Aldous Huxley
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Facts do not
cease to exist
because they
are ignored.
What is periodization?

Periodization is the dividing or categorizing of
time into separate sections
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Why do historians use periodization?
 To distinguish one cluster of interrelated
historical events from another in order to
discover a pattern for change

To identify significant shifts in those patterns in
terms of discontinuities or turning points, which
serve as the start and end of periods
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
To highlight trends or events that appear
dominant or important during a particular span
of time
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But problems emerge:
All systems of periodization are more or less
arbitrary
 Labels are continually challenged and redefined

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How can periodization help explain the J-curve of
explosive population growth on the planet?
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Definition of Periodization:
 A conceptual tool that makes change over
time manageable by identifying big changes
Implied Watersheds:
 Developments or events that occurred in
world history affecting the most people
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Three Overlapping Shifts:
Three overlapping shifts across societies must
occur for a new period of world history to be
identified
 The world map must change significantly
(Cultural, political, or economic boundaries;
migrations)
 New kinds of contacts must be established
among civilizational areas
(New trade patterns, outreach of religions)
 New parallelisms must arise in patterns
displayed by major civilizations
(Example: “The fall of the great empires meets
the requirements. Cultural and political
boundaries shifted in India and the
Mediterranean world. Buddhism, Christianity,
and Islam spread widely. The Islamic world
replaced India as the most expansive
civilization.”)
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Periodization in World History
 8000 BCE-600 CE (Foundations)
Neolithic Revolution, Urban Revolution,
Rise of Civilizations, River Valley
Civilizations and expansionist civilizations
(classical world)

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600 CE-1450CE (Post-classical)
Significant for the spread of the “world
religions” even though some like
Christianity and Buddhism began to spread
before this period while Islam spread
during this period, the political systems
which followed the classical empires - the
Han, Roman, and Gupta Empires - fell at
different times but by the 7th century, postclassical political systems were emerging
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1450-1750 (The Early Modern Period)
The Portuguese began exploring the coast
of Africa in the 15th century and by the end
of century, Europeans had reached both the
Americas and the East Indies. The
intellectual (Renaissance, Scientific
Revolution), social (Protestant
Reformation), economic (Commercial
Revolution), and political (absolutism)
changes in European impacted other
regions. However, changes were occurring
elsewhere in the world that also had global
significance (Ottomans, Safavids, Mughals,
Mings, the cessation of Zheng He’s
explorations, primacy of Moscow over Kiev,
and the end stage of feudalism in Japan).

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1750-1914 (The Modern Era)
The Enlightenment, revolutions in the
Americas, the beginning of the Industrial
Revolution, and a second round of
European imperialism led to a shift in
Europe and the West’s relationship to other
regions

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1914-Present (Contemporary)
The beginning of many “modern” changes
in technology and accelerated global
interactions, the World Wars, the collapse of
European imperialism, the Cold War and its
impact on former colonial regions,
American hegemony
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Themes of World History
 Interaction between humans and the environment
 Demography and disease
 Migration
 Patterns of settlement
 Technology
 Development



Religions
Belief systems, philosophies, and ideologies
Science and technology
The arts and architecture
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
and interaction of cultures
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State-building, expansion, and conflict
 Political structures and forms of governance
 Empires
 Nations and nationalism
 Revolts and revolutions
 Regional, transregional, and global structures and
organizations
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Creation, expansion, and interaction of economic
systems
 Agricultural and pastoral production
 Trade and commerce
 Labor systems
 Industrialization
 Capitalism and socialism

Development and transformation of social structures
 Gender roles and relations
 Family and kinship
 Racial and ethnic constructions
 Social and economic classes
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


Why is the debate on historical dating (BC
versus BCE…AD versus CE) a source of
concern for world historians?
What criteria can historians use to make
distinctions among sections of time?
List the top ten technological developments
prior to the Industrial Revolution.
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
Explain the quote: “Strictly speaking, there
are no periods in history, only in historians’
analyses.”

World historians are very interested in
social class structures. How can social class
structures alter the telling of history?
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
Consider the question posed by Joan Kelly:
“Did women have a Renaissance?” Why is
this question significant for world
historians and how does this question
present a challenge to the notion of
periodization?

Consider this: The three Cs of World
History: Change, Connections, and
Comparison allow for a framework for
analysis for exploring the themes of World
History.
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