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User:Phlsph7/History - Areas of study

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Areas of study

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History is a wide field of inquiry encompassing many branches. Some branches focus on a specific time period. Others concentrate on a particular geographic region or a distinct theme. Specializations of different types can usually be combined. For example, a work on economic history in ancient Egypt merges temporal, regional, and thematic perspectives. For topics with a broad scope, the amount of primary sources is often too extensive for an individual historian to review. This forces them to either narrow the scope of their topic or rely on secondary sources to arrive at a wide overview.[1]

By period

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Chronological division is a common approach to organize the vast expanse of history into more manageable segments. Different periods are often defined based on dominant themes that characterize a specific time frame and significant events that initiated these developments or brought them to an end. Depending on the selected context and level of detail, a period may be as short as a decade or longer than several centuries.[2] A traditionally influential approach divides human history into prehistory, ancient history, post-classical history, early modern history, and modern history.[3][a]

Prehistory started with the evolution of human-like species several million years ago, leading to the emergence of anatomically modern humans about 200,000 years ago.[5] Subsequently, humans migrated out of Africa to populate most of the earth. Towards the end of prehistory, technological advances in the form of new and improved tools led many groups to give up their established nomadic lifestyle, based on hunting and gathering, in favor of a sedentary lifestyle supported by early forms of agriculture.[6] The absence of written documents from this period presents researchers with unique challenges. It results in a interdisciplinary approach relying on other forms of evidence from fields such as archaeology, anthropology, paleontology, and geology.[7]

Ancient history, starting roughly 3500 BCE, saw the emergence of the first major civilizations in Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley, China, and Peru. The new social, economic, and political complexities necessitated the development of writing systems. Thanks to advancements in agriculture, surplus food allowed these civilizations to support larger populations, accompanied by urbanization, the establishment of trade networks, and the emergence of regional empires. Meanwhile, influential religious systems and philosophical ideas were first formulated, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Judaism, and Greek philosophy.[8]

In post-classical history, beginning around 500 CE, the influence of religions continued to grow. Missionary religions, like Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam, spread rapidly and established themselves as world religions, marking a cultural shift as they gradually replaced local belief systems. Meanwhile, inter-regional trade networks flourished, leading to increased technological and cultural exchange. Conquering many territories in Asia and Europe, the Mongol Empire became a dominant force during the 13th and 14th centuries.[9]

In early modern history, starting roughly 1500 CE, European states rose to global power. As gunpowder empires, they explored and colonized large parts of the world. As a result, the Americas were integrated into the global network, triggering a vast biological exchange of plants, animals, people, and diseases.[b] The Scientific Revolution prompted major discoveries and accelerated technological progress. It was accompanied by other intellectual developments, such as humanism and the Enlightenment, which ushered in secularization.[11]

In modern history, beginning at the end of the 18th century, the Industrial Revolution transformed economies by introducing more efficient modes of production. Western powers established vast colonial empires, gaining superiority through industrialized military technology. The increased international exchange of goods, ideas, and people marked the beginning of globalization. Various social revolutions challenged autocratic and colonial regimes, paving the way for democracies. Many developments in fields like science, technology, economy, living standards, and human population accelerated at unprecedented rates. This happened despite the widespread destruction caused by two world wars, which rebalanced international power relations by undermining European dominance.[12]

By geographic location

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Areas of historical study can also be categorized by the geographic locations they examine.[13] Geography plays a central role in history through its influence on food production, natural resources, economic activities, political boundaries, and cultural interactions.[14][c] Some historical works limit their scope to small regions, such as a village or a settlement. Others focus on broad territories that encompass entire continents, like the histories of Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Oceania.[16]

The history of Africa stands at the dawn of human history with the evolution of anatomically modern humans about 200,000 years ago.[17] The invention of writing and the establishment of civilization happened in ancient Egypt in the 4th millennium BCE.[18] Over the next millennia, other notable civilizations and kingdoms formed in Nubia, Axum, Carthage, Ghana, Mali, and Songhay.[19] Islam began spreading across North Africa in the 7th century CE and became the dominant faith in many empires. Meanwhile, trade along the trans-Saharan route intensified.[20] Beginning in the 15th century, millions of Africans were enslaved and forcibly transported to the Americas as part of the Atlantic slave trade.[21] Most of the continent was colonized by European powers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[22] Among rising nationalism, African states gradually gained independence in the aftermath of World War II, a period that saw economic progress, rapid population growth, and struggles for political stability.[23]

