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Classical Liberal Arts Academy

World Chronology

Lesson 01

Before you begin:  Each lesson in the Chronology program has two parts:  a Lesson and Memory Work.  When you have read your lessons carefully and memorized your assigned events, you can complete your lesson examination.  If you don't pass your examination, go back, review and try it again.  This page is designed to be printed for use away from the computer.

1.  Print World Chronology Timeline

2.  Lesson

Directions:  Read the following lesson carefully.  You must know everything in it to pass your lesson examination.

Lesson

1.  This lesson begins our course in world chronology. The word "chronology" comes from two Greek words: chronos (time) and logos (science). Therefore, we'll be studying the "science of time".

2.  Look at your chronology chart. What you will see is that there are four events written in bold print and underlined.  These are the only items we will worry about in lesson 01.  Can you find them?  They are:

1.  The Ancient World (3500-750 BC)
2.  The Classical World (750 BC - 500 AD)
3.  The Medieval World (500 AD - 1500 AD), and
4.  The Modern World (1500 AD to the present day).

3.  We begin with 3500 BC because this is as far back as human records go.  The oldest writing we have seems to come from the ancient Sumerians. So we start with them.  Ancient history continues until 750 BC, when a Greek poet named Homer writes the Iliad and the Odyssey.  Find that event on your chart.  This allows us to look at the time in two different ways:

1.  by dates:  3500 BC to 750 BC, and
2.  by events:  from the Sumerian Civilization to Homer.

This is how we want to understand history:  by both dates and events.  Sometimes, the dates will help us remember the events, and other times the events will help us remember the dates.  We must always know both.

4.  When Homer writes the Iliad and Odyssey, we move into the Classical World.  By "Classical" we mean the world of Greek and Roman Civilization.  The Classical World continues through Greek history and into Roman history.  It ends after the fall of Rome in 476 AD--roughly 500 AD.  So, again, we know the period by dates and events:

1.  by dates:  750 BC to 500 AD, and
2.  by events:  from Homer to the Fall of the Roman Empire.

5.  When the Roman Empire falls, Christianity takes over the world.  This age is called the "Medieval" world, which simply means "Middle Ages".  This is not a very nice way to think of this period.  After all, when something is called "the middle" it seems to be in between two more important things.  This age is an age where religion dominated life and many modern people don't like that idea.  Therefore, they often say this was an "middle period" in between two better periods:  the Classical and Modern worlds.  Obviously, Catholic Christians don't believe this at all!  In the Medieval we find many of the most famous saints:  St. Francis, St. Dominic, St. Catherine, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Joan of Arc and many more.  This is one great example of how our view of history can be controlled by the people who write the books. 

The Medieval World closes when America is discovered, around 1500. Therefore, again, we know the period by dates and events: 

1.  by dates:  500 AD to 1500 AD, and
2.  by events:  from the Fall of Rome to the Discovery of America.

 6.  The final period of world history is the one in which we live:  the Modern World.  This began around 1500 with the discovery of America and continues today.  Thus, to wrap up:

1.  by dates:  1500 AD to the present, and
2.  by events:  from the Discover of America to this very day.

7.  There are two things we must discuss before moving any further, and these will end this first lesson.  The first is the system we use for giving dates to events and the second is an easy way to understand the "flow" of world history.

You can see that when we write a date, it is followed by BC or AD.  In the ancient world, people didn't say, "I was born in 750 BC." because BC stands for "before Christ".  No one knew when Christ would come, especially in pagan countries.  Most nations dated events by who was in power as, "In the year King Uzziah died...".  In classical Rome, events were dated "AUC" or ab urbe condita,  or "from the founding of the city of Rome".  Cicero died, for example, in 710 AUC.  Caesar died in 711 AUC.  However, after the fall of Rome, a system was designed to date all events in world history by the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ. 

Thus, ancient events were numbered backwards from our Lord's birth, and events after His birth were numbered forward--this can be confusing.  Originally, events before Christ's birth were dated "ACN", or "ante Christum natum", or "before Christ was born" and events after his birth were numbered "AD" or "anno Domini", or "in the year of our Lord".  Over time, we have kept the Latin initials AD, but we use the English initials BC for "before Christ".  So, events that took place before Christ was born are labeled "BC" and events since our Lord's birth are labeled "AD".  Remember:  AD does not mean "After Death".

This leads to a timeline like this:

8.  Lastly, we need to look at the place where these things take place.  When we look at a world map, Rome is always near the center.  To the far east is China and to the far West is America. The Ancient World takes place in the lands of the Bible, which we call the "Middle East".  The Classical World centers in Greece and Rome.  The Medieval World centers in Europe. Lastly, the Modern World has centered in America.  What we see is that from the beginning of the world, there has been a movement of civilization from the Middle East to the West.  This is called "Western Civilization".  Eastern Civilization is very different and is that of China, India and Japan.  The developments of Western Civilization haven't affected Eastern Civilization very much and the two divisions represent two very different worlds.

Directions:  Using your World Chronology Timeline, locate the following events and highlight them.  These mark the four ages of World Chronology.  Read each date and event and recite it several times.  By daily repetition, thoroughly memorize these events.  Memorize them using your complete chart so that you can "see" the chart in your mind.

1.  3500 BC -   750 BC   Ancient World

2.    750 BC -   500 AD  Classical World

3.    500 AD - 1500 AD  Medieval World

4.  1500 AD - Present    Modern World

Directions:  When you have completed all of your assignments above, complete your lesson exam.