain . In 1754 he published The History of England , a 6-volume work which extended "From the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688". Hume adopted a similar scope to Voltaire in his history; as well as
7783-427: Is not one single global story of social change. Despite this, one of the major trends has been an increasing interchange between cultures and a wider spread of the most successful works, enabled by new technology and globalization . In earlier periods, a successful musician or theater troupe might be confined to playing in a single city at a time, limiting their reach. The spread of better recording technology, such as
7964-578: Is not political or military history, it is the history of the arts, of commerce, of civilization—in a word—of the human mind." Voltaire's histories used the values of the Enlightenment to evaluate the past. He helped free historiography from antiquarianism, Eurocentrism , religious intolerance and a concentration on great men, diplomacy, and warfare. Peter Gay says Voltaire wrote "very good history", citing his "scrupulous concern for truths", "careful sifting of evidence", "intelligent selection of what
8145-452: Is often called the "Soviet Union's Vietnam War" in comparison to the American defeat, being an expensive and ultimately unsuccessful war and occupation. More importantly, the intervening decades had seen that Eastern Europe was unable to compete economically with Western Europe, which undermined the promise of communist abundance compared to capitalist poverty. The Western capitalist economies had proven wealthier and stronger, which made matching
8326-499: Is usually impossible to connect specific weather events to human impact on the world. Instead, such impact is expected to cause changes in the overall distribution and intensity of weather events, such as changes to the frequency and intensity of heavy precipitation. Broader effects are expected to include glacial retreat , Arctic shrinkage , and worldwide sea level rise . Other effects may include changes in crop yields , addition of new trade routes, species extinctions , and changes in
8507-685: The Rikkokushi (Six National Histories), a corpus of six national histories covering the history of Japan from its mythological beginnings until the 9th century. The first of these works were the Nihon Shoki , compiled by Prince Toneri in 720. The tradition of Korean historiography was established with the Samguk Sagi , a history of Korea from its allegedly earliest times. It was compiled by Goryeo court historian Kim Busik after its commission by King Injong of Goryeo (r. 1122–1146). It
8688-565: The 1964 Brazilian coup d'état , the 1973 Chilean coup d'état , and others. Nicaragua suffered the most, with the Nicaraguan Revolution seeing major military aid from both great powers to their favored factions that extended a civil war in the country for decades. Mexico escaped this unrest, although functioned largely as a one-party state dominated by the PRI . Argentina had a succession of idiosyncratic governments that courted both
8869-695: The Bretton Woods system , a set of practices that governed world trade and currencies from 1945–1971, as well as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Western Europe also established the European Economic Community in 1957 to ease customs and aid international trade. In general, vast quality of life improvements affected most every corner of the globe during this period, in both
9050-472: The Confucian Classics . More annals-biography histories were written in subsequent dynasties, eventually bringing the number to between twenty-four and twenty-six, but none ever reached the popularity and impact of the first four. Traditional Chinese historiography describes history in terms of dynastic cycles . In this view, each new dynasty is founded by a morally righteous founder. Over time,
9231-569: The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1963, generally considered one of the incidents most dangerously close to turning the Cold War into a direct military conflict. The 1968 Peruvian coup d'état and also installed a Soviet-friendly government. Despite this, the region ultimately leaned toward the US in this period, with the CIA supporting American-friendly factions in the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état ,
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#17327648983489412-660: The Czech Republic was one of the most stridently irreligious , with only 15% of its population espousing any religious beliefs at all by 2011. In the Islamic world , a notable trend has been the spread of international schools of thought into regions where belief was previously localized, such as the International propagation of Salafism and Wahhabism funded by the government of Saudi Arabia . While regional Islamic groups remain strong, they are more contested than in
9593-584: The Eastern Bloc , led by the Soviet Union . The confrontation spurred fears of a nuclear war . An all-out "hot" war was avoided, but both sides intervened in the internal politics of smaller nations in their bid for global influence and via proxy wars . The Cold War ultimately ended with the Revolutions of 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The latter stages and aftermath of
9774-695: The Ethiopian Orthodox Church , the reigns of Iyasu II (r. 1730–1755) and Iyoas I (r. 1755–1769) were the first to be included in larger general dynastic histories. During the Renaissance , history was written about states or nations. The study of history changed during the Enlightenment and Romanticism . Voltaire described the history of certain ages that he considered important, rather than describing events in chronological order. History became an independent discipline. It
9955-775: The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan to depose the Taliban , who had harbored al-Qaeda terrorists. The War in Afghanistan began in late 2001 and was launched by the UN-authorized ISAF , with the United States and United Kingdom providing most of the troops. The Bush administration policy and the Bush Doctrine stated forces would not distinguish between terrorist organizations and nations or governments that harbor them. Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)
10136-619: The Jugurthine War . Livy (59 BC – 17 AD) records the rise of Rome from city-state to empire . His speculation about what would have happened if Alexander the Great had marched against Rome represents the first known instance of alternate history . Biography, although popular throughout antiquity, was introduced as a branch of history by the works of Plutarch ( c. 45 – 125 AD) and Suetonius ( c. 69 – after 130 AD) who described
10317-521: The Laguna Copperplate Inscription and Butuan Ivory Seal . The discovery of the Butuan Ivory Seal also proves the use of paper documents in ancient Philippines. After the Spanish conquest, pre-colonial Filipino manuscripts and documents were gathered and burned to eliminate pagan beliefs. This has been the burden of historians in the accumulation of data and the development of theories that gave historians many aspects of Philippine history that were left unexplained. The interplay of pre-colonial events and
10498-420: The Middle Ages . They wrote about the history of Jesus Christ, that of the Church and that of their patrons, the dynastic history of the local rulers. In the Early Middle Ages historical writing often took the form of annals or chronicles recording events year by year, but this style tended to hamper the analysis of events and causes. An example of this type of writing is the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , which
10679-409: The Six-Day War in 1967 and the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Under Anwar Sadat and later Hosni Mubarak , Egypt switched from Nasserism to favoring the Western Bloc, and signed a peace treaty with Israel. Lebanon, once among the most prosperous countries in the region and a cultural center, collapsed into the decade-long Lebanese Civil War from 1975–1990. Iran's unpopular pro-American government
