Human civilisation across the history . . .

As I done a little bit of housekeeping, I accidentally stumbled one of my long hold forgotten possession of photocopied scrapbook assignments of Form 5 Sejarah. At that time, i did not have Computer much less the 56K Internet and no Google/Wikipedia for easy copying. :( [In my opinion, kids nowadays got very lucky ! ] so my assignment is purely done by referencing from many books in libraries writing on pieces of paper a.k.a hard copy.

P.S: The history assignment is originally done in BM so I directly translate into English here for sake of the readers who accidentally stumbles into this sites also PLEASE check out the facts before blindly copying these summary to your assignment , O.K ? If you do that, that is called plagiarism .

So below, is this the shortest summary of the entire human civilisation in the brief existence of hundred thousand years which is way more shorter compared to the Dinosaur period.

Prehistoric Ages
50,000 B.C - 5,000 B.C
It is first marked by when the pre-humans walked on this face on earth, started to live in communities (usually in caves) , using simplistic primitives tools a.k.a fixing sharpened stones to the sticks to make a spear which is known as hafting. In this ages  , the primitive humans also accidentally discovered fire that helped to cook food, melting irons, scare away large fierce animals and beasts and help keeps the cold away. It is probably estimated that the humans living in this ages are probably did not live of more than 40 years of age and which makes them aware of their own mortality. They indulged in shamanic practices, ancestor worship and rituals. As the society grows into a sizable communities from the hunters and foragers into different layers of society and more complex. This epoch ended by the singular centralized authority ( government ) and presence of hierarchical social structures.

Copper Age
5,000 B.C - 2,000B.C
It is first marked by when the human discovered metal such as copper, iron , gold and silver on the face on the earth.The copper is very prized due to its durability and malleability which means that copper is easily to be shaped into any different sizes and shape. Due to its properties, copper is widely used as coins which ends the barter trading system and mark an revolutionary beginning in currency trading and later the silver and gold were used due to their untarnished reputation. And also it is as preferred metal used in weapons smithing. In the recent archeological digging, the copper mace found dated to as far as from 3000 B.C. However, not all weapons are converted directly into copper usage such as bow and arrows. The arrows are still used widely because of its same lethality and stone ease of availability. Another milestones achieved in this epoch is the human discard nomadic lifestyle of hunting and gathering into permanent settlement lifestyle of farming agriculture. This is the main importance characteristic of an civilisation. The epoch ends when human starts to farming the crops and also the first traces of animal domestication activities can be found here in this epoch. The animals are usually reared for its meat and dairy products and also powered the tools used in farming. The first known civilisation is Sumeria civilisation in southern Mesopotamia in around 5,000 B.C.

Bronze Age
2,000 B.C - 0 A.D
The metallurgy field also expanded tremendously in this era as human maybe accidentally discovered the best portions of smelting bronze ( 1 part of tin : 10 parts of copper ). This discovery marks the triumph in metallurgy as the values of finding stronger metals were not lost among the ancient metal smiths. This epoch also features the sword as true weapons which does not have a secondary functions and also some interesting military formations used such as phalanx. Phalanx is the military tactics devised by Philip II of Macaedon whose son Alexander the Great is conquering much of the Asia Minor in their conquest campaigns. In this epoch, the wealthy prosperous cities are guarded with strong and improved fortifications made of sturdy granites and strong heavy woods. In counter effect, the invading army also devices new siege inventions such as battering ram by Assyrians, stone trebuchet catapult and siege towers by the Greeks. The first law created in the world, Code of Hammurabi were first legislated and enforced in Ancient Babylonian. Medicine practices also expanded tremendously within this era as the Hippocrates swears his own oath known as Hippocrates Oath which are basically the the thumb rule of medical practitioner must follow. Also it is in this time, the human understanding of the diseases is caused by bodily affliction to natural causes as compared to supernatural causes before the advances of the medicines practices. Besides the formal educations is the peak of this epoch achievement as where the nobles in Greece who had amount of wealth send their offspring to study philosophy, literacy, etiquette and other subjects as the roots of formal educations can be traced back to prestigious Academy founded by Plato in around 387BC. The epoch is ended by the fall of the Roman Empire.

Dark Ages
0 A.D - 900 A.D
The end of Roman Empires is the starts of this epoch. This era is also where weapon smith found that iron could supersede bronze in terms of their durability and weight. The Gothic Visigoth triumph over the Rome in the Battle of Adrianopole. The city of Rome were brought to ruins later in 410 A.D.  However, the Rome supremacy did not ended as the pockets of Romes civilisation exists under the shadows of mighty Rome Empire which is the Eastern Rome of Byzantines. It is here where the Emperor Constantinople legitimize the Christianity in 330 A.D as he convert to Christians allowing the Christianity to spread. It continues it reign in its power in 1000 years more before the fall. The Byzantine empire is a might in its own power as the naval armada improve sailing method by improvised lateen sails and the ballistic missiles which can transverse hundreds of meters over the enemies fortifications. On the land, however is another type of heavy calvary units of cataphract, well armed and heavily armoured calvary soldiers. On splintered Western Empire (Western Europe), the Emperor had tried to reunify the Roman Empires but due to conflict views of religious issues, Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholics remained separated until to this day. The system ends with the rise of feudal system introduced across the land.

