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3500 BCE
Mesopotamia
This is the earliest civilization and it was located in the fertile crescent. A more specific location would be between the Tigris and Euphrates river. This civilization was the first to have a language. A notable people group that lived here would be the Sumerians. -
Period: 3000 BCE to 30 BCE
Egypt
Egypt was split into three different time periods which were Early, middle, and late kingdom. Egypt was the most traditional focused empire and also the first major empire to ever come to be. They were ruled by Pharos who were also considered gods and led their people to prepare for the afterlife rather than to live so good in the now. They were beyond their years in agriculture for how they used to the Nile to plant their crops and excelled in building massive structures. -
2500 BCE
India
Over the course of about 10 centuries we saw the a river valley culture rise and fall. The notable take away from the India is their caste system which order people in a hierarchal way. There were priests, warriors, merchants, artisans, and laborers. This division helped maintain the society for so long until they finally collapsed. -
1438 BCE
Inca
Like the Aztec people the rulers of the Inca's led by far and believed in human sacrifice. Machu Picchu is their greatest construction feature along with their road systems. -
Period: 624 BCE to 546 BCE
Thales
Thales could be thought to be the first philosopher. Most of the works that are in existence come from Aristotle. He also identified him as the first person to actually dig into the basic principals of life. -
Period: 570 BCE to 495 BCE
Pythagoras
Mathematician who was the founder of the Pythagoreanism movement. His mathematical ideas were so far fetched that they angered people and nobody really believed him while he was alive. His followers kept his ideas going until they were finally accepted. Pythagorean theory. -
530 BCE
Buddhism
Siddhartha Gautama was a wealthy man who decided to go on a journey to experience to understand how one can eliminate the bad things in life. On his journey he stayed with different monks and experienced many terrible things. After he was done he came up with a sort of moral and ethical code to live by to come to a state of Nirvana. This is known as the Noble Eightfold Path. -
Period: 500 BCE to 1500
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages are better known as the medieval times. This period came after Rome fell and was a very uncivilized and barbaric time. Knights and kings were big in this time period. -
Period: 470 BCE to 399 BCE
Socrates
thought tho be the founder of Western or modern philosophy. His ideas were strange, but effective. Rather than putting knowledge out.... he made encouraged people to question every. He was finally accused of corrupting the youth in his area and was put to death. -
Period: 460 BCE to 370 BCE
Democritus
He was a philosopher who believed in joy and cheerfulness in life and he also was a co-founder in the tomtits theory. Side note! he is my favorite philosopher because of how funny he seemed to be in my research on him. -
Period: 460 BCE to 400 BCE
Thucydides
Wrote the history for about 30 years of the war between Sparta and Athens. He differs from Herodotus because Thucydides wrote of history that was happening in the present rather than from stories he heard in detail. -
Period: 428 BCE to 347 BCE
Plato
Possibly the mist known philosopher of the Greek era he was known for his thoughts of a society governed by wisdom and a philosophy king. His teacher/mentor was Socrates and he expanded on most of his works. -
425 BCE
Herodotus
Herodotus is famous for pretty much being the first person to start recording history. He wrote the history about the Greco-Persian wars and was the first writer to ever do so. -
Period: 384 BCE to 322 BCE
Aristotle
Was a very well known Greek philosopher that didn't really focus on one area of human knowledge, but rather contributed to all of them. Her wasn't the most well known in his day because he was overshadowed by Plato. -
221 BCE
China
The first empire of China began building roads and age Great Wall. China was an empire that had plenty of innovation in ideas and in technology of the day. This empire can be thought to have shaped war over the course of history. -
Period: 106 BCE to 43 BCE
Cicero
Wrote many literary works and was a leading lawyer in his day. He was torn between Caesar and Pompey during a political struggle and he chose wrong with Pompey who lost. After that Greek philosophy and rhetoric became big to him and eventually it became to far fetched and he was exiled. -
Period: 100 BCE to 400
Roman Empire
Grew from a small city to the greatest empire in the world. During the Roman Empire there were great advances in military tactics, roads, and water systems to name a few. This empire was looked at as the most dominant empire of it's day and it conquered much of the populated world. It finally fell due to government issues and barbaric people. -
1 CE
Judaism
Based in the laws of Moses this was the religion of the Old Testament peoples and the modern day Jews. They witness to the world about God and do not believe that Jesus was the true Messiah. Followers of this religion believe that they are God's true chosen people. -
1 CE
Communism
Communism was an idea that strove for equality like a socialist society, but it did it in a very bad way. The morals behind communist countries never claimed to be bad, but they always seemed to end in a mass murder or big war. Notable communist countries include Soviet Russia and Germany. -
1 CE
Totalitarianism