10860-488: The Suez Crisis in 1956, briefly unify with Syria as the United Arab Republic (UAR) from 1958 to 1961, and expensively intervene in the North Yemen civil war from 1962 to 1970. Decolonization was the most important development across Southeast Asia and Africa from 1946–1975, as the old British, French, Dutch, and Portuguese colonial empires were dismantled. Many new states were given their independence, but soon found themselves having to choose between allying with
11041-427: The Warring States period (403 BC) to the end of the Five Dynasties period (959) in chronological annals form, rather than in the traditional annals-biography form. This work is considered much more accessible than the "Official Histories" for the Six dynasties , Tang dynasty , and Five Dynasties , and in practice superseded those works in the mind of the general reader. The great Song Neo-Confucian Zhu Xi found
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#173276489834811222-423: The Warsaw Pact , and usually the People's Republic of China . The name "Western Bloc" emerged in response to and as the antithesis of its Communist counterpart, the Eastern Bloc . Throughout the Cold War, the governments and the Western media were more inclined to refer to themselves as the " Free World " or the "First World", whereas the Eastern bloc was often referred to as the "Communist World" or less commonly
11403-451: The magnetophon , meant that a musical act could have their song be played over the radio everywhere without loss of sound quality, creating international superstars such as Elvis Presley and The Beatles . The spread of home television sets allowed people across the globe to easily watch the same show, rather than requiring viewers to attend a local theater. Hollywood in California produced films that dominated cinema; while intended for
11584-462: The medieval Islamic world also developed an interest in world history. Islamic historical writing eventually culminated in the works of the Arab Muslim historian Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406), who published his historiographical studies in the Muqaddimah (translated as Prolegomena ) and Kitab al-I'bar ( Book of Advice ). His work was forgotten until it was rediscovered in the late 19th century. The earliest works of history produced in Japan were
11765-619: The natural environment and human life are, at least in part, already being attributed to global warming. A 2001 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggests that glacier retreat , ice shelf disruption such as that of the Larsen Ice Shelf , sea level rise , changes in rainfall patterns, and increased intensity and frequency of extreme weather events are attributable in part to global warming. Other expected effects include water scarcity in some regions and increased precipitation in others, changes in mountain snowpack, and adverse health effects from warmer temperatures. It
11946-414: The post-war economic boom . Japan and West Germany both emerged as exceptionally strong economies. The culture of the United States spread widely, with American television and movies spreading across the world. Some Western countries began a slow process of deindustrializing in the 1970s; globalization led to the emergence of new financial and industrial centers in Asia. The Japanese economic miracle
12127-424: The pre-Columbian Americas , of early Islam , and of China —and different approaches to the work and the genres of history, such as political history and social history . Beginning in the nineteenth century, the development of academic history produced a great corpus of historiographic literature. The extent to which historians are influenced by their own groups and loyalties—such as to their nation state —remains
12308-466: The price of oil started to go up in the 1970s, as the easiest and most accessible wells had already been pumped dry in the preceding century, and oil is a non-renewable resource. Attention was drawn to the abundant oil in the Middle East, where countries in OPEC controlled substantial untapped oil reserves. Political tensions over the Yom Kippur War and the Iranian Revolution led to the 1973 oil crisis and 1979 oil crisis . The Soviet Union called it
12489-629: The wider Greek world , a development which would be an important influence on the writing of history elsewhere around the Mediterranean region. The tradition of logography in Archaic Greece preceded the full narrative form of historiography, in which logographers such as Hecataeus of Miletus provided prose compilations about places in geography and peoples in an early form of cultural anthropology , as well as speeches used in courts of law . The earliest known fully narrative critical historical works were The Histories , composed by Herodotus of Halicarnassus (484–425 BC) who became known as
12670-449: The " Era of Stagnation ". The 1970s and 80s also saw the rise of the Four Asian Tigers , as South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong emulated the Japanese route to prosperity with varying degree of success. In China, the leftist Gang of Four were overthrown in 1976, and Deng Xiaoping pursued a policy of tentatively opening the Chinese economy to capitalist innovations throughout the 1980s, which would be continued by his successors in
12851-444: The " science of biography ", " science of hadith " and " Isnad " (chain of transmission). These methodologies were later applied to other historical figures in the Islamic civilization . Famous historians in this tradition include Urwah (d. 712), Wahb ibn Munabbih (d. 728), Ibn Ishaq (d. 761), al-Waqidi (745–822), Ibn Hisham (d. 834), Muhammad al-Bukhari (810–870) and Ibn Hajar (1372–1449). Historians of
13032-440: The "father of history". Herodotus attempted to distinguish between more and less reliable accounts, and personally conducted research by travelling extensively, giving written accounts of various Mediterranean cultures. Although Herodotus' overall emphasis lay on the actions and characters of men, he also attributed an important role to divinity in the determination of historical events. The generation following Herodotus witnessed
13213-595: The 18th-century Age of Enlightenment , historiography in the Western world was shaped and developed by figures such as Voltaire , David Hume , and Edward Gibbon , who among others set the foundations for the modern discipline. In the 19th century, historical studies became professionalized at universities and research centers along with a belief that history was like a science. In the 20th century, historians incorporated social science dimensions like politics, economy, and culture in their historiography. The research interests of historians change over time, and there has been
13394-516: The 1950s proved overly optimistic, however. Atomic energy grew to be a large part of several nations energy generation strategies, especially nuclear power in France . Nuclear power continues to be controversial. Concerns include its association with nuclear weapons , financial cost , disposal of radioactive nuclear waste , and fears of safety from reactor meltdowns , especially after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster . An anti-nuclear movement arose that
13575-597: The 1970s and 80s, the US took a new approach with the Space Shuttle program , hoping to reduce the cost of launches by creating a re-usable Space Shuttle. The first fully functional Space Shuttle orbiter was Columbia (designated OV-102), launched into low Earth orbit in April 1981. In 1996, Shuttle mission STS-75 conducted research in space with the electrodynamic tether generator and other tether configurations. The program suffered from two incidents that destroyed
13756-521: The 1990s. China's economy, tiny in 1976, would see tremendous growth, and eventually take the spot as second largest economy from Japan in 2010. Among Western economies, the collapse of the Bretton Woods system was replaced by a more flexible era of floating exchange rates. The Group of Seven (G7) first met in 1975 and become one of the main international forums that regulated international trade among developed country . The Soviet Union implemented
