A Brief History of the World

The History of the World

By Jon Saul

Part 1: The Beginning

 

Approximately 15 billion years ago, there was a cosmic event that created the reality we know. Sometimes this is referred to as “the Big Bang”, an explosion that scattered energy and matter throughout the universe creating stars. Sol (also known as ‘the sun’) was one of these. About 4.5 billion years ago and at about 90 million miles from this star (our sun), gasses swirled and combined to form a planet – the third planet in a solar system consisting of 9 planets. As comets and asteroids collided with the earth, they brought more matter (minerals and water). At first, this planet (known as ‘the earth’) was composed of liquid rock; then, the molten surface cooled to form a hard surface (crust) as water accumulated in the atmosphere, condensed and formed oceans. There were frequent changes to the earth’s surface due to volcanic activity.Landmasses were formed and, about 3 billion years ago, the process of photosynthesis began. From then on, all types of vegetation sprouted.

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 Life Begins in the Oceans 

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Perhaps some supreme being or universal intelligence (often referred to as ‘God’) had a hand in what happened on this planet and perhaps not. Nevertheless, what transpired was life. As far as we know, in the vastness of being, this is the only place where there is life.

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Two thirds of the surface of this planet is covered with water. Simple living creatures originated in this life-giving substance, as microscopic bacteria and blue-green algae, approximately 600 million years ago. The presence of light and heat from the sun, abundant water, and an atmosphere composed of 79% nitrogen, 22% oxygen, and 1% other gasses, were the necessary and sufficient conditions for the emergence of life. How life began remains a mystery, yet scientific proof provides evidence that life exists and began in the sea: fossils (remains, traces and impressions of creatures).

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The Food Chain

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Approximately 500 million years ago, the simple sea creatures began to change and multiply through a process known as evolution. Some became predators, killing and eating those fish that ate plants and tiny animals called plankton. A food chain was thus established among living creatures. The stronger, larger predators ate the smaller ones as they all preyed on the seemingly endless multitudes of fish that swam in large schools (groups or herds).

Land Animals

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About 475 million years ago, land plants appeared on the surface of the earth. After some time (360 million years ago), some of the sea creatures began to change. Perhaps drawn by the lush surface vegetation, some of the fish evolved to walk on the land. These were the first living creatures to move about on land: amphibians and reptiles. They carried their food chain with them – the stronger animals preyed upon the weaker ones.

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Dinosaurs & the Ice Age

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At first, the land creatures were small. Then, the animals grew huge. Called dinosaurs (meaning ‘monstrous lizards’), these animals roamed the earth for hundreds of millions of years, from about 350 million BCE (a way of dating time which means “Before the Common Era”, equivalent to the notation B.C. which means “Before Christ”) to 65.5 million BCE, until another natural disaster occurred. It is the thought that an enormous piece of some other planet (an asteroid) crashed into the earth. According to this theory, the resulting impact created a large cloud of dust that covered the earth, shielding the surface from the sun’s warming rays. This was the beginning of the last great ice age, one of several periods of time when the globe’s waters froze and glaciers, rivers of ice, covered most of the land. The dinosaurs perished, although some may have survived as birds. The great lizards were cold-blooded creatures that drew warmth from the atmosphere around them – they had needed the sun’s rays to survive. Without the sun, they became extinct.

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Evolution of Primates

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Eventually, literally as the smoke cleared, new animal forms evolved. About 4.4 million years ago, one such group of animals in the evolutionary process emerged, called ‘primates’, which includes apes and chimpanzees. These animals began to walk on their hind legs, leaving their front legs (arms) free. They were able to grasp objects because their hands had opposable thumbs. Approximately 2 million years ago, these hominids began to use stone tools. An offshoot of these creatures eventually evolved into human beings: ‘Homo Sapiens’, meaning, literally, ‘wise human’. You and I are human beings.

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Part 2: Humans

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Up until this point, when humans came on the scene, the world was a totally ‘natural’ place. Living things, animals and plants, lived, reproduced and died, all species according to their own life cycle. With the arrival of humans, however, the earth began to change. That is because humans began to interact with nature in a way that animals never had. At first, humans lived ‘naturally’, in a fashion similar to animals. Nomads, groups of men, women and children, would follow migrating herds of animals, hunt them and also forage for food by gathering roots, fruits and berries to eat.

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Humans Use Tools: Fire & the Wheel

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Living as part of the natural world was very insecure because only certain plants were nourishing and it was difficult to hunt successfully. Human beings began to develop tools to help them survive.

One early tool was fire. Perhaps humans saw fire created by lightening strikes, for example, and eventually learned to control and create it (about 790,000 years ago). This was a first step in a never-ending human struggle to overcome the limitations of the natural world. Fire allowed for light when there was darkness, allowed cold to be turned into warmth, and allowed for raw food to be cooked (and be more digestible and taste better!).

Another early physical tool humans developed was the wheel (about 3500 BCE). The wagon or cart, pulled by either animals or humans, was the first wheeled vehicle. With this device, people could transport things that were far too heavy to lift or carry any distance by muscle power alone.

