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History Of The World

History of the World

Article printed from World Book INFORMATION FINDER.

WORLD, HISTORY OF THE (Introduction)

WORLD, HISTORY OF THE. People have probably lived on the earth about 2
million years. But the story of world history begins only about 5,500
years ago with the invention of writing. The period before people began to
write is usually called prehistory.

Archaeologists have pieced together the story of prehistory by studying
what the people left behind, including artwork, tools, ruins of buildings,
fossils, and even their own skeletons. Such objects provide the main
evidence of what prehistoric people were like and how they lived. For a
description of life in prehistoric times, see the Information Finder
article PREHISTORIC PEOPLE.

The first traces of writing date from about 3500 B.C. From then on,
people could record their own history. By writing down their experiences,
they could tell future generations what they were like and how they lived.
From these documents, we can learn firsthand about the rise and fall of
civilizations and the course of other important events. The history of the
world--from the first civilizations to the present--is based largely on
what has been written down by peoples through the ages.

The development of agriculture about 9,000 B.C. brought about a great
revolution in human life. Prehistoric people who learned to farm no longer
had to roam in search of food. Instead, they could settle in one place.
Some of their settlements grew to become the world's first cities. People
in the cities learned new skills and developed specialized occupations.
Some became builders and craftworkers. Others became merchants and priests.
Eventually, systems of writing were invented. These developments gave rise
to the first civilizations.

For hundreds of years, the earliest civilizations had little contact
with one another and so developed independently. The progress each...