13937-642: The Bible in Christianity is reflected in the preference of Christian historians for written sources, compared to the classical historians' preference for oral sources and is also reflected in the inclusion of politically unimportant people. Christian historians also focused on development of religion and society. This can be seen in the extensive inclusion of written sources in the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius of Caesarea around 324 and in
14118-756: The Cold War both the Polish People's Republic and the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic endorsed state atheism . However, after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989–1990, the people of these bordering states had radically different cultural attitudes toward religion; Poland was one of the more religious states in Europe, with 96% of its population espousing a belief in Catholic Christianity in 2011, while
14299-584: The Cold War enabled the democratization of much of Europe, Africa, and Latin America. Decolonization was another important trend in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa as new states gained independence from European colonial empires during the period from 1945–1975. The Middle East also saw a conflict involving the new state of Israel , the rise of petroleum politics , the continuing prominence but later decline of Arab nationalism , and
14480-779: The English People . Outside of Europe and West Asia, Christian historiography also existed in Africa. For instance, Augustine of Hippo , the Berber theologian and bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia ( Roman North Africa ), wrote a multiple volume autobiography called Confessions between 397 and 400 AD. While earlier pagan rulers of the Kingdom of Aksum produced autobiographical style epigraphic texts in locations spanning Ethiopia , Eritrea , and Sudan and in either Greek or
14661-527: The European Union with the signing of the Maastricht Treaty in 1993, which integrated Europe across borders to a new degree. International coalitions continued to have a role; the Gulf War saw a large international coalition undo Baathist Iraq's annexation of Kuwait, but other "police" style actions were less successful. Somalia and Afghanistan descended into long, bloody civil wars for almost
14842-789: The Grand Historian and Book of Han were eventually joined by the Book of the Later Han (AD 488) (replacing the earlier, and now only partially extant, Han Records from the Eastern Pavilion) and the Records of the Three Kingdoms (AD 297) to form the "Four Histories". These became mandatory reading for the Imperial Examinations and have therefore exerted an influence on Chinese culture comparable to
15023-887: The Internet, beginning the Information Age . In 1945, the Allies of World War II had defeated all significant opposition to them. They established the United Nations to govern international relations and disputes. A looming question was how to handle the defeated Axis nations and the shattered nations that the Axis had conquered. Following the Yalta Conference , territory was divided into zones for which Allied country would have responsibility and manage rebuilding. While these zones were theoretically temporary (such as
15204-619: The Iraqi Government. Despite government assumptions that the war in Iraq would be over with the fall of Hussein, it continued and intensified. Sectarian groups both fought each other and the occupying coalition forces via asymmetric warfare during the Iraqi insurgency , as Iraq was starkly divided between Sunni, Shia, and Kurdish groups that now competed with each other for power. Al-Qaeda operations in Iraq continued as well. In late 2008,
15385-728: The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity , the most elaborate Martian exploration vehicle to date, landed on Mars. After the WMAP observations of the cosmic microwave background , information was released in 2011 of the work done by the Planck Surveyor , estimating the Age of the universe to 13.8 billion years old (a 100 million years older than previously thought). Another technological advancement came in 2012 with European physicists statistically demonstrating
15566-689: The Mirror to be overly long for the average reader, as well as too morally nihilist, and therefore prepared a didactic summary of it called the Zizhi Tongjian Gangmu (Digest of the Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Government), posthumously published in 1219. It reduced the original's 249 chapters to just 59, and for the rest of imperial Chinese history would be the first history book most people ever read. Historiography of
15747-670: The Philippines refers to the studies, sources, critical methods and interpretations used by scholars to study the history of the Philippines . It includes historical and archival research and writing on the history of the Philippine archipelago including the islands of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The Philippine archipelago was part of many empires before the Spanish Empire arrived in the 16th century. Southeast Asia
15928-406: The Roman Empire [and] was immediately dominated both by the story and the style. ... I devoured Gibbon. I rode triumphantly through it from end to end and enjoyed it all." Gibbon was pivotal in the secularizing and 'desanctifying' of history, remarking, for example, on the "want of truth and common sense" of biographies composed by Saint Jerome . Unusually for an 18th-century historian, Gibbon
16109-472: The Russian Federation, the largest and most important state of the USSR; the beneficiaries of the turbulent period were often called the " Russian oligarchs ". In the beginning of the 2000s, there was a global rise in prices in commodities and housing, marking an end to the 2000s commodities boom . The US mortgage-backed securities, which had risks that were hard to assess, were marketed around
16290-489: The September 11 attacks include the 2002 Bali bombings , the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis , the 2003 Istanbul bombings , the 2004 Madrid train bombings , the 2004 Beslan school siege , the 2005 London bombings , the 2005 Delhi bombings , and the 2008 Mumbai attacks , generally from Islamic terrorism . The United States responded to the 11 September 2001 attacks by launching a "Global War on Terrorism", invading
16471-515: The Soviet Union, after which followed the 1948 Arab–Israeli War . Egypt's weak and ineffective king Farouk was overthrown in the 1952 Egyptian revolution , and replaced by General Nasser ; the 1953 Iran coup saw the American-friendly shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi remove the democratic constraints on his government and take power directly; and Iraq's Western-friendly monarchy was overthrown in 1958 . Nasser's Egypt would go on to face
16652-560: The Soviet defense budget to the American one strain limited resources. The Pan-European Picnic in 1989 then set in motion a peaceful chain reaction with the subsequent fall of the Berlin Wall . The Revolutions of 1989 saw many countries of Eastern Europe throw off their communist governments, and the USSR declined to invade to re-establish them. East and West Germany were reunified . Client state status for many states ended, as there
16833-581: The Soviets deteriorated in the 1960s and 70s, resulting in the Sino-Soviet split , although the two were able to cooperate on some matters. " Ping-pong diplomacy " led to a rapprochement between the US and China and American recognition of the Chinese communist government in the 1970s. China's pro-democracy movement was suppressed after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests , and China's government survived
