HISTORY
OF THOUGHT AND ACTION

HISTORY FOR A JOURNEY IN BEING™

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OUTLINE

Table of Contents

1        History: Introduction

1.1        Reference

1.2        Purposes: History as the ‘Story’ of Thought and Action

1.3        Periods

1.4        Whitehead’s Concept of History

2        History: a Brief Outline

2.1        The Ancient World

2.2        The World: 500 – 1500

2.3        Toward Modernity

2.4        The Age of Revolution

2.5        The Modern World

Most Recent Update


TABLE OF CONTENTS

1        History: Introduction  5

1.1        Reference  5

1.2        Purposes: History as the ‘Story’ of Thought and Action  6

1.3        Periods  6

1.4        Whitehead’s Concept of History  6

1.4.1        Relativity and Focus  6

1.4.2        History as Interplay Between ‘Force’ and ‘Inspiration’ 6

1.4.3        Kinds of Influence  7

1.4.4        Sociological Function, Change and Ideas  7

1.4.5        Modern Cosmology [Metaphysics, World View] and how Individuals Experience their World  7

2        History: A Brief Outline  7

2.1        The Ancient World  7

2.1.1        Before History  7

2.1.1.1        The Universe  7

2.1.1.2        Geological Evolution of Earth: Geochronology  7

2.1.1.3        Evolution of Life on Earth: Biochronology  7

2.1.1.4        Human Evolution  11

2.1.2        The Ancient Near East 11

2.1.2.1        Mesopotamia  11

2.1.2.2        Egypt 11

2.1.2.3        The New Levant: Syria and Palestine  11

2.1.3        Asian Civilization  12

2.1.3.1        Early India  12

2.1.3.1.1        Prehistoric India  12

2.1.3.1.2        Vedic Era  12

2.1.3.1.3        Rise of Jainism and Buddhism   12

2.1.3.2        Early China  12

2.1.3.3        The Chinese Empire: The Formative Period  12

2.1.4        Classical Antiquity: Jews and Greeks  13

2.1.4.1        Jews  13

2.1.4.2        The Great Divide [Omitted] 13

2.1.4.3        The Century of Minor Powers [Omitted] 13

2.1.4.4        Persia and Athens  13

2.1.4.5        The Fourth Century to the Death of Alexander 13

2.1.4.6        The Hellenistic World  14

2.1.5        Classical Antiquity: Rome  14

2.1.5.1        The Roman Republic  14

2.1.5.2        Julius Caesar 14

2.1.5.3        Augustan Empire  14

2.1.5.4        The Later Roman Empire  14

2.1.5.5        Late Roman Society and Culture [Interaction of Power, Knowledge and Faith] 14

2.2        The World: 500 – 1500  15

2.2.1        The Arabs  15

2.2.1.1        The Arabs and the Rise of Islam   15

2.2.1.2        The Disruption and Decline of the Arab Empire  15

2.2.1.3        Islamic Civilization  15

2.2.1.4        Jews in the Arab World  16

2.2.2        Asia and Africa  16

2.2.2.1        Sub-Saharan Africa  16

2.2.2.2        The Chinese Empire: the Great Era  17

2.2.2.3        The Chinese Empire: Foreign Powers  18

2.2.2.4        Early Japan  19

2.2.2.5        India  19

2.2.2.6        Southeast Asia  19

2.2.3        Medieval Europe  20

2.2.3.1        Early Middle Ages  20

2.2.3.1.1        Roman and Byzantine Emperors  20

2.2.3.1.2        Frankish Kings and Western Emperors [Since 800] 20

2.2.3.1.3        German Kings and Emperors  20

2.2.3.1.4        French Kings  20

2.2.3.1.5        Roman Pontiffs  20

2.2.3.1.6        Ecclesiastical Intellectuals  21

2.2.3.2        The High Middle Ages  21

2.2.3.2.1        Roman Pontiffs  21

2.2.3.2.2        German Emperors  21

2.2.3.2.3        English and French Princes  21

2.2.3.2.4        Orders of the Church  21

2.2.3.2.5        Churchmen and Intellectuals  21

2.2.3.2.6        Church Councils  22

2.2.3.3        The Late Middle Ages  22

2.2.3.3.1        Princes and Dynasties  22

2.2.3.3.2        Soldiers, Magistrates, Artists, and Businessmen  22

2.2.3.3.3        Intellectuals  22

2.2.3.4        The Jews in Medieval Europe  22

2.2.4        Byzantium   23

2.2.4.1        Early Byzantium   23

2.2.4.2        Later Byzantium   24

2.2.4.3        The Slavs and Early Russia  25

2.3        Toward Modernity  27

2.3.1        The Renaissance and Reformation in Europe  27

2.3.1.1        The State System of the Italian Renaissance  27

2.3.1.2        Humanism and Society  27

2.3.1.3        Renaissance Art 28

2.3.1.4        The Reformation: Doctrine  28

2.3.1.5        The Reformation: Society  29

2.3.1.6        The Counter Reformation  29

2.3.2        Building the Early Modern State  30

2.3.2.1        The Golden Age of Spain  30

2.3.2.2        The Rise of the Dutch Republic  31

2.3.2.3        The Collapse of France  31

