Hello everyone!
I propose you to think about time.
Time is a mystery.
If I don't think about it, I know what it is,
but if someone asks me: What is time?
I don't know what to say!
Neither I nor anyone else.
Time never stops.
It always moves forward,
never backward.
For example, we cannot go back in time,
to be babies again or return to the mother's womb.
Time is very curious.
Usually, we divide it into three:
the past, the present, and the future.
But the past is past,
so now it no longer exists.
The future has not yet arrived,
so it doesn't exist either.
And the present is very short, it quickly turns into the past.
Notice how fleeting the present is!: Now, now, now... What madness!
And the most curious thing of all
is that the time of all things
is not infinite, it is limited.
There are things that have a long life
and others ephemeral.
For example, a star has a life of millions of years,
but it still ends someday.
Other existences are brief, like a soap bubble,
which has a very short life.
In any case, everything, sooner or later, ends.
Just like living beings,\we also cease to exist.
Therefore, time is the most valuable thing that exists,
more than money, more than gold, more than everything.
We cannot waste time.
We have to make use of our life's time,
value it, preserve it, take care of it.
Do you know how to make good use of time? By learning!
That's why we will learn how humans divide time
when we talk about History.
Basically, into five periods:
Prehistory,
Ancient Age,
Middle Ages,
Modern Age;
and, the Contemporary Era.
Do you know which of the five
is the longest?
Prehistory!
It lasts hundreds of thousands of years!
Prehistory is much longer
than all the other stages combined.
The other periods would fit thousands of times within it.
This stage comprises the long time
from the appearance of humans
through the evolution from hominids
to the invention of writing.
The Prehistory is divided
into three major stages:
the Paleolithic,
the Neolithic
and the Metal Age.
In the Paleolithic period,
humans lived in caves,
but we were nomads, meaning,
we didn't stay in the same place all the time,
according to situations and needs,
we moved from one place to another.
We dressed in animal skins
that we hunted for food.
All the tools we used,
like knives and spears,
we made them with
stones and bones.
In the Neolithic period,
a substantial change occurred:
people stopped being nomads
since they started cultivating the land
to obtain food.
With agriculture, sedentarism was established.
We also started domesticating animals
that provided milk, meat, etc.
Additionally, more complex social
organizations developed.
Each person had a specific assigned task,
they could be farmers, herders, work in a certain sector...
Previously, in the Paleolithic, there were no assigned roles,
everyone did a little bit of everything, whereas, during the Neolithic,
each person had specific tasks.
In the Metal Age,
humans discovered
that with fire they could
melt metals
and even mix them
to create new alloys.
Durable and higher-quality
utensils were created.
The Ancient Age
comprises the period
from 3,000 BC
until the disappearance
of the Roman Empire
in the year 476 AD.
But what does BC or AD mean?
History
has been mostly written by us, the Europeans,
who were mostly Christians.
At that time, it was considered
that the birth of Jesus
was a significant enough date
that marked the year zero
and separated two periods:
before and after Christ.
But around the world,
there are other different systems.
The European-origin system
is the one that separates before and after Christ.
In the Ancient Age,
we find great civilizations,
large human agglomerations,
cities where different cultures developed.
In Egypt, great builders,
constructed the pyramids
that still stand today.
The Greeks
delved into
scientific and philosophical knowledge.
And they created a political system,
different from the previous ones:
democracy,
currently in force.
The Romans
expanded militarily
throughout Europe
and promoted new laws
while spreading the Latin language.
This language expanded
and over time evolved
into our Romance languages:
such as Catalan, Aranese,
Galician, French, etc.
The Middle Ages begins
from the fall
of the Roman Empire,
in the year 476 AD,
until the discovery
of America in 1492.
The Europe of the Middle Ages
was monarchic,
meaning that it was ruled
by a king or a queen
over their territories.
The power
of the king or queen
was granted
by divine right.
To exercise
this absolute power,
they needed the complicity
of the nobles,
who received lands
in exchange for their support
in war,
and unconditional loyalty.
They became their vassals,
and part of their defending army,
guaranteeing their power.
The estate society
was structured
in a pyramid-like manner,
and stratified by classes
determined by birth.
So,
the nobles were
from the cradle
to the grave.
And it was not possible to ascend
from one estate to another. There was no social mobility.
And even though a noble family
could lose its wealth
it didn't lose its social position.
Within the estate system,
privileged classes are distinguished,
the clergy and the nobility,
from the non-privileged classes,
mostly peasants, artisans, etc.,
mostly poor,
and without any power.
Initially, the population lived
in a rural environment,
and engaged in agricultural activities.