17014-518: The U.S. and Iraqi governments approved a Status of Forces Agreement effective through to the end of 2011. The Obama administration re-focused US involvement in the conflict on the withdrawal of its troops from Iraq and a surge of troops and government support in Afghanistan. In May 2011, the bin Laden raid occurred after bin Laden was tracked to his compound in Abbottabad , Pakistan. In 2011,
17195-580: The US and USSR, but generally mismanaged the economy. The Middle East saw events that presaged later conflicts in the 70s and 80s. A few years after the end of the UAR's union between Egypt and Syria, Syria's government was overthrown in the 1966 Syrian coup d'état and replaced with the Neo-Baathist Party, eventually leading to the leadership of the Al-Assad family . Israel and its neighbors fought
17376-508: The United States and the United States dollar took a pivotal role in the world economy , displacing the UK. The era is sometimes called " Pax Americana " for the relative liberal peace in the Western world, resulting from the preponderance of power enjoyed by the US, as a comparison to the Pax Romana established at the height of the Roman Empire. New York's financial sector (" Wall Street ") was
17557-512: The United States declared a formal end to the Iraq War . In February 2020, President Donald Trump agreed with the Taliban to withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan over the next year. The Biden administration delayed the withdrawal by a few months, but still largely kept to the deal; the coalition-supported Afghan government soon collapsed, and the Taliban took undisputed control of
17738-518: The United States in 2007, was sparked by the outbreak of the 2007–2008 financial crisis . The modern financial crisis was linked to earlier lending practices by financial institutions and the trend of securitization of American real estate mortgages. The Great Recession spread to much of the developed country , and has caused a pronounced deceleration of economic activity. The global recession occurred in an economic environment characterized by various imbalances. This global recession has resulted in
17919-799: The Western Bloc, Eastern Bloc, or attempting to stay neutral as a member of the Non-Aligned Movement . British India was granted independence in 1947 without an outright war of independence being required. It was partitioned into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan ( West Pakistan and East Pakistan , future Pakistan and Bangladesh ); Indo-Pakistani wars were fought in 1947, 1965, and 1971. Sukarno took control of an independent Indonesia in 1950, as attempts to reinstate Dutch rule in 1945–1949 had largely failed, and took an independent-to-Eastern leaning stance. He would later be overthrown by Suharto in 1968, who took
18100-401: The Western and Eastern spheres. France called them Les Trente Glorieuses ("The Glorious Thirty [Years]"). Despite being largely destroyed in the war, West Germany soon bounced back to being an economic powerhouse by the 1950s with the wirtschaftswunder . Surprisingly, Japan followed Germany, achieving incredible economic growth and becoming the second largest economy in the world in 1968,
18281-440: The arts and sciences. He was the first scholar to make a serious attempt to write the history of the world, eliminating theological frameworks, and emphasizing economics, culture and political history. Although he repeatedly warned against political bias on the part of the historian, he did not miss many opportunities to expose the intolerance and frauds of the church over the ages. Voltaire advised scholars that anything contradicting
18462-418: The authenticity of the text has varied throughout the centuries, and it was rediscovered too late to gain the same status as the Spring and Autumn Annals . Sima's Shiji ( Records of the Grand Historian ), initiated by his father the court astronomer Sima Tan (165–110 BC), pioneered the "Annals-biography" format, which would become the standard for prestige history writing in China. In this genre
18643-461: The bloc, it included many other countries, in the broader Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East , Latin America , and Africa with histories of anti-Soviet , anti-communist and, in some cases anti-socialist , ideologies and policies. As such, the bloc was opposed to the political systems and foreign policies of communist countries, which were centered on the Soviet Union , other members of
18824-750: The book Shiji ( Records of the Grand Historian ), in the time of the Han Empire in Ancient China . During the Middle Ages , medieval historiography included the works of chronicles in medieval Europe , the Ethiopian Empire in the Horn of Africa , Islamic histories by Muslim historians , and the Korean and Japanese historical writings based on the existing Chinese model. During
19005-441: The center of the financial world from 1945–1970 in a dominant way unlikely to be seen again. Unlike the aftermath of World War I, the US strongly aided in the rebuilding of Europe, including aid to the defeated Axis nations, rather than punishment. The Marshall Plan sent billions of dollars of aid to Western Europe to ensure its stability and ward off a potential economic downturn. The 1944 Bretton Woods Conference established
19186-422: The coal industry. Natural gas has grown in its proportion of the market, especially as Liquefied natural gas (LNG) has enabled it to be transported over longer distances than was previously feasible. An entirely new form of energy creation dawned in the 1950s and 1960s: nuclear power for peaceful purposes and the construction of nuclear power plants . Hopes that atomic energy would be " too cheap to meter " in
19367-568: The contemporary era has seen a rise in English as a lingua franca , where people across the world learn the English language as a second language . This has been both to facilitate international communication, especially in places tied to international trade or tourism, as well as to better consume widespread English-language media. This is tied to increased Americanization , as American culture has grown increasingly influential and widespread. To
19548-466: The contemporary era. Wind energy , while used on a small scale for centuries, has seen growth with large distributed groups of windmills used to produce energy for the grid. Solar power has also grown in prominence, with around 4% of the world's overall energy production in 2021 (compared to a much smaller slice before). While these energy sources are considered to be much less environmentally impactful than fossil fuels , concerns have been raised over
19729-670: The country in August 2021 after the successful 2021 Taliban offensive . The Arab Spring began in earnest in 2010 with anti-government protests in the Muslim world , but quickly escalated to full-scale military conflicts in countries like Syria , Libya , and Yemen and also gave the opportunity for the emergence of various militant groups including the Islamic State (IS). The IS was able to take advantage of social media platforms including Twitter to recruit foreign fighters from around
19910-788: The creation of states such as First Nigerian Republic in 1963. Portugal, on the other hand, fiercely held onto their Empire, leading to the Portuguese Colonial War from 1961–1974 in Angola, Guinea-Bissau, and Mozambique until the Estado Novo government fell. Meanwhile, apartheid-era South Africa remained fiercely anti-communist, but withdrew from the British Commonwealth in 1961, and supported various pro-colonial factions across Africa that had lost support from their "home" governments in Europe. Many of
20091-663: The deeds and characters of ancient personalities, stressing their human side. Tacitus ( c. 56 – c. 117 AD) denounces Roman immorality by praising German virtues, elaborating on the topos of the Noble savage . Tacitus' focus on personal character can also be viewed as pioneering work in psychohistory . Although rooted in Greek historiography, in some ways Roman historiography shared traits with Chinese historiography , lacking speculative theories and instead relying on annalistic forms, revering ancestors , and imparting moral lessons for their audiences, laying