2.3.2.4        Elizabethans and Puritans  33

2.3.2.5        The Thirty Years’ War 34

2.3.2.6        The Rise of Modern Political Thought 35

2.3.3        Toward One World  35

2.3.3.1        The Commercial Powers  35

2.3.3.2        The Ottoman Empire  36

2.3.3.3        European Voyages of Exploration  37

2.3.3.4        India: 1500-1700  38

2.3.3.5        Japan and China  38

2.3.3.6        Aztec and Inca Civilizations  39

2.3.3.7        Spain and Portugal in America  39

2.3.3.8        The Settlement of North America  40

2.3.4        The Enlightenment 41

2.3.4.1        The Scientific Revolution  41

2.3.4.2        Society and Politics  42

2.3.4.3        Science Versus theology  43

2.4        The Age of Revolution  43

2.4.1        Europe: the Great Powers  43

2.4.1.1        Forming Nation States  43

2.4.1.2        The Age of Louis Xiv  44

2.4.1.3        Europe in the 18th Century  45

2.4.2        Revolution in the Western World  45

2.4.2.1        The American Revolution  45

2.4.2.2        The French Revolution  46

2.4.3        Reaction and Rebellion  46

2.4.3.1        The Napoleonic Era  46

2.4.3.2        The United States: 1789-1823  47

2.4.3.3        Liberation Movements in Europe  48

2.4.3.4        Liberation Movements in Latin America  48

2.4.3.5        The Near East 49

2.4.4        The Industrial Revolution  50

2.4.4.1        The Industrial Revolution in England  50

2.4.4.2        The Spread of Industrialization  51

2.4.4.3        A World Economy  51

2.4.5        New Forces, New Ideas  51

2.4.5.1        Romanticism and After 51

2.4.5.2        From Liberalism to Democracy  52

2.4.5.3        The Rise of Socialism   52

2.4.5.4        The Antislavery Impulse in America  53

2.4.5.5        Unification Movements  54

2.5        The Modern World  54

2.5.1        Toward Disintegration  54

2.5.1.1        Imperialism in Africa  54

2.5.1.2        American Imperialism   55

2.5.1.3        China Under the Impact of the West 55

2.5.1.4        India Under British Rule  56

2.5.1.5        Darwin and Freud  56

2.5.1.6        The Great Powers to the Verge of War 57

2.5.2        The Great War: 1914–1945  58

2.5.2.1        World War I 58

2.5.2.2        The Russian Revolution and the Stalin Era  58

2.5.2.3        The United States: Prosperity and Depression  59

2.5.2.4        Modern China  59

2.5.2.5        Modernizing Japan  59

2.5.2.6        Nationalism in India  60

2.5.2.7        Europe Between the Wars  60

2.5.2.8        World War II 61

2.5.3        The Brooding Present 62

2.5.3.1        Europe Since World War II 62

2.5.3.2        The  Cold War 62

2.5.3.3        Latin America in Ferment 63

2.5.3.4        The Middle East Since 1940  63

2.5.3.5        Africa Since 1945  64

2.5.3.6        The New Asia  64

2.5.3.7        The United States Since Word War II 65

2.5.3.8        The State of Culture Today  66

Most Recent Update  67


1           HISTORY: INTRODUCTION

1.1         REFERENCE

The outline below is compiled and taken from John A. Garraty and Peter Gay, eds., The Columbia History of the World, 1972; and thus there is no present claim to originality in content or organization

In purpose, however, there is no explicit dependence on the above or other work; naturally, of course, I absorb and process existing thought, such as may have come to my attention

1.2         PURPOSES: HISTORY AS THE ‘STORY’ OF THOUGHT AND ACTION

To give a sense of the processes and forces involved with sufficient focus on:

Showing the interplay of ideas and action

Areas of consideration: religion, myth, art and literature; philosophy, humanities, and the study of history; technology, science, and mathematics; economic, exploration, commercial and trade; law, military and political; education, meaning, journey, and commitment

The general and the singular and their interplay in history and power

The general: populations that may be thought of as homogeneous for the purposes of the account, their processes and their interactions; patriarchalism

The singular: individuals and singular events or small focal groups of the same – especially those that are at focal points of history; charisma

Showing the dynamics without having to resort to explicit theory or concept; events and interactions will be selected to show the dynamics and trends as a picture… without requiring or denying any inference of pattern or predictability especially a principle of pattern or predictability that can be generalized to application to all history