In the history of Asia, anatomically modern humans arrived around 100,000 years ago.[24] As one of the cradles of civilization, Asia was home to some of the first ancient civilizations in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and China, which began to emerge in the 4th and 3rd millennia BCE.[25] In the following millennia, all major world religions and several influential philosophical traditions were conceived and spread, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Christianity, and Islam.[26] The Silk Road facilitated trade and cultural exchange across Eurasia, while powerful empires rose and fell, such as the Mongol Empire, which dominated the continent during the 13th and 14th centuries CE.[27] European influence grew over the following centuries, culminating in the 19th and early 20th centuries when many parts of Asia came under direct colonial control until the end of World War II.[28] The post-independence period was characterized by modernization, economic growth, and a steep increase in population.[29]

The history of Europe began about 45,000 years ago with the arrival of the first anatomically modern humans.[30] The Ancient Greeks laid the foundations of Western culture, philosophy, and politics in the first millennium BCE.[31] Their cultural heritage continued in the Roman Empire and later the Byzantine Empire.[32] The medieval period began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century CE and was marked by the spread of Christianity.[33] Starting in the 15th century, European exploration and colonization interconnected the globe, while cultural, intellectual, and scientific developments transformed Western societies.[34] From the late 18th to the early 20th centuries, European global dominance was further solidified by the Industrial Revolution and the establishment of large overseas colonies.[35] It came to an end because of the devastating effects of two world wars.[36] In the following Cold War era, the continent was divided into a Western and an Eastern bloc, which later reunified to form the European Union.[37]

In the history of the Americas, the first anatomically modern humans arrived around 20,000 to 15,000 years ago.[38] The Americas were home to some of the earliest civilizations, like the Norte Chico civilization in South America and the Maya and Olmec civilizations in Central America.[39] Over the next millennia, major empires arose beside them, such as the Teotihuacan, Aztec, and Inca empires.[40] Following the arrival of the Europeans from the late 15th century onwards, the spread of newly introduced diseases drastically reduced the local population. Together with colonization and the massive influx of African slaves, it led to the collapse of major empires as demographic and cultural landscapes were reshaped.[41] Independence movements in the 18th and 19th centuries led to the formation of new nations across the Americas.[42] In the 20th century, the United States emerged as a dominant global power and a key player in the Cold War.[43]

The history of Oceania starts with the arrival of anatomically modern humans about 60,000 to 50,000 years ago.[44] They established diverse regional societies and cultures, first in Australia and Papua New Guinea and later also on other Pacific Islands.[45] The arrival of the Europeans in the 16th century prompted significant transformations. By the end of the 19th century, most of the region had come under Western control.[46] Oceania was dragged into various conflicts during the world wars and experienced decolonization in the post-war period.[47]

By theme

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Historians often limit their inquiry to a specific theme belonging to a particular field.[48] Some historians propose a general subdivision into three major themes: political history, economic history, and social history. However, the boundaries between these branches are vague and their relation to other thematic branches, such as intellectual history, is not always clear.[49]

Political history studies the organization of power in society, examining how power structures arise, develop, and interact. Throughout most of recorded history, states or state-like structures have been central to this field of study. It explores how a state was organized internally, like factions, parties, leaders, and other political institutions. It also examines which policies were implemented and how the state interacted with other states.[50] Political history has been studied since antiquity, making it the oldest branch of history, while other major subfields have only become established branches in the past century.[51]

Diplomatic and military history are closely related to political history. Diplomatic history examines international relations between states. It covers foreign policy topics such as negotiations, strategic considerations, treaties, and conflicts between nations as well as the role of international organizations in these processes.[52] Military history studies the impact and development of armed conflicts in human history. This includes the examination of specific events, like the analysis of a particular battle and the discussion of the different causes of a war. It also involves more general considerations about the evolution of warfare, including advancements in military technology, strategies, tactics, and institutions.[53]

Economic history examines how commodities are produced, exchanged, and consumed. It covers economic aspects such as the use of land, labor, and capital, the supply and demand of goods, the costs and means of production, and the distribution of income and wealth. Economic historians typically focus on general trends in the form of impersonal forces, such as inflation, rather than the actions and decisions of individuals. If enough data is available, they rely on quantitative methods, like statistical analysis. For periods before the modern era, available data is often limited, forcing economic historians to rely on scarce sources and extrapolate information from them.[54]