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Language, Mathematics, Art

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People developed other tools, symbolic tools, which aided in their comprehension of each other and this world. Symbolic tools used a sign or an object to represent a thought or an idea. One of these tools is language (50,000 to 70,000 years ago). This is not just the power of speech, making noises from the sound box, but a complex system of symbolic meanings. Another is art, the first forms of which were rock art, cave paintings and engravings. Art likely existed whenever and wherever there were humans. Yet another symbolic tool is mathematics (formally developed around 1900 BCE).  Human cognition can be considered to be symbolic – intuition (understanding, insight) comes in many forms. For example, discussion can lead to understanding just as well as looking at a picture (said to be worth a thousand words) or a mathematical equation.

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Weapons

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These three symbolic tools of language, art and mathematics served humans so well that they made enormous strides coping with nature. These were the creative tools humans invented – there were also destructive tools, called weapons. The first weapons were likely made for hunting animals; later, the weapons were turned on other human beings.

Humans focused on two major tasks: staying alive (interacting with the natural environment) and relating to other humans. These were interconnected activities, as humans are always found in groups (it is said that ‘no person is an island’). Humans are not solitary creatures and have always lived together in increasing numbers and increasingly complex organizations: families, clans, tribes, and societies. As such, nearly universal concepts inform their lives: things, events, creatures, and occurrences that were beneficial to humans were considered to be ‘good’. That which was harmful was considered ‘bad’. Thus, morality (ethics) was invented by humans, and further conceived as “right and wrong” or “good and evil”. Every society, every culture, every civilization ultimately developed definitions of these concepts.

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Globalization

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The process of globalization began about a million years ago when human populations began to wander all over the surface of the earth. Homo Sapiens likely colonized Africa about 150,000 years ago and approximately 70,000 years ago began to move across Australia, Asia, and Europe. Migration to North and South America occurred about 20,000 years ago. By 2,000 years ago, many, if not all, of the Pacific Islands were occupied. By the year 10,000 BCE, humans had begun to cultivate their own crops. This meant staying in one place, rather than moving around with the animal herds. Agriculture (farming) became a way of life for humans. They planted crops that allowed them to survive. This meant clearing land by creating fields, moving rocks, cutting trees and irrigating with water. These events reshaped the surface of the earth.  Humans migrated to every continent on the globe and, thanks to the security of farming; they began to grow in population. This lead to larger and larger groups of people living together.

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Power & The Division of Labor in Society

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At first, family and tribe were the forms of social organization. There was a division of labor in society, as individuals would specialize in different skills. Early on, for example, the men, primarily, took on the role of hunting while the women, primarily, cared for the children and foraged for food. As families and larger groups settled down in one place, the need for other skills and talents determined each individual’s role and place in human society. There was always a need for leadership: in order to make decisions about organization, process or direction; to ensure cooperation among members of the group; to accomplish goals beyond the ability of a single individual; and to protect and care for those members of the society who could not readily care for themselves (e.g., children, the aged, etc.).

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Politics

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Mechanisms of power and power relationships (today known as ‘politics’) were invented by humans. These included hierarchical (top to bottom) organizations, beginning with a family patriarch (men as leaders) or matriarch (women as leaders), extending to clan leaders or chieftains and culminating in a monarch (e.g., a king/queen or an emperor/empress).

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Wealth & Property

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As individuals assumed positions of power above their peers, they would differentiate themselves from the group members by employing symbols of their office (such as a title, a rod, a scepter or a crown). It is said that “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. Proverbs, sayings, aphorisms such as this are the products of human experience. Thus, often, power over other humans took the form of oppression of other humans: the more powerful preyed on the weak (as with animals in the ‘natural world’). Over time, wealth (in the form of property) accumulated in the hands of the powerful. They then sought ways to maintain, grow and pass on their power and wealth to their children. From then on, the creation and distribution of wealth became a human concern.

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Human Civilization: Complex Societies

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In the beginning, human society was mainly agricultural and land ownership was considered to be wealth. Humans lived in accordance with nature, e.g., the weather, the seasons, the naturally occurring resources available to them. Planting, cultivating and harvesting crops were the main activities that organized human existence. Feeding (and housing and clothing) increasingly larger groups of people was (and remains) a complex process, which required more and more intricate forms of association.

As human society became more complex, they built houses and other specialized structures (such as mills for grinding grain into flour). Eventually, buildings were constructed close to each other, villages, towns, and then cities grew.

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The Middle East

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One of the earliest human civilizations was in the Middle East; the Sumerians developed a city-state civilization around 3000 BCE.

Human society grew and human groups competed over land and natural resources, sometimes violently. War was invented about the same time as the state. War can be defined as organized violent confrontation, involving death and destruction.

Typically, in a war, there is an enemy to be defeated. Huge empires were established, as one group of people conquered another through war. The losing side would often be totally at the mercy of the victors – thus, human slavery was invented as well.