20272-411: The demands of critical method, and even, after a time, the goal of writing "scientific" history. Thomas Carlyle published his three-volume The French Revolution: A History , in 1837. The first volume was accidentally burned by John Stuart Mill 's maid. Carlyle rewrote it from scratch. Carlyle's style of historical writing stressed the immediacy of action, often using the present tense. He emphasised
20453-539: The departments of history at British universities, 1,644 (29 percent) identified themselves with social history and 1,425 (25 percent) identified themselves with political history. Since the 1980s there has been a special interest in the memories and commemoration of past events—the histories as remembered and presented for popular celebration. In the early modern period , the term historiography meant "the writing of history", and historiographer meant " historian ". In that sense certain official historians were given
20634-509: The development of historiography during the Age of Enlightenment through his demonstration of fresh new ways to look at the past. Guillaume de Syon argues: Voltaire recast historiography in both factual and analytical terms. Not only did he reject traditional biographies and accounts that claim the work of supernatural forces, but he went so far as to suggest that earlier historiography was rife with falsified evidence and required new investigations at
20815-575: The development optimistically; it was thought the world was steadily progressing toward free, liberal democracies. South Africa, no longer able to attract Western support by claiming to be anti-communist, ended apartheid in the early 1990s, and many Eastern European countries switched to stable democracies. While some Americans had anticipated a "peace dividend" from budget cuts to the Defense Department, these cuts were not as large as some had hoped. The European Economic Community evolved into
20996-525: The dynasty becomes morally corrupt and dissolute. Eventually, the dynasty becomes so weak as to allow its replacement by a new dynasty. Christian historical writing arguably begins with the narrative sections of the New Testament, particularly Luke-Acts , which is the primary source for the Apostolic Age , though its historical reliability is disputed . The first tentative beginnings of
21177-401: The early 21st century as a popular social communication, largely replacing much of the function of email, message boards and instant messaging services. Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are all major examples of social websites that gained widespread popularity. The information distribution continued into the early 21st century with mobile interaction and Internet access growing massively in
21358-461: The early 21st century. By the 2010s, a majority of people in the developed world had Internet access and a majority of people worldwide had a mobile phone. Marking the rise of mobile computing , worldwide sales of personal computers fall 14% during the first quarter of 2013. The Semantic Web (dubbed, "Web 3.0") begins the inclusion of semantic content in web pages, converting the current web dominated by unstructured and semi-structured documents into
21539-562: The ease in enabling like-minded people to collaborate at long-distance, even if the digital utopianism of the 1990s is less common. Pessimistic assessments worry about the effects on children such as enabling cyberbullying ; filter bubbles where Internet users are not challenged by outsider views; " cancel culture " where people are pilloried online but sometimes disproportionately; and slacktivism as an appealing but ineffective replacement for older forms of community work. The growing world population and rising standards of living has caused
21720-590: The entirety of the decade ( Somali Civil War , Afghan Civil War (1992–1996) , Afghan Civil War (1996–2001) ). Russia fought a brutal war in Chechnya that failed to suppress the insurgency there from 1994–1996; war would resume during the Second Chechen War in 1999–2000 that saw a resumption of Russian control after Russia successfully convinced enough rebels to join their cause with promises of autonomy. The breakup of Yugoslavia also led to
21901-623: The eventual Republic of Vietnam were created. The division of Indochina eventually led to the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 70s (as well as the Laotian Civil War and Cambodian Civil War ), which ended in communist North Vietnam took over Sai Gon in 1975. In Africa, France fought the grinding Algerian War from 1954–1962 that saw the end of French Algeria and the rise of a new independent Algeria . The British and French both slowly released their vast holdings, leading to
22082-509: The eventual fate of occupied Austria , which was released to independence as a neutral country), growing tensions between the Western Bloc , led by the United States, with the Eastern Bloc , led by the Soviet Union , meant that many calcified into place. Countries in Soviet zones of Eastern Europe had communist regimes installed as satellite states . The Berlin Blockade of 1948 led to a Western Airlift to preserve West Berlin and signified
22263-533: The existence of the Higgs boson . Climate change and global warming reflects the notion of the modern climate . The changes of climate over the past century, have been attributed to various factors which have resulted in a global warming. This warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century and its projected continuation. Some effects on both
22444-595: The expansion of the Russo-Ukrainian War to the full-fledged Russian invasion of Ukraine where Russia declared their intent to depose the Ukrainian government and install a compliant, Russia-friendly government. The Russian government has often cited the enlargement of NATO as a major complaint . The end of World War II in 1945 saw an increase in international trade and an interconnected system of treaties and agreements to ease its flow. In particular,
22625-477: The first comprehensive work on historical criticism , arguing that historians should be skeptical of primary sources, rely on systematically gathered evidence, and should not treat previous scholars with undue deference. In 1084 the Song dynasty official Sima Guang completed the Zizhi Tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Government), which laid out the entire history of China from the beginning of
22806-582: The groundwork for medieval Christian historiography . The Han dynasty eunuch Sima Qian (145–86 BC) was the first in China to lay the groundwork for professional historical writing . His work superseded the older style of the Spring and Autumn Annals , compiled in the 5th century BC, the Bamboo Annals , the Classic of History , and other court and dynastic annals that recorded history in
22987-402: The growth of Islamism . The first supranational organizations of government, such as the United Nations and European Union, emerged during the period after 1945. Countercultures rose and the sexual revolution transformed social relations in western countries between the 1960s and 1980s, as seen in the protests of 1968 . Living standards rose sharply across the developed world because of
23168-549: The growth of a capitalist private sector in China. In Russia, President Boris Yeltsin pursued a policy of privatization, spinning off former government agencies into private corporations, attempting to handle budget problems inherited from the USSR. The end of Soviet foreign aid caused a variety of changes in countries previously part of the Eastern Bloc; many officially became democratic republics, though some were more accurately described as authoritarian or oligarchic republics and one-party states . Many Western commentators treated