Social history is a broad field investigating social phenomena, but its precise definition is disputed. Some theorists understand it as the study of everyday life outside the domains of politics and economics, including cultural practices, family structures, community interactions, and education. A closely related approach focuses on experience rather than activities, examining how members of particular social groups, like social classes, races, genders, or age groups, experienced their world. Other definitions see social history as the study of social problems, like poverty, disease, and crime, or take a broader perspective by examining how whole societies developed.[55] Closely related fields include cultural history, gender history, and religious history.[56]

Intellectual history is the history of ideas. It studies how concepts, philosophies, and ideologies have evolved. It is particularly interested in academic fields but not limited to them, including the study of the beliefs and prejudices of ordinary people. In addition to studying intellectual movements themselves, it also examines the cultural and social contexts that shaped them and their influence on other historical developments.[57] As closely related fields, the history of philosophy investigates the development of philosophical thought[58] while the history of science studies the evolution of scientific theories and practices.[59] The history of art, another connected discipline, examines historical works of art and the development of artistic activities, styles, and movements.[60]

Environmental history studies the relation between humans and their environment. It seeks to understand how humans and the rest of nature have affected each other in the course of history.[61] Other thematic branches include constitutional history, legal history, urban history, business history, history of technology, medical history, history of education, and people's history.[62]

Others

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Some branches of history are characterized by the methods they employ, such as quantitative history and digital history.[63] Comparative history, for instance, compares historical phenomena from distinct times, regions, or cultures to examine their similarities and differences.[64] Unlike most other branches, oral history relies on oral reports rather than written documents. It reflects the personal experiences and interpretations of what common people remember about the past, encompassing eyewitness accounts, hearsay, and communal legends.[65] Counterfactual history uses counterfactual thinking to examine alternative courses of history, exploring what could have happened under different circumstances.[66] Certain branches of history are distinguished by their theoretical outlook, such as Marxist and feminist history.[67]

Some distinctions focus on the scope of the studied topic. Big history is the branch with the broadest scope, covering everything from the Big Bang to the present.[68] World history is another branch with a wide topic. It examines human history as a whole, starting with the evolution of human-like species.[69] The terms macrohistory, mesohistory, and microhistory refer to different scales of analysis, ranging from large-scale patterns that affect the whole globe to detailed studies of small communities, particular individuals, or specific events.[70] Closely related to microhistory is the genre of historical biography, which recounts an individual's life in its historical context and the legacy it left.[71]

Public history involves activities that present history to the general public. It usually happens outside the traditional academic settings in contexts like museums, historical sites, and popular media.[72]

References

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Notes

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  1. ^ There are disagreements about when exactly each period starts and ends. Alternative subdivisions may use overlapping or radically different time frames.[4]
  2. ^ New diseases and European military aggression and exploitation had severe consequences in the form of a drastic loss of life and cultural disruption among Indigenous communities in the Americas.[10]
  3. ^ Emphasizing the central relation between geography and history, Jules Michelet (1798–1874) wrote in his 1833 book Histoire de France, "without geographical basis, the people, the makers of history, seem to be walking on air".[15]

Citations

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  15. ^ Darby 2002, p. 14
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  19. ^ Asante 2024, p. 92
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  22. ^ Iliffe 2007, pp. 193–195
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  30. ^ Tuniz & Vipraio 2016, p. 12
  31. ^ Roberts 1997, § The Importance of the Classical Past, § The Greeks, § An Attempt to Summarize
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    • Roberts 1997, § The Importance of the Classical Past, § The Rise of Roman Power, § Empire
    • Black 2021, § What is Europe?
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    • Lawson 2024, p. 59–60, 85–86
    • d'Arcy 2012, § The Intersection of European and Indigenous Worlds, § The Impact of Pre-Colonial European Influences, § European Settler Societies and Plantation Colonies
  47. ^
    • d'Arcy 2012, § Times of Anxiety: World Wars, Pandemic, and Economic Depression, § Post-War Themes: The Nuclear Pacific, Decolonization, and the Search for Identity
    • Lawson 2024, p. xii, 2, 96
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  51. ^ Tosh 2002, p. 110
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  60. ^ Potts et al. 1988, pp. 96–104
  61. ^ Hughes 2016, p. 1
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  64. ^ Wong 2005, pp. 416–417
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  68. ^ Bohan 2016, p. 10
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  71. ^ Tosh 2002, pp. 113–115
  72. ^

Sources

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