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Asia

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In Asia, in China, the Xia Dynasty dates back to about 4000 BCE. According to Chinese cultural history, the years between 2800 BCE and 2600 BCE saw much advancement in human civilization. It is taught that a man named Fu His at that time invented fishing, trapping, hunting and writing. Another man, Shen Nung, is said to be the originator of trade and horticulture. Huangdi, known as The Yellow Emperor, reigned from 2697 BCE to 2598 BCE and is thought to have created government and laid the foundations of traditional Chinese medicine. Approximately 2600 BCE, the Indus river valley was settled and irrigation was used for farming. Two main cities developed, Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, both located in modern day Pakistan. These cities contained stone houses that were two and three stories high and many had sewage systems.

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Africa & The Mediterranean Sea

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In Africa, the Egyptian civilization began around 3150 BCE, under the first pharaoh, when Lower and Upper Egypt became a unified state. Egyptian rule lasted until the Greeks came in 332 BCE and then the Roman conquest in 30 BCE. In and around the Mediterranean Sea, the Persian Empire dates back to about 800 BCE, while the ancient Greek Empire began about 750 BCE. The Roman civilization dates from around 510 BCE. In the 3rd century BCE, China was unified and the Great Wall was built (this is the only human-made object that can be viewed from space!). All these large civilizations were created through war and all practiced human bondage (slavery). All were ruled by powerful single leaders or small groups sharing power. Ordinary people had no say in the governance of their daily lives and were subject to the wishes, desires and whims of their leaders.

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Part 3: Humans and Symbolism

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Human beings continued to develop symbolic forms of communication, understanding and expression, language and art (including music, dance, painting, and sculpture). And religion, perhaps more than any other symbolic form, has influenced human history. Early religions were based on nature and natural occurrences. Later religions were based on ‘revelation’ (e.g., a deity’s ‘truth’ revealed to humans). All of the world’s religions seek to interpret existence in a way that is comprehensible to humans. Religion has been a source of truth, of faith and of hope. Religion has been a guide for society – a great socializing force. And religion has been a terribly divisive force among humans. There were many, many religious wars between early groups of humans and, in the Common Era (CE) there have been extremely bloody wars between Christians and Muslims, Catholics and Protestants, Jews and Muslims.

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Belief in the Supernatural

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Control over the environment, especially one’s immediate surroundings, has been a consistent human goal. At first, humans believed that gods, demons, and other ‘supernatural’ forces controlled the natural environment. For thousands of years, humans worshipped various gods (according to their cultures) which were believed to create the changes in weather and to influence their personal lives. This practice was expanded by humans to include all activities; thus, we see humans praying for success, for rain, for good fortune in battle, for themselves and for others. For example, the Hindu god, Ganesha, is considered the ‘lord of all existing beings’. For the ancient Greeks, Zeus was the supreme god, while Poseidon was the god of the sea, earthquakes and horses. There were gods who were said to be responsible for every natural phenomenon.

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Buddhism

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The founder of the Buddhist religion is said to be Siddhârtha Gautama (who lived approximately 563 BCE to 483 BCE), a royal prince and spiritual teacher in ancient India (modern day Nepal). His students referred to him as “the Buddha,” meaning “the Enlightened One,” The essence of his teachings was that the quality of human life depends upon inner peace and happiness rather than material wealth. This perspective is an example of how eastern thought differs from western thought. For a dozen centuries or more, these religions, as well as the surviving older religions, were the chief source of human ideas about knowledge, truth, justice, wisdom and virtue. A Chinese contemporary, Confucius (551 BCE- 479 BCE), was a philosopher whose thoughts strongly influenced many eastern cultures (e.g., Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese). His ideas focused on compassion, morality, justice and correctness in social interactions.

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Taoism

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Another contemporary in China, it is believed, was Lao-Tse (604 BCE-531 BCE), the founder of Taoism. He sought a path that would avoid the continuous feudal warfare and violent conflicts that disrupted his society. His book, Tao-te-Ching, provided insights into practical advice for ordinary people as well as political wisdom for rulers. Taoism began as a merging of philosophy and psychology and was established as a state religion in 440 CE. Taoism, along with Buddhism and Confucianism, grew to be one of the three major religions of China.

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Ancient Greece: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle

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Ancient Greece (500-146 BCE) was a civilization that was sufficiently stable to allow for extraordinary contemplation and speculation about the world. It is said that the blind poet, Homer, composed the epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey, which tell stories related to the Trojan War. The philosopher Socrates (469-399 BCE), although he did not invent the idea of ‘truth’, died for the right to think and talk about what is true. His student Plato (428-348 BCE) postulated an ideal truth to guide and inspire humans beings. In his book, The Republic, he put forth ideas about human nature and the best way to organize society. Plato’s idealism was rejected by his student Aristotle (384-322 BCE), who looked around and said, “this is reality and I will catalogue it”! His book, The Physics, contained all existing knowledge of the world (similar to an encyclopedia). These three individuals laid the foundations for western thought for the next 2000 years.

