EARLY CIVILIZATIONS AND THE DAWN OF THE MEDIEVAL AGE 1.0 Introduction History is an account of man’s achievements during the last five thousand years. Though man has been on this planet for about 500,000 years, history only covers a part of this period. The reason for this is that history is essentially based on written documents However the art of writing become known to man, only after 3000 B. C. 1.1 History : Meaning and Importance The word ’history’ is derived from the Greek noun ’historia’ meaning ’inquiry or research.’ Aristotle regarded it as a "systematic account of a set of natural phenomena, whether or not chronological ordering was a factor in the account." The term "history" has now come to be applied to accounts of events that are narrated in a chronological order, and deal with the past of mankind. Learning by inquiry about the past of mankind was later developed into a discipline by the Greek historians Thucydides and Heredeotus (who is popularly known as ’Father of History’). E. H. Carn defined history as an "unending dialogue between the present and the past." Jawaharlal Nehru observed that man’s growth from barbarism to civilization is supposed to be the theme of history." Will Durant called history "a narrative of what civilized men have thought or done in the past time." World history is primarily concerned with the evolution of mankind. It traces the whole story of man as well as of his progress in civilization a culture from the dim past up to the present day. It indicates his failures and his successes, describes his laws and his wars, and reveals his religions and his arts. It gives an account of the significant developments that took place in the past with reference to the countries and the men and women who played a noteworthy part. Thomas Carlyle, a famous historian of the French revolution regards world history as the "biography of great men." The ...