23349-407: The height of ancient political agitation. The now lost history of Alexander's campaigns by the diadoch Ptolemy I (367–283 BC) may represent the first historical work composed by a ruler. Polybius ( c. 203 – 120 BC) wrote on the rise of the Roman Republic to world prominence, and attempted to harmonize the Greek and Roman points of view. Diodorus Siculus composed
23530-472: The history of Kings, Parliaments, and armies, he examined the history of culture, including literature and science, as well. His short biographies of leading scientists explored the process of scientific change and he developed new ways of seeing scientists in the context of their times by looking at how they interacted with society and each other—he paid special attention to Francis Bacon , Robert Boyle , Isaac Newton and William Harvey . He also argued that
23711-480: The history of ordinary French people and the landscape of France. Hippolyte Taine (1828–1893), although unable to secure an academic position, was the chief theoretical influence of French naturalism , a major proponent of sociological positivism , and one of the first practitioners of historicist criticism. He pioneered the idea of "the milieu" as an active historical force which amalgamated geographical, psychological, and social factors. Historical writing for him
23892-577: The late 1980s and early 1990s, and has been used up to the present with the availability of the Internet. During the late 1990s, both Internet directories and search engines were popular— Yahoo! and Altavista (both founded 1995) were the respective industry leaders. By late 2001, the directory model had begun to give way to search engines, tracking the rise of Google (founded 1998), which had developed new approaches to relevancy ranking . Directory features, while still commonly available, became after-thoughts to search engines. Database size, which had been
24073-404: The lists of winners in the Olympic Games that provided the basic chronological framework as long as the pagan classical tradition lasted, and Hellanicus of Lesbos , who compiled more than two dozen histories from civic records, all of them now lost. Thucydides largely eliminated divine causality in his account of the war between Athens and Sparta, establishing a rationalistic element which set
24254-434: The lucrative American market, these films spread across the globe, backed by their large budgets and the cinematic expertise gathered there. The rise of the Internet in the 1990s allowed both for an ever further spread of the most popular and dominant works, but the comparatively cheap cost of publishing there, whether as a personal website, blog, or YouTube video, also allowed specific niche subcultures to connect and thrive in
24435-459: The native Ge'ez script , the 4th century AD Ezana Stone commemorating Ezana of Axum 's conquest of the Kingdom of Kush in Nubia also emphasized his conversion to Christianity (the first indigenous African head of state to do so). Aksumite manuscripts from the 5th to 7th centuries AD chronicling the dioceses and episcopal sees of the Coptic Orthodox Church demonstrate not only an adherence to Christian chronology but also influences from
24616-453: The neutral and detached tone of the tradition of Gibbon. Carlyle presented the history as dramatic events unfolding in the present as though he and the reader were participants on the streets of Paris at the famous events. Carlyle's invented style was epic poetry combined with philosophical treatise. It is rarely read or cited in the last century. In his main work Histoire de France (1855), French historian Jules Michelet (1798–1874) coined
24797-409: The new government, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan , whose grasp on power outside the major cities was shaky at best. The war was also less successful in restricting al-Qaeda than anticipated. The Iraq War began in March 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by a multinational force . The invasion of Iraq led to an occupation and the eventual capture of Saddam Hussein , who was later executed by
24978-506: The newly independent African governments struggled with the balance between being too weak and overthrown by ambitious coup-plotters, and too strong and becoming dictatorships. Latin America saw gradual economic growth but also instability in many countries, as the threat of coups and military regimes ( juntas ) were a major threat. The most famous was the Cuban Revolution that overthrew Fulgencio Batista 's American-friendly government for Fidel Castro 's Soviet-aligned government. This led to
25159-432: The non-Christian Kingdom of Kush, the Ptolemaic dynasty of Hellenistic Egypt , and the Yemenite Jews of the Himyarite Kingdom . The tradition of Ethiopian historiography evolved into a matured form during the Solomonic dynasty . Though works such as the 13th century Kebra Nagast blended Christian mythology with historical events in its narrative, the first proper biographical chronicle on an Emperor of Ethiopia
25340-725: The normal course of nature was not to be believed. Although he found evil in the historical record, he fervently believed reason and educating the illiterate masses would lead to progress. Voltaire's History of Charles XII (1731) about the Swedish warrior king ( Swedish : Karl XII) is also one of his most famous works. It is not least known as one of Napoleon's absolute favorite books. Voltaire explains his view of historiography in his article on "History" in Diderot's Encyclopédie : "One demands of modern historians more details, better ascertained facts, precise dates, more attention to customs, laws, mores, commerce, finance, agriculture, population." Already in 1739 he had written: "My chief object
25521-498: The other side's faction occurred. An arms race to develop and build nuclear weapons happened as policymakers wanted to ensure their side had more if it came to a war. In East Asia, Chiang Kai-shek 's Republic of China was overthrown in the Chinese Communist Revolution from 1945–1949. His government retreated to Taiwan , but both the nationalist KMT government and the new communist mainland government under Mao Zedong continued to claim authority over all of China. Korea
25702-400: The past. Another social trend has been the rise of urbanization as a larger proportion of the world's population has moved to live in cities and urban areas, and fewer people live in rural areas. In the United States, as the overall population more than doubled from 1930 to 1990, around a third of its counties saw their population decline by around 27%, suggesting that as rural counties empty,
25883-528: The quest for liberty was the highest standard for judging the past, and concluded that after considerable fluctuation, England at the time of his writing had achieved "the most entire system of liberty, that was ever known amongst mankind". The apex of Enlightenment history was reached with Edward Gibbon 's monumental six-volume work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire , published on 17 February 1776. Because of its relative objectivity and heavy use of primary sources , its methodology became
26064-435: The range of disease vectors . Until 2009, the Arctic Northwest Passage pack ice prevented regular marine shipping throughout most of the year in this area, but climate change has reduced the pack ice, and this Arctic shrinkage made the waterways more navigable. Historiography Historiography is the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension,
26245-423: The rivalries of the Cold War, with both the United States space program ( NASA ) and the Soviet space program launching satellites , probes, and planning missions. While the Soviets put the first human into space with Yuri Gagarin , the Americans soon caught up, and the US was the first to launch a successful Moon landing mission with Apollo 11 in 1969, followed by five more landings in the next few years. In