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The Romans

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The history of human civilization is replete with different societies conquering each other. All human civilizations are a conglomerate of the cultures that came before. The most successful conquerors incorporated aspects of their defeated foes into their larger society. Human civilization is full of such examples, such as the Romans, who defeated the Greeks and established an empire that ranged from Great Britain to Africa, as told in The Aeneid, written by the Roman scholar Virgil in the first century BCE. The Romans adopted many aspects of Greek culture, including the religion. The Greek gods were given Roman names: Zeus became Jupiter, Poseidon became Neptune, Aphrodite became Venus, etc. Claudius Ptolemy (85 CE – 165 CE) taught that the earth was the center of the universe (geocentric) and that the sun, the stars and the planets revolved around the earth in perfect circles.

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The Eastern Mind & the Western Mind

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Some scientists say that all human beings all think the same way regardless of their place of origin. Other scientists believe that there are great cultural differences in the thinking process of people. According to this latter view, people from Eastern cultures (e.g., Asia and India) are more concerned with the background and context of a situation, whereas western peoples (Europe, America) are more focused on the individuals involved, people as agents in a situation. Furthermore, westerners look for trends of change while easterners seek balance. Moreover, American and Europeans favor universal abstract doctrines and beliefs while Asians look for what is appropriate for a given situation. Consequently, the philosophies developed by east and west are radically different. Philosophies of the west (e.g., empiricism) tend to break down concepts into their component parts to see how something works, whereas eastern philosophy (e.g., Buddhism) attempts to understand reality by grasping the whole of a situation.

The younger cultures of the West (Europe and America) experienced constant change. Europe was the scene of invasions, wars, and continuous rivalry among those individuals who had gained power over others. Their status, as in other parts of the world, was solidified through their wealth (chiefly in the form of property). An aristocracy of rich, powerful lords developed and their authority was maintained by military means.

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Ancient Rome

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The Roman civilization was very successful, lasting from 510 BCE until 476 CE - almost 1000 years. Today, in Rome, in the Vatican, the grand obelisk of Egypt still stands as a monument of Roman military power. In the end, the Romans were overrun by millions of barbarians from the east and north of Europe. Huge changes in the location of people (caused by migration, by war, by the search for freedom or a better life) have occurred several times in human history.

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The Hindu Religion

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The principle text of the Hindu religion is the Bhagavad Gita, written about 150 BCE. This work highlights the differences between eastern and western thought by identifying the conflicts between human intuition of the order of the cosmos and empirical (sensory experience).

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Christianity

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Christianity, based on the historical personage of Jesus Christ, arose amidst the Roman civilization and became the established (state) religion in 380 CE. From then on, Catholicism and the Catholic Church dominated European culture. Today, there are more Christians among humans than any other religion.

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Islam

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The second largest religion today, Islam, is based on the teachings of Muhammad (alternatively spelled Mohammed or Muhammed) recorded in the Qur’an (or Koran). He was born around 570 CE and died 632 CE.

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Gunpowder

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A notable human creation occurred in the 8th century, during the Tang dynasty in China. Saltpeter and sulphur were combined with charcoal to create an explosive, which was called huoyao (gunpowder). At first, gunpowder was used to kill insects and to treat diseases of the skin. Later, the power of this substance as a weapon emerged and changed human history forever. Instead of merely relying on human muscle-power, the explosive, destructive force of this chemical compound was unleashed upon the world. Ultimately, guns, cannons and all manner of weapons were developed and used by humans against each other in a seemingly unending attempt to kill, subjugate, and bend the will of others to their own.

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The First Printed Book

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China, in the 8th century, was also the location of the first known printed book. The Diamond Sutra (868 CE) was a woodblock print and, like all sutras, was a collection of sayings, rules, and formulae published as a manual. In this case, a senior monk questions Buddha about ‘perfect wisdom’.

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The Mongol Empire

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The largest contiguous empire in history was the Mongol Empire, which united many nomadic tribes by force. Genghis Khan (1162 CE – 1227 CE) was the leader. His name at birth was Temüjin and later he took the title ‘kahn’ (which means ruler). His descendants eventually extended their rule over all of China, most of Russia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and southern Asia. It was, however, the people of Western Europe who first ascended to global power.

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Part 4: Modern History

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Beginning in the 15th Century, Europeans began to sail around the globe, exploring and ‘discovering’ lands. Great empires were created by subjugating the peoples they encountered. ‘Colonies’ were established in the Americas, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. During this colonial period, European Nations appropriated culture, artifacts, spices and many, many natural resources for their own use (such as gold, silver, and gems).

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The Renaissance

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Also during the 14th and 15th centuries, in Western Europe, people began to explore non-religious sources of knowledge, truth and wisdom. This period is known as the Renaissance (rebirth), a time when the ideas of the ancient Greeks (i.e., Plato) were revisited and explored anew. Nature, having been relegated to the lowest link on the Great Chain of Being in Christian cosmology, became a source of truth (in addition to revelation). In Italy, multi-talented individuals (such as DaVinci and Michelangelo) recognized the presence of mathematical properties in nature. These artists revolutionized art with their sense of proportion and light. In time, philosophers came to view mathematics as the ‘language of nature’.