Middle Ages
900 A.D - 1300 A.D
The re-emergence of centralized authority and the technological advancement occurs in this era in a much more localized version. A local lord ruled a villages which are villages surrounded by high walls as the serfs is working on the land and armoured knight patrols the land and served in the lord's retinue. The well built castle were the ultimate defence mechanism at that period as the gun powder discovery lead to inventions of cannon which will make defence a bit more challenging. Therefore in this era, the architecture are expanding to make the castle much more tougher and invention of flying buttress  makes the cathedral more spacious. In this era, the Holy War between Islam and  Christians ravages across the holy sites including Jerusalem. There are total of 8 major Crusades launched to retake the Holy Land with few successful attempts but in no time, the Muslim warriors will retake it back.  However, in the home the first papal Inquisition is under the way to expose the heretics. Middle Ages ended as the Europe is undergoing Age of Enlightenment.

Renaissance
1300 A.D - 1500 A.D
The age of enlightenment is usually the epoch where the process of gradually recovering the past ancient knowledges in Europe.It literally means "rebirth". The first known Renaissance movement begins in Italy and swept across the Europe advocating the technological innovations and also the ways of thinking. A priest, Martin Luther find a innovations to the mass printing methods which leads to inventions of movable printing press and leads to mass products of books. As a result, the literacy rate increased more than ever as a preparation to the ages that are coming. The bubonic plague by name of Black Death is also forcing the reconstruction of sewers and garbage disposal system on very large scale that have not been undertook since fall of Roman Empire. The concept of quarantine is also introduced in this era which is basically controlling the spread of disease within an area.
. In firearm warfare,the early artillery pieces and firearms, such as the culverin and matchlock arquebus, began to appear on the battlefield.  Castles were easily breached by the new artillery and eventually became obsolete.  But early gunpowder weapons were unreliable, slow to load, and dangerous to operate.Thus, their superiority over more traditional forms of weaponry, such as the longbow, was not to be fully demonstrated until the 1600 A.D.

Imperial Age
1500 A.D - 1700 A.D
In this epoch, humans curiousity about the lands across the seas therefore the invention of large scale ships capable of navigating across the oceans marks the beginning of this epoch. In the quest of the conquering other nations, better designs of firearm were used. Flintlock musket which are faster to reload and cheaper to mass produce were replacing earlier version of  matchlock.   The era of archer is slowly meeting its demise as the firearms becomes more widespread. In 1688 , Napoleon army introduces bayonet that would actually replace the melee weapon all together. It is the revolution shift from medieval warfare transformed into modern warfare. The science in this era is going underway with its impressive achievements and the emphasis on empirically collected data and reproducible experiment results which marks the beginning of modern scientific method.

Industrial Age
1700 A.D - 1900 A.D
From the science revolution in Imperial Age, it had profound effect on the thinkings that science is the answer to everything. The scientific revolution also make a major breakthrough in civilisation. In medicine field, the discovery that the microbes pathogen are cause for many ailments lead to pasteurization and antiseptic inventions. Darwin theory of revolution with the Greoger Mendel works on genetic and hereditary makes an impact on deeper understanding of diversity of lives. Electricity had finally found its practical uses as electric batteries and generators were invented to perform all sorts of feat. Electricity also performs revolutionary trend in this era as it transform communication landscape from telegraph and telephone and also incandescent lamp bulb to replace gas lamp later in the turn of 1900 A.D.

Atomic Age 
1900 A.D - 2000 A.D
It is hard to decide when the atomic ages really started but the starting of World War I in a sense rapidly changing the modern warfare landscape. Many nations involved in the war in 1914 with no clear indication of clear victors for many months.  WWI ended in 1918 with 8 million dead. The combat warfare changes as ships are being made from steel, stealthy submarines can wreak havoc on unsuspecting ships and in skies aircraft were fitted with gun machines. Hundred thousands of lives were sacrificed on the battlefield for the minor gain and to break the defences of trenches and pillbox defence, tank were being in development. However, the entry of US into WWI are considered to be the tipping points of the balances and brought to the end of WWI in 1918. In WWII, the tanks and aeroplane are vastly superior to WWI model. The Battle of Britain is fight much on the air shows the importance of air power had changed during the few years. The scientific achievement by Project Manhattan also produces one of the frightening scientific achievement of Atomic Age: The splitting of atom which leads to development of atomic bombs which closes the horror story of WWII. But no individual technology or weapon was responsible for bringing the war to an end.  Rather, it was technology as a whole – both on and off the battlefield that decided the outcome of WWII.  In that respect, it foreshadowed the future of combat. As microchip were invented, more and more sophisticated and advance military hardware were invented. Advances in computers and communications were not limited to military uses however , these technologies revolutionised business and industry, as well as the private lives of millions of people.  Soon, they defined a new Epoch of human development.

Fuh... What an translation. It might looks like it is taken from Civilisation 4 game manual but it is the pain staking research I had done by myself . :P