The Contemporary Age began about two hundred years
ago and was a time of industry and changes in society. New inventions like the
steam engine changed the way that people lived and worked. The steam engine
made work quicker and easier. It was used in machines and transport.
Factories made mass-produced products. People moved
to towns and cities for work and urban populations increased. Cities grew
and changed. There were new streets and shops. There were services such as
schools, hospitals and public transport.
There were also important scientific inventions during this
period, such as the discovery of electricity. Some inventions in medicine
included the x-ray and vaccinations. Some inventions in communication were the
radio and the telephone.
The Modern Age began
about five hundred years ago. Small kingdoms came together to form big
countries with one king, and these countries started to explore the world. This
period was a time of discovery and scientific inventions.
Inventions such as the compass
and more accurate maps meant that people could travel to new places without
getting lost, and discover new lands and new products.
In 1492, an explorer
called Christopher Columbus sailed west in his ship. He wanted to travel around
the world to reach Asia in the East, but instead Columbus travelled west and
reached the New World which we now call America.
An important invention of the
Modern Age was Gutenberg's printing press. The invention meant that it was
quicker and cheaper to produce books and maps.
The Middle Agesbegan about 1500 years ago. During this
period, two civilizations lived in the Iberian Peninsula: Christian
civilization and the Islamic civilization.
The Christian civilization in the Iberian Peninsula began
when the Romans arrived. Christian Spain was divided into areas called
kingdoms. Each of these kingdoms had a king. The kingdoms attacked each other,
so people built castles and walls to defend their towns and cities.
The Christian civilisation built religious buildings such
as churches and cathedrals.
During this period, there were four groups of
Christians:
a) The nobles owned the land given
to them by the king. They lived in castles.
b) The clergy were the religious people
of the Middle Ages. They looked after their own land and helped the poor. They
could often read and write in Latin.
c) The craftmen were skilled
workers and made products from materials such as glass ans wood.
d) The peasants worked hard on the land
of the nobles. The peasants didn´t receive a salary, but the nobles gave them
protection.
The Islamic civilization in the Iberian Peninsula began when
the Muslims arrived from the North of Africa. The Islamic civilization built
religious buildings such as mosques.
Ancient history began more than four thousand years ago,
when people invented writing. During this time, the first civilisations
developed in countries such as: Greece, Egypt, China and Mexico.
People in these first civilisations lived together in
communities and didn´t have to move from place to place to find food aand
shelter. This meant that they had time to build cities with public and private
buildings, write laws, develop skills and have jobs.
Civilisation: (noun) a society that shares the same culture
and institutions.
One of the most important civilisations in ancient history
was the Roman Civilisation. Roman territory was called the Roman Empire and the
capital of the Roman Empire was Rome. The Romans had a strong army and this
helped increase their territory. The Romans arrived in the Iberian Peninsula
about two thousand years ago.
A) The Romans built outdoor theathres called amphitheatres
where people watched fights between gladiators, and between gladiators and wild
animals.
B) The Romans built stone roads to connect cities.
C) The Romans built bridges over rivers.
D) The Romans built aqueducts to carry water from rivers and
lakes to cities.
Prehistory is the period from when the first humans
existed about two million years ago, until the invention of writing.
Although people living during this period couldn´t write,
they could leave some historical sources. These historical sources mean that we
can learn about prehistory.
There are two main periodsof prehistory: the Palaeolithic
period and the Neolithic period.
In the Palaeolithic period, people were nomads. This means
that they moved from place to place to look for food and shelter. They used
stone, wood and bones to make simple tools.
In the Neolithic period, people started to live in one place
and form communities. They started to grow crops and keep domestic animals.
They used stone and metal to make more complex tools.
History is
everything that happened in the past. History is important because we can learn
from the past. We can understand why things happen in our world and use this
information to make our lives better.
We can use historical sources to learn about history. Historical sources are
objects that give us information about the past. Historical sources can be photos,
paintings, written documents, buildings or objects that people used in the past.
We can use measurements of time to organize information
about the past.
· A year is made up of twelve months.
· A decade is made up of ten years.
· A century is made up of one hundred years.
· A millennium is made up of one thousand years.
We can divide history into five main periods:Prehistory,
Ancient history, the Middle Ages, the Modern Age, and the Contemporary Age.