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The Telescope & the ‘Copernican Revolution

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The telescope, for example, was invented in the Netherlands in 1608 and improved upon by the Italian inventor, astronomer and philosopher Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). The telescope of Galileo was turned towards the heavens. Detailed, more accurate mathematical information was recorded about the movements of the stars and the planets. The Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1533) and the German mathematician/ astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) applied mathematical principles to the study of the universe. The result was a dramatic change in the scientific paradigm, known as the ‘Copernican Revolution’: the sun, rather than the earth, was recognized to be at the center of the universe (heliocentric). Freedom to explore ‘natural’ truths, rather than strict adherence to historical ‘truths’, became a human goal.  

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The Printing Press & the Spread of Knowledge

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Before movable clay type was invented in China in 1041, books had to be reproduced by hand. This meant that there were very few books and, therefore, only the privileged few knew how to read. In 1455, the German Johannes Gutenberg invented a printing press with replaceable metal or wooden letters. The first book printed was the Christian Gutenberg Bible. This invention ushered in a revolution in literacy, as books no longer had to be copied by hand and became more common. More ordinary people learned to read.

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Freedom of thought

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This freedom to explore new ideas was expanded to human interactions as well. For example, the Italian philosopher Machiavelli applied logical principles to politics in a book entitled The Prince and the Discourses, which was a manual for effective rulers. Essentially, his message was ‘the ends justify the means’ (e.g., “as a ruler, if you remain in power, you are doing the right things”). Modern politics is said to date from this period. The English political philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588 – 1679) wrote a book called The Leviathan, in which he said that human life, in ‘the state of nature’ (prior to human society), was a war of all against all and was “nasty, brutish and short”. He believed that physical power was the source of human civilization (e.g. ‘might/power makes right’) and that human beings created society based on fear of and obedience to the leviathan (the strongest person).

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The Divine Right of Kings

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Hobbes’ ideas supported the concept of the “divine right of kings”, a theory that held that the monarch was ‘chosen by God’. Thus, the king was an absolute ruler beholden to no one but God for his actions. At this time, around the globe, all cultures and nations were ruled by either hereditary monarchs or leaders whose power over the people was sustained by force. Throughout the world, the populace had very little say about what constituted justice and law.

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The Scientific Method

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In northern Europe, other philosophers began to explore empirical sources of knowledge. Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626), for example, laid the foundations of the experimental method (the ‘scientific method’ of experimentation that we use today). Later, Sir Isaac Newton (1643 – 1727) postulated mathematical ‘laws’ of the physical universe. The Scottish philosopher John Locke (1632 – 1704) wrote about human understanding and thought that, at birth, the human mind was a blank slate (tabula rasa). He believed that all human knowledge came from sensory experience: hearing, seeing, feeling, tasting and seeing. Thus, empirical knowledge, (facts and data derived from experience) was the source of ‘truth’ (‘seeing, hearing, tasting, etc. is believing’). In the twentieth century, science (the methodical study of nature) replaced religion as the foremost source of ‘truth’ for many people.

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Natural Law and Natural Rights

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In addition to laying the foundations of empirical (scientific) truth, John Locke also challenged Thomas Hobbes’ view of the human condition. Rather than viewing war as the human state of nature, Locke saw the foundations of civilization as a cooperative effort of the many to protect themselves from the tyranny of the strongest. In Locke’s view, people gave up a portion of their ‘natural’ freedom to the government in order to gain the security of civilization (society). Each person refrains from harming others or stealing their property and, in return, the rights and property of each individual are protected (by the government). It is thus through the consent of the governed (the citizens) that government becomes legitimate.

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Political Revolution

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This idea that human beings have ‘natural rights’ and that there is a ‘natural law’ of human existence ultimately lead to the Declaration of Independence of the American Revolution of 1776. (connection-A Brief History of the United States of America} This document states: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” With these words, the Founding Fathers of the United States of America challenged the ‘divine right of kings’ with their own version of God’s will. Religion, as well as nature, was recognized as a source of human rights (freedoms). The right to life meant that citizens’ lives must be protected by the government. Liberty meant freedom under the law – all citizens must be subject to the same laws and no individual can be above the law. Pursuit of Happiness meant that citizens had the right to decide the quality of their own lives and to determine their own life styles within the law.

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Modern Representative Democracy

 

As a result, the world’s first modern representative democracy was established in North America. Members of society were to make political decisions based on their own self-interest and would express these through the voting process. Individual freedoms were to be guaranteed by written law (the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights). For the next two centuries (and continuing today), the creation of political, social and economic freedoms through democratic/representative forms of government became a constant effort for most of the people of the earth. For example, in 1789, the French people revolted against their king and published the Declaration of the Rights of Man, which called for Liberty, Equality and Fraternity for all. Today, this concept of Human Rights has been incorporated into the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

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Industrial Revolution

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About the same time as the French and American political revolutions, the Industrial Revolution began in England. This change in the methodology of production of goods ultimately spread to every large human society. A new source of power that allowed humans to produce and transport products more efficiently was the steam engine (external combustion), which was greatly improved by the Scottish inventor, James Watt (1736-1819), in 1765. The first steam railroad came in 1804 and throughout the century, railroads and steam ships were built to transport people and goods faster and with more regularity than ever before. Machines were housed in factories and people were hired to work on an hourly, daily or piecework basis.