26426-427: The role of forces of the spirit in history and thought that chaotic events demanded what he called 'heroes' to take control over the competing forces erupting within society. He considered the dynamic forces of history as being the hopes and aspirations of people that took the form of ideas, and were often ossified into ideologies. Carlyle's The French Revolution was written in a highly unorthodox style, far removed from
26607-416: The social effects of cheap and common Internet access. As users gradually switched from personal web pages to blogs to social media, many surprising effects have resulted with both positive and negative assessments. Optimistic assessments often praise the decentralized nature that allows anyone to theoretically gain a platform without the need to convince a publisher or media company to back them, as well as
26788-472: The source. Such an outlook was not unique in that the scientific spirit that 18th-century intellectuals perceived themselves as invested with. A rationalistic approach was key to rewriting history. Voltaire's best-known histories are The Age of Louis XIV (1751), and his Essay on the Customs and the Spirit of the Nations (1756). He broke from the tradition of narrating diplomatic and military events, and emphasized customs, social history and achievements in
26969-400: The southern half of the country, while the northern reaches are controlled by a mixture of Arab Sunni rebels, Kurds, and Turkey. Vladimir Putin , Yeltsin's successor, was very popular in Russia after his victory in the Second Chechen War. He portrayed himself as a corruption fighter initially, checking Russian oligarchs who had acquired vast wealth during Russia's liberalization period. With
27150-400: The subjects it covers. Christian theology considered time as linear, progressing according to divine plan. As God's plan encompassed everyone, Christian histories in this period had a universal approach. For example, Christian writers often included summaries of important historical events prior to the period covered by the work. Writing history was popular among Christian monks and clergy in
27331-418: The tensions that would roil the Soviet-aligned bloc during the 1980s. South Korea (in the June Democratic Struggle ) and Taiwan (with the lifting of martial law ) would take major steps toward liberalization in 1987–1988, shifting from Western-aligned one-party states to more fully participatory democracies. The 1980s saw a general retreat for the communist bloc. The Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989)
27512-504: The term Renaissance (meaning "rebirth" in French ), as a period in Europe's cultural history that represented a break from the Middle Ages, creating a modern understanding of humanity and its place in the world. The 19-volume work covered French history from Charlemagne to the outbreak of the French Revolution . His inquiry into manuscript and printed authorities was most laborious, but his lively imagination, and his strong religious and political prejudices, made him regard all things from
27693-399: The term historiography is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians have studied that topic by using particular sources, techniques of research, and theoretical approaches to the interpretation of documentary sources. Scholars discuss historiography by topic—such as the historiography of the United Kingdom , of WWII , of
27874-433: The term "historiography" is taken to refer to written history recorded in a narrative format for the purpose of informing future generations about events. In this limited sense, " ancient history " begins with the written history of early historiography in Classical Antiquity , established in 5th century BC Classical Greece . The earliest known systematic historical thought and methodologies emerged in ancient Greece and
28055-447: The times. According to 20th-century historian Richard Hofstadter: The historians of the nineteenth century worked under the pressure of two internal tensions: on one side there was the constant demand of society—whether through the nationstate, the church, or some special group or class interest—for memory mixed with myth, for the historical tale that would strengthen group loyalties or confirm national pride; and against this there were
28236-441: The title " Historiographer Royal " in Sweden (from 1618), England (from 1660), and Scotland (from 1681). The Scottish post is still in existence. Historiography was more recently defined as "the study of the way history has been and is written—the history of historical writing", which means that, "When you study 'historiography' you do not study the events of the past directly, but the changing interpretations of those events in
28417-416: The urban counties are where the vast majority of inhabitants are moving to. In Eastern Africa, the urban population soared from 11 million in 1920 to 77 million in 2010. Many rural Chinese people moved to large coastal cities such as Shenzhen to work in the 1990s and 2000s, leading to a sharp increase of Urbanization in China . Rural parts of Japan have seen stark population declines, especially among
28598-548: The use of secondary sources written by historians to evaluate the primary sources, do not provide a critical examination of the methodology of the early Philippine historical study. During the Age of Enlightenment , the modern development of historiography through the application of scrupulous methods began. Among the many Italians who contributed to this were Leonardo Bruni (c. 1370–1444), Francesco Guicciardini (1483–1540), and Cesare Baronio (1538–1607). French philosophe Voltaire (1694–1778) had an enormous influence on
28779-459: The various rare earth metals used in the production of batteries and solar, which can require destructive mining techniques to gather. The Information Age or Information Era, also commonly known as the Age of the Computer, is an idea that the current age will be characterized by the ability of individuals to transfer information freely, and to have instant access to knowledge that would have been difficult or impossible to find previously. The idea
28960-600: The works of individual historians." Understanding the past appears to be a universal human need, and the "telling of history" has emerged independently in civilizations around the world. What constitutes history is a philosophical question (see philosophy of history ). The earliest chronologies date back to ancient Egypt and Sumerian / Akkadian Mesopotamia , in the form of chronicles and annals . However, most historical writers in these early civilizations were not known by name, and their works usually did not contain narrative structures or detailed analysis. By contrast,
29141-422: The world and a broad based credit boom fed a global speculative bubble in real estate and equities. The financial situation was also affected by a sharp increase in oil and food prices . The collapse of the American housing bubble caused the values of securities tied to real estate pricing to plummet thereafter, damaging financial institutions. The Great Recession , a severe economic recession which began in
29322-526: The world and seized significant portions of territory in Iraq , Syria , Afghanistan , and the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt from 2013 and ongoing. On the other hand, some violent militant organizations were able to negotiate peace with governments including the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the Philippines in 2014. The presence of IS and the stalemate in the Syrian civil war created a migration of refugees to Europe and also galvanized and encouraged high-profile terrorism attacks and armed conflicts around
29503-420: The world, such as the November 2015 Paris attacks and the Siege of Marawi in the Philippines in 2017. In 2014, the United States decided to intervene against the Islamic State in Iraq , with most IS fighters being driven out by the end of 2018. Russia and Iran also jointly launched a campaign against IS and in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad . As of 2022, Assad has largely regained authority in
