Revision Summary 00 History

The Industrial Revolution built castles new continentsdrew cave painting 1

WHAT IS HISTORY the us, veryone History is the story of us, human beings. Everyone who has lived andeverything that has happened area part of History. But History is not only whathappened in the past. The word also means the study of the past, through oldwritten records and other kinds of evidence. Why are we interested in the past? Why do we study History?. One reason is story true, historythat we enjoy it. A good story is even better if it is true, and history is full of goodstories,stories, though they can be terrible too. A more serious reason is to understandourselves and the world we live in. To understand events happening now, we need toknow their causes. We cannot understand the present if we know nothing about the causes. whypast. History helps to explain why things are the way they are. Of course, History books cannot tell us everything about the past, not even recorded.everything that is recorded. A history of the world has to pick out the people andevents that changed the world. Since Ancient Times, great civilisations haveappeared in different continents and regions. Usually, only three or four existed at different people,the same time. While they lasted, they changed the lives not only of their own people, neighboursbut of their neighbours too. people, History is about people. It is about the important people, such as rulers, artists,thinkers, scientists, explorers, writers and artists, who made an impact in their time peopleand often beyond it. But it is also about ordinary people and their everyday lives. A historian depends on evidence from the past to reconstruct the story.Evidence may be in written records, such as government papers, personal lettersbetween friends, or even tombstones. In the earliest times no written records werekept, and many countries have few written records until recent centuries.Fortunately there are other kinds or evidence to help us find out about the past(objects, paintings, photographs). Historians and archaeologists can be greatly science. Radio-helped by science. Radio-carbon dating can tell the age of any object that once 2

piecformed part of a living thing, such as a piece of paper that was made from a tree, orleather from an animal. There are two main kinds of sources in history: 1) PRIMARY SOURCES — this is evidence from the period you’re studying e.g. a you’ newspaper report on the First World War from 4th September 1914. 2) SECONDARY SOURCES — this is evidence about an historical period e.g. a 1989 book entitled “Origins of the First World War” Origins War” It is very important you don’t confuse facts and opinions and don’t mix them. don’ don’ questions. that’ helpYou must to use the facts to answer questions. There are four key ideas that’ll helpyou use the facts — the four “C’s”: Cause, Consequence, Change and Continuity e.g. Cause means the reason something happened —e.g. the causes of the FirstWorld War. Any time you have a fact in History, think about what caused it and why History, it’it happened. There are always reasons why an event takes place an it’s your job to it’work them out. Consequence means what happened because of an action —it’s theresult of an event, e.g. a consequence of the Second World War was that the USAand USSR became superpowers because the big powers in Europe were now too weak.These two ideas fit together —think of them like a row of dominoes. The first domino dominoes. falling,is the cause which starts the others falling, the last one is knocked down as aconsequence or effect of all the others falling over. Change is when something happens to make things different —there can bequick changes, e.g. the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand led to the Fioutbreak of the First World War; or there can be slow changes, e.g. the tensions long-between Britain and Germany in the early 1900s were a long-term factor leading to Continuitythe start of the First World War. Continuity is the opposite of change — it meanswhen things stay the same, e.g. the Romanov dynasty ruled Russia for 500 years. Romanov years.These ideas are opposites —think of continuity as a flat line going along until there is zig-a sudden change and the line becomes a zig-zag. 3

If History can tell us about the past and help us understand the present, canit tell us something about the future too? Not really. History may give us hints, but never twice.things never happen in exactly the same way twice. LOOKING AT THE LAST 500 YEARS Between Between the years 1500 and 2000, life changed dramatically in most parts ofthe World. At first, this transformation happened gradually, but by the 1800s people’slives were changing fast, and in the 20th century things really gathered speed. Moving from place to place in the 1500 was very slowand difficult, and journeys didn’t get much easier for 300years. Travel started to change in 1804, when the firststeam train was built. Around 80 years later, the motor crosscar was invented, and by the 1960s planes could crossthe globe in hours, and spacecraft had taken astronauts to the Moon. By the end of thecentury, unmanned spacecraft had reached most of the planets in our solar system Most people in 1500 had no idea what the world looked like and many still believedthat the Earth was flat. Gradually, over the next 500 years, scientists and explorersbuilt up a picture of the globe. Today, satellites can take photographs of the Earthfrom space, and people can see television pictures of places all over the world. During the 16th century, a few powerful rulers governed large areas of the world, Duringand ordinary people had very little say in how their countries were run. This began tochange in the 1700s, when new ideas of rights for all spread through Europe andAmerica. Rebels struggled to gain more freedom, and gradually more and more people Rebelswon the right to vote for their country’s leaders. Today, people are still fighting forfreedom in many parts of the world next Daily life in the 1500s was extremely hard, but over the next 500 years newdiscoveries and inventions slowly changed people’s lives. Advances in medicine meantthat people lived much longer while new machines made everyday tasks faster and 4

easier. In the 20th century, cars, computers and television transformed the way thatmany people live. Many buildings and objects have survived from the last 500 years, and these theseprovide valuable clues about the way people lived and worked. Paintings drawings andstatues show famous people and events, and reveal fascinating details of daily life Letters and diaries give first-hand accounts of things that happened in the first-past, newspapers contain the news and views of the time, and government recordsprovide many useful facts and figures. Maps give a clear idea or which parts of theworld were known and explored, while scientific papers and notebooks describe discoveries.experiments and discoveries. Since the 1860s, photography has provided a vivid record of events all over theworld. Historians who study the 20th century use film and sound recordings to help withtheir research, and also interview people about their memories and experiences 5

Revision Summary 00 History

by Manuel ESOmpimienta on Sep 28, 2011

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Revision Summary 00 History — Document Transcript