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Industrialization had a huge impact on the globe. Natural resources began to be depleted (used up) at a much faster rate than ever before. The earth’s water and air began to be rapidly polluted (poisoned) with industrial wastes. This process continues today on every continent of the globe.

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Urbanization

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Over the next two centuries, a large number of people relocated from rural areas to urban centers (towns and cities). Life for the average individual changed from rising with the sun, working according to the weather, and resting at night to working according to the clock (the “24-7” variety of existence we experience today is a direct result of this change in manufacturing). This process began in the West and has spread throughout the globe. Today, for example, the world’s nations are often categorized as industrialized or non-industrialized. (In the past 50 years, countries have also been variously categorized as “Old World” (Europe), “New World” (North America), or “Third World”/ “Developing Nations” (less wealthy countries).

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Capitalism

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The year 1776 also saw the publication of The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith (1723 – 1790). This book identified the marketplace as the paradigm of economics among humans and individual self-interest, as the engine that drives the economy and the creation of wealth. He wrote, “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we can expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.” This work became the foundation of Capitalism, a system based on private property and a free market. Individuals owned the factories and hired workers (laborers) who were paid as low a wage as possible. The capitalist took the risk of investing in a business and kept the profits made from selling the manufactured goods on the open market. The role of government, in Smith’s view, was limited to the protection and education of the people. Capitalism proved to be a powerful economic system of generating wealth while providing for the needs of human beings; it still dominates the world economy today.

The Danger of Over-Population

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A few years later, in 1798, the Englishman Thomas Malthus (1766-1834) wrote a work entitled An Essay on the Principle of Population in which he applied mathematics to the sustenance of human life and determined that the food supply grew at an arithmetic rate (e.g., 1,2,3,4,5…) while the population of the earth grew at a geometric rate (2,4,8,16,32…). Thus, in Malthus’ view, the population would constantly outstrip the food supply, creating a situation of scarcity that would always plague humankind. He therefore thought that war, pestilence, disease and natural disasters were the only ways to reduce the number of people to a sustainable level. His was a rather pessimistic view of reality (hence, economics is known as the dismal science). Today, humankind continues to struggle with the twin issues of overpopulation and a limited food supply.

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Nationalism

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The 19th Century saw the advent of nationalism, the strong support for the one’s country, first demonstrated as a powerful unifying force under the dictator who emerged out of revolutionary France, Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821). Thanks to the huge army of Frenchmen he rallied, he was able to conquer continental Europe and establish hegemony (unchallenged rule) from the Russian border to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel. Nationalism became a mechanism for rallying masses of people to band together to create societal change to benefit ever-greater numbers of people. (Today, for example, nationalism is at the core of many of the newly constituted Eastern European countries, such as Croatia.)

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Political Revolutions in Europe

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Throughout the 19th Century, the peoples of Europe attempted to overthrow the bondage of their kings and aristocracies. There were ‘democratic’ revolutions throughout Europe in 1820, 1830, 1848 (e.g., in France, Austria-Hungary, Russia and Prussia) and in Latin America (e.g., Haiti (1791), Bolivia (1809), Chile (1810), Argentina (1810), Mexico (1810), Venezuela (1811), Peru (1821), Brazil (1822) and Ecuador (1822). Many were nationalistic revolutions, that is, attempts to form republican government based on a group of people’s language and culture. Some revolutions were more successful than others, but in Europe, none succeeded in eliminating the rule of the aristocracy.

Communism

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The year 1848 saw the publication of a small pamphlet by a German man named Karl Marx (1818-1883), entitled The Communist Manifesto. The work began with the sentence, “There is a specter haunting Europe, it is the specter of communism.” In this political tract, Marx presented the idea that wealth ought to be distributed more equally – that each member of society ought to have what they needed and that all members of society ought to contribute what they were able to: “from each according to his ability to each according to his need” became the communist creed. In Marx’s view, communism (called ‘scientific socialism’), not capitalism, was the superior way to distribute wealth in human society.

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Marx wrote that the advent of communism was inevitable (an idea called ‘historical determinism’) because societal change occurred according to a set pattern of conflict resolution called ‘dialectical materialism’. Communism became the chief economic rival of capitalism (well into the 20th century). Today, the world’s most populous nation, China, remains a fundamentally Marxist state. Communism was conceived as state ownership of the means of production, so that all profits from the industrial system of factory workers would revert back to the people, rather than accumulating wealth in the hands of a few (the capitalist owners). The attractiveness of such a system to the poorer people of society was undeniable. Redistribution of wealth from the few to the many became the communist vision.