An outline for History, a possible future work mentioned above

A framework for Journey in Being… especially the studies toward Journey in Being – see Design for a Journey in Being… for:

Philosophy

Knowledge; the academic disciplines

Influence – History, the present document, as a History of Influence

Being and its variety; Being and its Journey in Transformation

1.3         PERIODS

There was originally a section that characterized periods of history according to ‘sentiment’ e.g. the time from prehistory till 700 BC may have been labeled ‘myth,’ 700 BC to 300 AD ‘philosophy,’ 300 AD to 1500 AD ‘chaos,’ and 1500 AD till the present ‘exploration and science’

The intention was to use a suggestive character as a label. However, the labels are caricatures and the old system is abandoned

1.4         WHITEHEAD’S CONCEPT OF HISTORY

The source for this section is A. N. Whitehead, Adventures of Ideas, 1933

1.4.1        Relativity and focus

Whitehead emphasizes the commonplace acknowledgement of interpretation as relative and theoretical

He notes that Adventures of Ideas focuses on European History and its sources in Greek and Hebrew culture and civilization; the book is, in part, an attempt to identify the theoretical background of meaning and interpretation for the European tradition

1.4.2        History as interplay between ‘force’ and ‘inspiration’

[A special case of variation and selection]

Force is ‘blind’; inspiration includes ideas and criticism; no novelty is ever entirely novel: even within ‘force’ there is a constructive element

The history of civilization is the history (adventure) of ideas

Examples of force and ideas in European History: barbarians and Christianity; industrial revolution and democracy

Whitehead would put ‘barbarians’ in quotes for this designation is from the European perspective; objectively, for Europe, ‘barbarians’ functioned as ‘force’

Whitehead, notes this as an example of relativity of perspective in that the culture and ideas of the barbarians –e.g. the Goths and other invading peoples– were advanced and refreshing

1.4.3        Kinds of influence

Society, function, change in interaction with ideas

Modern cosmology or ‘world view’ influences how individuals experience their world

1.4.4        Sociological function, change and ideas

The human soul and the humanitarian ideal

Aspects of freedom; from force to persuasion

Foresight [and understanding which results in foresight] in social function

1.4.5        Modern cosmology [metaphysics, world view] and how individuals experience their world

Cosmology. Nature and the laws of nature; four types of cosmology: cosmology is expressed in laws or understanding of the patterns of nature regarding whose character there are four classic kinds of interpretation; these are the schools of immanence, of imposition, of mere description [positivism,] and of conventional interpretation; cosmology, science and faith

Philosophy. Objectivity and subjectivity; Cartesianism; time, coherences; appearance and reality; and philosophic method

Civilization. Truth, beauty, adventure, and peace


2           HISTORY: A BRIEF OUTLINE

2.1         THE ANCIENT WORLD

2.1.1        Before History

2.1.1.1         The Universe

Here, I omit details; the history of the universe may later be covered in Physics, below and subsequently

The idea of an initial singularity [big bang] may explain features of the known or visible universe; this does not imply that the history of the entire universe known and unknown is described by such a singularity. The domain of the unknown is, almost without doubt, much larger if not infinitely larger than that of the known. From physical cosmology it is understood that the known universe, almost homogeneous on a large scale, is, perhaps, a mere bubble in a much larger arena

From the sections on nothingness and general cosmology in Journey in Being, a foundation of the vast spatio-temporal extent and variety of larger arena, the one universe, may be seen in indeterminism and the void. From the non-spatiotemporal, acausal void arises space-time-actuality and causation and law; and law includes physics but is not restricted to the physics of the known universe and may be much more varied

2.1.1.2         Geological Evolution of Earth: Geochronology

2.1.1.3         Evolution of Life on Earth: Biochronology

ERA

PERIOD

EPOCH

TIME OF BEGINNING
[millions of years ago]

GEO- AND BIOLOGICAL EVENTS

ARCHEOZOIC

PROTEROZOID

[primitive and soft life forms]

Precambrian periods

Numerous minor sub-divisions of only local application

4,600

Origin of earth and solar system

4,000 [?]

Origin of life in a reducing atmosphere leading later to production of oxygen

2,500 [?]

Photosynthetic oxygen; permitted first global oxidation of iron ores

1,500 [?]