This can be described as an extreme version of Communism. But unlike the communist these types of governments are all about power no matter the cost. They don't try and sugar coat it by saying it is for justice. The way Hitler did Germany could be considered Totalitarianism. -
30
Christianity
Once Jesus died and rose from the dead this became a religion. Based on the teaching of Jesus and His death, burial, and resurrection to save us from our sins. Followers of this religion are called Christians and they believe that anyone who believes in Jesus can be forgiven of their sins and go heaven. Their holy book is the Bible. -
Period: 287 to 337
Constantine
His father was part of Rome's Empire and after his father died he fought to take the throne of Western Rome. 12 years later he took over the throne and was emperor of all Rome. His most important decision while emperor was to accepted Christianity and protect them under the law. -
Period: 354 to 430
Augustine
Most famously down for his works City of God and Confessions. After spending most of his younger years using philosophy that was like evil dualism he converted to Christianity. He later went on the be a Bishop in Africa where he was born and his theological ideas are still battled over today. -
Period: 480 to 524
Boethius
Most famous for taking old philosophy and translating into modern day languages of his time. This helped carry on the tradition of knowing what philosophers have said over time. -
610
Islam
The founder was Muhammad who one day believe he was getting messages from God saying that he was God's new messenger. They must follow the 5 pillars of faith and do things such as pray while facing Mecca at certain times of the day and their holy book is the Quran -
Period: 980 to 1037
Avicenna
He was a complete genius. Most notable works are Book of Healing and Canon of Medicine. He also was a big help in everybody wanting to learn by pushing intellect on everybody. -
Period: 1126 to 1198
Averroës
Made philosophy more relevant in the Muslim world. -
Period: 1167 to 1405
Mongol Empires
For these short 300 years the Mongolian people created the words largest empire. They did so by using barbaric methods with horsemen who would tear through anything in their paths. Genghis Khan is the most famous Emperor. -
Period: 1225 to 1274
Aquinas
A Roman Catholic who decided that theology and reason needed to be combined. His most notable work is Summa Theologica -
Period: 1254 to 1324
Marco Polo
He was an adventurer that got on the good side of the Mongol Empire. After deciding to head back to Europe he was robbed from almost everything he owned. -
Period: 1265 to 1321
Dante
Dante's inferno has become a timeless classic piece of literature. He gave everybody a picture they clued put in their heads about hell, purgatory, and heaven. He also had great artwork in this book. He is famous for this because of all the controversy that came with it. -
Period: 1300 to
Renaissance
Movement that translated into "Rebirth". Art flourished in this time in ways such as literature, performance, and paintings. It was basically a time of revival in the fields of learning. -
1427
Aztec
The leader of the Aztecs ruled people by fear and they are noted for their accurate calendar that they made. -
Period: 1451 to 1506
Columbus
Colombus was thought to be an out there crazy person... which might be true. Nonetheless he led a voyage that found the Americas for the first document time. Fisherman had surely found it before him, but they never claimed anything. Columbus wasn't even looking for the new world, but rather a more direct trade route in the Western world at the time. -
Period: 1452 to 1519
Leonardo da Vinci
Although he didn't make a lot of art or invent a lot of stuff... what he did create seemed to be beyond his time. The Mona Lisa and the Last Supper have become classics. He also dabbled in making flying machines and looked into anatomy. His works helped inventors of future generations tremendously. -
Period: 1463 to 1494
Pico della Mirandol
Lived a short life, but wrote 900 theses and challenged any man to combat them. He wrote the Dignity of Man which is his claim to fame in the history books. -
Period: 1473 to 1543
Copernicus
Created many theories in his lifetime but dropped most of them. He finally became famous later in life for his theories of a rotating earth and a heliocentric earth. He couldn't go far with experimenting these because of the technology of his day. He did however lay the ground work for future scientist to test his theories. -
Period: 1483 to 1546
Martin Luther
Put the theses on the church door making everybody question what they truly believed. A big figure in the Reformation -
Period: 1533 to
Montaigne
French Writer who lived during the time of Henry IV -
Period: 1544 to
Gilbert
Loved magnetism and that finally led to him understanding the magnetic field of the world. This caused him to assure everyone that the world is heliocentric -
Period: 1561 to
Francis Bacon
Was politician who had a sketchy run in office. He wrote plenty of essays and made people think harder than they usually would. he opposed Aristotle and said that everybody should use an inductive method -
Period: 1564 to
Shakespeare
Nothing is known about him/her as an actual person, but whoever they were was brilliant in the world of literary arts! He could make you laugh and cry in the same play all while teaching a major life lesson. His plays focused on the ideas of humanity. -
Period: 1564 to
Galileo
Many think he could be the father of modern science. He didn't invent the telescope, but rather he made great improvements to it. His findings and teaching led many people to become upset with him and he eventually made great enemies among the Catholic Church. -