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Charles Darwin and the Theory of Evolution

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A revolution of a different sort was wrought by the Englishman Charles Darwin (1809-1882) when, in 1859, he published a book entitled On the Origin of Species. {connection-Biology: The Building Blocks of Life} A botanist, Darwin studied the history of life on this planet and proposed the theory of evolution presented earlier in this essay: that all living creatures had come from common ancestors and are evolving (changing) through a process called ‘natural selection’. In Darwin’s view, all living species were engaged in a constant struggle with the natural environment. The creatures that were more suited to developments in the natural world (e.g., climate change) would survive while those not able to adapt would perish (as did the dinosaurs.) According to Darwin, human beings evolved from apes through this adaptive process.

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The Darwinian view became the chief rival of the various creation myths of the world’s religions. Religion, for many of the people in Europe and North America, began to become less central to their worldview. Western scientists directed much effort towards proving the ‘theory of evolution’ and establishing a secular (non-religious) understanding of reality. The increasing number of communists throughout the world followed Marx’s view that religion was the ‘opium of the masses’, which kept the poor people of the world under the rule of the rich and distracted them from their true destiny – a communist society. Secularists (e.g., atheists who denied the existence of a god or gods) sought to establish a morality (a system of ethics) that did not rely upon commandments from a superior being.

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Secularism

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Up until this time, human behavior had been chiefly limited by the moral codes of the world’s religions. With the rise of secularism came an ethical dilemma that humans still struggle with today. As a result of the growing popularity of secular views, the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) observed that ‘God is dead”. The Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) also commented, asking the question, “If God is dead, are all things permissible?” In other words, without the restrictions placed on human behavior by religious morality, what could limit the actions of human beings?

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Part 5: The Twentieth Century 

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World War I

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Twentieth century human events can best be considered in light of this question. War and devastation thoroughly marked this century. The century opened with worldwide war (1914-1918), the last “great war” between empires (the British Empire and its allies fighting against the German Empire and its allies). Applied science played an enormous role in enabling people to kill each other. Machine guns, barbed wire, tanks, poison gas, gas masks, submarines and airplanes were all effectively developed and deployed as weapons during this war. The fighting ranged from Europe, to Africa to Asia and millions of people suffered and died.

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The Soviet Union

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Before this war ended, there was a communist revolution in Russia and the first nation based on Marxist principles was created (the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), spanning Europe and Asia from the Pacific Ocean to the Baltic Sea.

The League of Nations

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The first world wide governmental organization was attempted after this war – The League of Nations. Although envisioned by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, the United States never joined this international organization, which ultimately failed as a mediator of the power struggles of the peoples of the earth.

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World War II

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A human moral low was reached during the holocaust of the Second World War (1939-1945). The German dictator, Adolph Hitler (1889-1945), rose to power as a result of a mixed message of hope and hate. More than 11 million people were executed, chiefly Jews, but Catholics, homosexuals and Gypsies as well. Men, women and children were ruthlessly exterminated in a systematic attempt to kill all people of the same race (gene pool).

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Genocide

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This is called genocide – an attempt to eradicate the genetic pool of a group of people. During the late 19th Century and throughout the 20th century, there were genocidal efforts in North America (e.g., against Native Americans), Africa (e.g., Sierra Leone), the Middle East (e.g., against Jews) and Eastern Europe (e.g., Bosnia). From this perspective, it seemed that, indeed, for human beings, “all things were permissible”. As in the previous war, in WW II the fighting raged on every continent, except for Australia and Antarctica.

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The United Nations

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A second attempt to organize humans and regulate human relationships on a worldwide scale followed World War II – the United Nations (UN) was established in 1945. This time, the United States did join and the UN stands today as humanity’s best attempt to govern itself on a global basis.

Independence for former British Colonies

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Following WWII, in 1948 and 1949, largely as a result of the dissolution of the British Empire, the political terrain of Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East was radically changed. For example, India was divided and granted independence from the British after of a long, non-violent struggle for independence led by Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948). East Pakistan (today known as Bangladesh) and West Pakistan were created on India’s borders. Israel was established as a Jewish state. Several African nations were established as independent states. In Europe, most Eastern European counties became part of the Soviet Union.

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Political Revolution in China

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In 1950, after a bloody civil war, a communist government was established in China (the People’s Republic of China). This nation is today home to approximately 1.5 billion people (about 25% of all humanity).

 

Psychology

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Alongside the wars and political power struggles of the world’s nations, scientists throughout the world attempted to explain and guide human behavior. This was chiefly a global effort to better understand the universe itself so that human beings could peaceably co-exist rather than engage in constant war. For example, the structure of the human psyche was explored by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) as he talked with his patients in Vienna in the late 19th century. He envisioned the human mind as composed of three competing parts: the ego (the conscious self), the libido (or ‘id’, unconscious animal instinct) and the ‘superego’ (social ideas of right and wrong). According to Freud’s theory of human psychology, the ego and the id were constantly battling for control of each individual’s behavior. The superego (one’s conscience, which comes from culture and society) regulated this struggle, placing a limit on human activity based on social norms.