First primitive soft-bodied animals; main types of invertebrates and some aquatic plants

700

Great Eocambrian Ice Age

PALEOZOIC

[origin and rise of shelled invertebrates and vertebrates; abundance of fishes and amphibians; first reptiles]

Cambrian

 

600

Many aquatic, some land plants; trilobites, brachiopods and many other invertebrates; first shell-forming invertebrates – attributed to rising alkalinity of the ocean: shell fossils common

Ordovician

 

500

Ice Age in Africa

Earliest known chordates; graptolites and corals widespread

Silurian

 

435

Caledonian mountain building

Club mosses and other primitive land plants abundant; some arthropods may have invaded land

Devonian

 

395

Acadian mountain building

Fishes abundant; first amphibians; many land arthropods; first horse-tails, ferns, liverworts

Carboniferous

Mississippian

345

Huge forests of primitive plants; great coal age, reduction of carbon dioxide and rise in atmospheric oxygen

Age of amphibians

Pennsylvanian

310

Hercynian-Appalachian mountain building

Reptiles appear

Permian

 

280

Ice age in South America, Africa, Australia, India and Antarctica

Extinction of many Paleozoic organisms such as trilobites; amphibians decrease in influence

MESOZOIC

[Age of Reptiles]

Triassic

 

230

Beginning of major continental drift; world-wide red beds

Forests of conifers and cycads; Age of Reptiles begins: reptiles abundant and varied; first mammals

Jurassic

 

180

Age of Ammonites; mild world climate; first birds

Cretaceous

 

135

Age of Chalk [planktonic foraminifera;] extinction of dinosaurs and many other Mesozoic organisms; flowering plants appear

CENOZOIC

[Age of Mammals]

Tertiary

Paleocene

67

Alpine mountain building world-wide and continuing through the Tertiary period

Mammals abundant; first primates; flowering plants abundant

Eocene

58

 

Oligocene

36

 

Miocene

25

Evolution of grasses and modern type mammals and birds

Pliocene

Earliest hominids

7

Increasing mountain glaciation

Freezing of Antarctic begins 3 – 4 million years ago; 20 to 90 thousand year Milankovitch [Yugoslav scientist who worked out the mathematics of their prediction] cycles of glaciation and mild climate results in buildup of Antarctic ice since less ice melts than was formed each cycle, in drier climate and lower ocean levels

Earliest known human [hominid] fossils 4 million years ago from the Omo River in Ethiopia; for purposes of demarcation, Man is defined as the primate that habitually makes and uses tools. The earliest hominids are collectively known as Australopithecines but there is speculation though no clear evidence that the earliest Australopithecines were associated with tools

Quaternary

[Except for the Holocene, the dates are not known to be exact; and there is difficulty with correlation of glacial periods to the north and periods of intense rain in the tropical and subtropical belts]

Pleistocene

2

Great Ice Age, time of Stone Age man; growth of major deserts

Villafranchian or Early Pleistocene

Earliest fossil evidence of hominids

2 [2,000,000]

The earliest evidence that at least some Australopithecines were human in character comes form Olduvai Gorge in Tanganyika: where fossils dated at 1,750,000 years old are associated with crude stone tools made for chopping. The Australopithecines form two major groups: Australopithecus –smaller and more delicate– and Paranthropus, larger, heavier boned, roughly the size of a gorilla. It has been speculated that Australopithecus was more modern and evolved, and provided the tools to Paranthropus who may have furnished part of Australopithecus’ diet

The advance and retreat of glaciers pushes climate belts toward and away from the equator; drier conditions lead to thinning of sub-tropical belts and desertification; buildup of mountains due less erosion; and successive glaciations scoured deeper and deeper valleys; and consequent saltation along all the great rivers where numerous fossils ranging from ancestral horse to mammoth of the period are found

The regular use and making of tools provides relative adaptive advantages but also increases importance of adaptation to the behavioral environment especially the flexible thumb and upright posture for the use of tools

Early Middle Pleistocene

0.6 [600,000]

Günz [Nebraskan in America] and Mindel [Kansan] Glaciations, First Interglacial period

Paranthropus dies out but may have interbred with Australopithecus; thus the latter or both are at the root of Modern Man

Hominids spread from tropical Africa, north to North Africa and Europe, east across southern Asia as far as China. The earlier fossils belong to the evolutionary stage Pithecanthropus, intermediate between Australopithecus and Paranthropus; they were successful hunters especially of deer, used fire, ate their dead; much is known about their skeletal remains but little about their tools which were primitive choppers and flakes

Late Middle Pleistocene

0.275 [275,000]

Second Interglacial and Riss [Illinoian] Glaciation

Many human artifacts but few fossils from this period have been found – the Steinhem [Germany] and Swanscombe [England] skulls; brain size was comparable to that of modern man and show a combination of modern and primitive characteristics; use of primitive tools coexist with the Biphase tradition – chipped on both faces, spread throughout Africa, western and southern Europe, southern Asia as far as India, resulting in refinement of hand axes, new tool forms and techniques and an aesthetic element: this later technology required an opposable thumb but this does not mean that the different traditions were those of fundamentally different kinds of men

Most uniquely human behavioral patterns were probably established by the end of this period if not earlier including: language and transmission of culture, permanent association of males and females in small food-getting and child-rearing units co-evolving with year round availability of the female