29684-406: The young, with only the Greater Tokyo area continuing to grow. How to deal with this change is a major issue, as many cities and their transportation networks were not designed to serve the larger populations that now occupy them. A major trend in many industrialized nations was the sexual revolution , an adoption of publicly more tolerant attitudes toward sex and pre-marital sex . " The pill "
29865-441: Was a search for general laws. His brilliant style kept his writing in circulation long after his theoretical approaches were passé. Western Bloc The Western Bloc , also known as the Capitalist Bloc , is an informal, collective term for countries that were officially allied with the United States during the Cold War of 1947–1991. While the NATO member states , in Western Europe and Northern America , were pivotal to
30046-444: Was a special purpose vehicle financed by members of the eurozone to combat the European sovereign debt crisis. In October 2011 eurozone leaders agreed on another package of measures designed to prevent the collapse of member economies. The three most affected countries, Greece, Ireland and Portugal, collectively account for six percent of eurozone's gross domestic product (GDP). In 2012, eurozone finance ministers reached an agreement on
30227-408: Was an important exponent of the Greco-Roman tradition of combining geography with history, presenting a descriptive history of peoples and places known to his era. The Roman historian Sallust (86–35 BC) sought to analyze and document what he viewed as the decline of the Republican Roman state and its virtues, highlighted in his respective narrative accounts of the Catilinarian conspiracy and
30408-426: Was completed in 1145 and relied not only on earlier Chinese histories for source material, but also on the Hwarang Segi written by the Silla historian Kim Daemun in the 8th century. The latter work is now lost. The Shitong , published around 710 by the Tang Chinese historian Liu Zhiji (661–721), was the first work to provide an outline of the entire tradition of Chinese historiography up to that point, and
30589-433: Was divided similarly to Germany, with the Soviet Union occupying the North and the United States occupying the South (future North Korea and South Korea ). Unlike Germany, the conflict there turned hot, as the Korean War erupted from 1950–1953. Korea was not reunified under either government, however, due to strong support from both the US and China for their favored side; it became a frozen conflict instead. Japan
30770-429: Was first approved for use in 1960 in the United States, and spread rapidly around the world. The pill made birth control easier and more reliable than earlier methods. This made sex for pleasure less likely to result in unintended children. It also allowed for easier family planning , where couples could choose more specifically when to have kids compared to earlier eras. Some analysts credit this as one reason behind
30951-418: Was given a new constitution foreswearing aggressive war in 1947, and the American occupation ended in 1952 , although a treaty of mutual aid with the US was soon signed. The US also granted the Philippines their independence in 1946 while keeping close relations. The Middle East became a hotbed of instability. The new Jewish state of Israel declared its independence, recognized by both the United States and
31132-502: Was later followed by the Four Asian Tigers of Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan . China launched major economic reforms from 1979 onward, becoming a major exporter of consumer goods around the world. Science made new advances after 1945, which included spaceflight , nuclear technology , lasers , semiconductors , molecular biology , genetics , particle physics , and the Standard Model of quantum field theory . The first commercial computers were created, followed by
31313-468: Was made for Amda Seyon I (r. 1314–1344), depicted as a Christian savior of his nation in conflicts with the Islamic Ifat Sultanate . The 16th century monk Bahrey was the first in Ethiopia to produce a historical ethnography , focusing on the migrating Oromo people who came into military conflict with the Ethiopian Empire. While royal biographies existed for individual Ethiopian emperors authored by court historians who were also clerical scholars within
31494-424: Was never content with secondhand accounts when the primary sources were accessible (though most of these were drawn from well-known printed editions). He said, "I have always endeavoured to draw from the fountain-head; that my curiosity, as well as a sense of duty, has always urged me to study the originals; and that, if they have sometimes eluded my search, I have carefully marked the secondary evidence, on whose faith
31675-476: Was no conflict left to fund. The Malta Summit on 3 December 1989, the failure of the August Coup by Soviet hardliners, and the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union on 26 December 1991 sealed the end of the Cold War. The end of the Cold War left the United States the world's sole superpower. Communism seemed discredited; while China remained an officially communist state, Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms and socialism with Chinese characteristics allowed for
31856-491: Was not called philosophia historiae anymore, but merely history ( historia ). Muslim historical writings first began to develop in the 7th century, with the reconstruction of the Prophet Muhammad 's life in the centuries following his death. With numerous conflicting narratives regarding Muhammad and his companions from various sources, it was necessary to verify which sources were more reliable. In order to evaluate these sources, various methodologies were developed, such as
32037-476: Was overthrown in the 1979 Iranian Revolution and was replaced by a new Islamic Republic headed by Ruhollah Khomeini . Iran and Baathist Iraq under Saddam Hussein then fought each other in the Iran–Iraq War from 1980–1988, which ended inconclusively. In East Asia, China underwent the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, a major internal struggle that saw an intense program of Maoism and persecution of perceived internal enemies. China's relations with
32218-510: Was skeptical of atomic energy and has discouraged many projects. Nuclear proponents counter that nuclear energy produces no air pollution compared to traditional fossil fuel plants, and can provide a steady supply of energy regardless of external conditions unlike solar and wind energy. With the supply of Russian natural gas disrupted in 2022 , France is looking to reactivate some of its older decommissioned nuclear plants, for example. Various forms of renewable energy have grown in prominence in
32399-506: Was the United States combat operation involving some coalition partners and operating primarily in the eastern and southern parts of the country along the Pakistan border; the ISAF established by the United Nations Security Council was in charge of securing the capital of Kabul and its surrounding areas. NATO assumed control of ISAF in 2003. Despite initial coalition successes, the Taliban were never entirely defeated, and continued to hold territory in mountainous regions as well as threaten
32580-428: Was the work of several different writers: it was started during the reign of Alfred the Great in the late 9th century, but one copy was still being updated in 1154. Some writers in the period did construct a more narrative form of history. These included Gregory of Tours and more successfully Bede , who wrote both secular and ecclesiastical history and who is known for writing the Ecclesiastical History of
32761-433: Was written in Latin , in a conscious effort to counteract Greek cultural influence. It marked the beginning of Latin historical writings . Hailed for its lucid style, Julius Caesar 's (103–44 BC) de Bello Gallico exemplifies autobiographical war coverage. The politician and orator Cicero (106–43 BC) introduced rhetorical elements in his political writings. Strabo (63 BC – c. 24 AD)
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