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Global Communication & Transportation

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As scientific principles were applied to daily life, there were great advances. Early in the century, electricity was harnessed to bring light and power to people’s homes throughout the globe. The telephone enabled direct communication over distance. The internal combustion engine was invented and cars, buses and trucks began to transport people and goods faster and more efficiently than ever before. Airplanes were invented, moving people and cargo even more rapidly throughout the globe.

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Health

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Human health was greatly improved by medical practices, at first in the industrialized nations and then throughout the world. Germ theory, first developed in the 1800’s, became a paradigm for understanding and combating infections and diseases. In the middle of the 20th century, the discovery and use of antibiotics (e.g., penicillin, ‘miracle drugs’) helped to combat and eliminate many of the diseases that were the scourge of humankind (e.g., polio, typhus, malaria).

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Science & Technology

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Theoretical physics (mathematics applied to reality) produced great advances as well. In 1905, Albert Einstein (1879-1955) developed the Special Theory of Relativity (expressed in the mathematical equation e=mc2), stating for the first time a measurable relationship between energy and matter. This theory, along with studies in quantum physics by Max Planck (1858-1947), helped unleash the energy of the basic particles of reality (e.g., the atom). Nuclear power was harnessed first as a weapon, the atomic bomb. The devastation and destruction that this weapon caused ended World War II, when the United State bombed the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. (This remains the only time that humans have used this weapon). Later in the century, nuclear power was developed as a source of energy, to produce electricity for people’s everyday lives.

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Global Industrialization

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The peoples of the earth managed to avoid a third world war. Industrialization continued throughout the globe. Human beings could communicate faster and learn more information more quickly than ever before. Radios, televisions, telephones, phonographs, film prints, and movies were all mass-produced and widely distributed. There was mass migration throughout the globe, as people from poorer nations seek better opportunities, the freedom to make choices, and to flee oppressive regimes. The United States and Europe were the chief destinations. For the first time, people of eastern, Middle Eastern and western cultures lived together in peace. This was true of every major city in the west. Nevertheless, in a few isolated areas, there was continuing strife between religious partisans (Northern Ireland, Palestine/Israel).

The Asian nations of Korea and Japan became industrialized and quickly produced great wealth. After the dissolution (break-up) of the Soviet Union, the nations of Europe begin to unite (European Union) to form a huge economic market (250 million) equal in size to the United States. Stock markets and capitalism spread all over the world.

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Computers

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In the last quarter of the century, a revolution in information processing was ushered in by the advent of the microcomputer (PC). {connection-The Computer and Society} By the end of the century, these electronic tools were in widespread use. In the industrialized world, almost everyone had access to at least one – a cell phone, a blackberry, or a personal computer. Communication with other human beings is nearly instantaneous, regardless of where on the globe they may be.

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The Part 6: Twenty-First Century

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There are now almost 7 billion humans on the planet. Their activities have created havoc with the natural environment. The atmosphere is warming globally because fossil fuels (e.g., coal, oil, shale) still provide most of the energy used by humans. This resource is contributing to global warming, as burning such fuels releases carbon dioxide into the air, trapping heat. If this continues, the polar ice caps, which have already started to melt, will continue to dissipate. This will cause the level of the oceans to rise; there will be coastal flooding, violent weather, and all manner of natural disasters.

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Limited Food Supply

 

Additionally, there are so many people now that producing sufficient food is a problem. United Nations estimates are that as many as 800 million people worldwide suffer from malnutrition and hunger. It is estimated that 183 million children weigh less than they should for their age. Each year now, almost 15 million children die of hunger. The World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the world is well fed, one-third is under-fed and one-third is starving. It seems as if the perspective of Thomas Malthus, that population will outstrip food supply, still holds true.

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Natural Resources becoming scarce

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Natural resources, such as oil, are being depleted at an alarming rate. A huge amount of oil is located beneath the surface of the several Middle Eastern countries (e.g., Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia). Great wealth is generated by the sale of this oil to industrialized nations. The governments of the world have begun to recognize a need for renewable energy sources.

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Human Rights

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Much of the world’s population is still experiencing war and its aftermath. Of the world’s 190 countries, more than 70 nations (37%) are ruled by a dictator: these humans are not considered to be ‘free’ because they are denied basic political rights and civil liberties. The people of 86 countries (or 45%) live in freedom enjoying a broad range of individual and political rights. About 58 nations are considered to be partly free.

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Terrorism

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Although terrorists have bombed and killed in every major western nation, including the bombing of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, which killed thousands of New Yorkers, there is some cause for hope. For example, leadership has become more diverse. In the late 20th century, both England and India elected women as Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher and Indira Gandhi, respectively. For the first time, in the United States, Barack Obama, a man of African-American descent, serves as President. Furthermore, there is widespread support for the ‘green revolution’ – the idea that human beings can exist on earth without destroying the planet through pollution and depletion of natural resources. Aides, a modern plague which has devastated Africa, may finally be under control.

Human beings remain faced with the same challenges that they experienced at the beginning. How to cope with nature, how to feed, clothe and house themselves, how to co-exist with other humans. What have humans learned over the past 1,000,000 years that we have populated this earth? World peace and prosperity would be a wonderful experience but remains an elusive goal for humankind.