Period: 1571 to
Kepler
After Tycho Brahe died Kepler was given all of his papers and works. After learning from all of these Kepler became known for developing the three laws of planetary motion. He would have come across
Newton's discoveries before Newton himself did, but he didn't discard Aristotle's works which kept him from doing so. -
Period: to
Descartes
Was a Catholic philosopher who wanted to make theology as important as math and science in their days. He knew the best way to do this was to use the modern day methods. SO he made a mathematical proof on the existence of God. -
Period: to
John Locke
John Locke was a great thinker who influenced a lot of government thoughts to the common man. He also dabbled in the ideas of theology and philosophy. His most notable thought is that the human mind gathers their ideas from actual experiences. -
Period: to
Newton
Great physicists and mathematician who helped in the discovery of things such as optic light and most famously known for the 3 laws of motion. On the math side of things he was a big help in the base of calculus. -
Period: to
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson is most famous for writing the declaration of independence, but he was also the senator of Virginia and after retiring helped create the university of Virginia. -
Period: to
Mozart
Wolfgang Mozart is known as one of the greatest composer in the world of Western music. I chose to write about Mozart specifically in my musical piece of history because he is the only composer to write pieces of musical literature in every genre that was popular in his day. Not only did he write in all of them, but he excelled in all genres as well. -
Period: to
Robespierre
Was a leader of the French Revolution and was thought to have extremely good morals. He ultimately became a leader of the reign of terror and encouraged all of the public executions. -
Period: to
Napoleon
Napoleon was a great military leader for France. He led his military to concur most of Europe during his reign. He was actually not as short as everyone said. After getting greedy and trying to invade Russia in the wrong time of year he began to decline. -
The American Declaration of Independence
People from the original 13 colonies in the New World gathered together to decide what they wanted their new country to look like. So Thomas Jefferson sat down and wrote it out. Everybody there signed it and they sent it to Britain to declare their independence and become their own country. -
The Industrial Revolution
The industrial revolution made cities an ideal place to live and really upped the production of steel. Factories were a huge part of the industrial revolution as work began to get done a lot faster and the production of goods really boosted. -
Electricity
Whether it was Benjamin Franklin getting struck by lightning on purpose or Thomas Eddison and the lightbulb it is hard to pin point a single person to deal with electricity. Overtime many different people knew about electricity and looked for ways to use it in everyday life. Even the Greeks knew about electricity but had no idea what it was or why it came. -
Period: to
Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin was a scientist who came up with the thought of evolution through natural selection. He might just be the greatest influence on natural science as we know it today. His most notable work would be On the Origin Of Species. -
Period: to
Karl Marx
While still in school Marx did not agree with the political state of his country and became a journalist to write all about it. After Germany, France, and Belgium didn't allow him to write publicly anymore he and another German thinker wrote "The Communist Manifesto" -
Period: to
Maxim
Most notable for inventing the machine gun -
Period: to
Sigmund Freud
His work is most notable for him basically being the founder of analyzing people through their mind. He was able to find cures for people by treating them through mental exercises. His ideas were thought to be odd. -
The End of Slavery
The Emancipation Proclamation really did nothing to free the slaves contrary to popular belief. The real end of slavery in North America came a little bit after the Civil War when the country started to rebuild. -
Period: to
The Boer War
The Dutch settlers didn't want to give the British their land so the British general burned everything so that the Dutch couldn't support their African territories. Eventually the British won and claimed South Africa as their own. The Dutch settlers were called Boers. -
Period: to
Alan Turing
Proved that a computer could solve any type of problem while he was still a student! Turing can be said to be the founder of modern computer because these computing machines were called Turing machines. -
Big Bang Theory
Between looking at shifts in the universe radiation that looked like something cooling down in space.... scientist began to argue that a Big Bang happened to create the universe and is constantly expanding. This explains the cooling down stuff in space. -
Atomic Bomb
A weapon of mass destruction that changed how nations would use war tactics for the ret of history and even to this day. Two of thee were dropped on Japan by the United States in an effort to end the second world war. -
DNA
This is a double helix molecule that holds all the genetics for a human. Mendel was on the right track so man years ago to discover DNA, but did not have the proper scientific tools to see something so small. -
Computer
This was made using coding and has changed the way modern day life is used. Possibly the greatest technological advancement to this day.