But little by little,
a migration
occurred
towards the cities.
Then the cities
were walled,
and as the urban population grew
they became so overcrowded,
that there was not enough space.
and construction began outside the wall.
The beginning
of the Modern Age
is considered to be the discovery of America
and the French Revolution,
with its culmination in 1789.
The term 'discovery of America'
was designated by the Spaniards,
and it is not correct,
as there were already people living
in America before their arrival,
just like in Europe.
hey were mutually unknown to each other,
and it was at that moment
when they met.
However, it was not a happy encounter.
The society of that time
was divided,
and two large groups
were clearly differentiated.
On one side, there were the privileged:
the clergy and the nobles
who lived in luxurious conditions,
had power, carried weapons,
were under different legislation,
exempt from taxes,
owned lands,
resided in grand castles and palaces,
and possessed various properties.
On the other side, there were the non-privileged,
a majority class
living in worse conditions:
the peasants
and the city inhabitants
who formed the bourgeoisie.
The latter were not
allowed to carry weapons,
had to pay taxes,
nd had to give a significant portion of their earnings
through labor.
The lands belonged to the nobles or the clergy,
to whom the bourgeoisie and peasants
paid taxes,
leading to hardship in their lives.
Justice was different depending on who you were;
the laws were much more severe and rigorous
with the non-privileged.
There was a great inequality,
an inheritance, and a continuation of the medieval era.
The economy was based on agriculture, livestock,
and artisanal work.
Those who achieved economic
success became a new class:
the bourgeoisie,
mainly urbanites,
including artisans, skilled workers,
merchants,
and professionals like
notaries and doctors.
As you can see,
the class inequality and the contrast
between the luxurious life of the few and the suffering of the many
generated a conflict of privilege
that brought its consequences...
Not everything was negative during the Modern Age;
there were significant scientific discoveries,
including
Galileo's telescope
and Isaac Newton's
law of gravity.
The Contemporary Age
began with
the French Revolution
in 1789
and continues to the present day.
This is our current era,
the fifth stage
of history that we are living in.
The objective of
the French Revolution
was to abolish the monarchy
and establish a Republic
that would grant
equal rights and freedom to all citizens.
Later on,
the Industrial Revolution
started,
leading to
significant social,
economic, and technological changes.
It transitioned
from individual and traditional artisanal work
to mechanized systems
and partial production in factories, involving the labor of workers.
The Industrial Revolution brought about social changes.
The invention of the steam engine,
which used coal
to produce energy through combustion,
allowed for the operation of machines.
It was applied to transportation:
the steam train was invented,
as well as the steamship,
and thus speed was gained, and distances were shortened
compared to traditional transportation.
Electricity was also invented,
the use of petroleum,
and the chemical sector was developed.
The small tailor and
dressmaking shops
transformed
into large garment factories,
which produced on a large scale
in much less time.
Society remained divided,
now, on one hand, there were
the industrial bourgeoisie
who were the owners of factories,
wealthy people
who obtained business benefits
and on the other hand,
the workers, that is,
the factory workers.
Therefore, society
despite the changes, had not improved
and segregation
by classes continued.
From contemporary technology
both positive
and negative aspects
can be highlighted:
in the scientific field,
we have discovered a series
of planets with water
and with characteristics
similar to those of Earth.
Who knows if they will have life?!
On the other hand, there are negative facts
associated with scientific development,
such as the use of weaponry
with its capacity for mass destruction.
In the artistic field,
significant changes were introduced
and new, unprecedented art forms
such as comics,
animation,
photography, cinema,
video games...
And recently,
humanity has invented machines
that have modified communication
through the use of the internet and mobile phones.
Now I can communicate
with a friend
from distant China.
We can have video calls,
see each other, and talk
in real-time.
In the field of transportation
cars, ships,
motorcycles have been invented...
Even the airplane
and the rocket that can take us
to the Moon.
In the field of medicine,
advancements allow us
to treat and cure diseases
that were previously incurable.
Technologically, humanity
has improved,
but the same cannot be said
about ethics, right?
We are still
selfish beings
since ancient times,
and through all eras
we continue with the same selfishness
but now it is more dangerous than ever
because we have more technological power.
Before, we killed each other in war
with spears or small arms,
now we can use
weapons of mass destruction
that can end everything.
Before, we caught a fish
with a fishing rod,
now with the trawling system,
we capture and kill thousands... And so it goes with everything...
An excessive power for what we are,
it is necessary to reflect on our nature
and seek to put an end to our selfishness
to enable the arrival of a better future
with less suffering
for planet Earth.