WORLD HISTORY

World history or global history as a field

of historical study examines history from a
global perspective. It emerged centuries ago;
leading practitioners have
World History has often displaced Western
Civilization in the required curriculum of
American high schools and universities, and is
supported by new textbooks with a world history
approach.
World History attempts to recognize and
address two structures that have profoundly
shaped professional history-writing:
1. A tendency to use current nation-states to
set the boundaries and agendas of studies
of the past.
 2.A deep legacy of Eurocentric assumptions
(found especially, but not only, in Western
history-writing).
Thus World History tends to study networks,
connections, and systems that cross traditional
boundaries of historical study like linguistic,
cultural, and national borders. World History is
often concerned to explore social dynamics that
have led to large-scale changes in human
society, such as industrialization and the spread
of capitalism, and to analyse how large-scale
changes like these have affected different parts
of the world. Like other branches of history-
writing in the second half of the twentieth
century, World History has a scope far beyond
historians' traditional focus on politics, wars,
and diplomacy, taking in a panoply of subjects
like gender history, social history, cultural
history, and environmental history
History[edit]
Pre-modern[edit]
The study of world history, as distinct from
national history, has existed in many world
cultures. However, early forms of world history
were not truly global, and were limited to only
the regions known by the historian.
In Ancient China, Chinese world history, that of
China and the surrounding people of East Asia,
was based on the dynastic cycle articulated
by Sima Qian in circa 100 BC. Sima Qian's
model is based on the Mandate of Heaven.
Rulers rise when they united China, then are
overthrown when a ruling dynasty became
corrupt.[9] Each new dynasty begins virtuous and
strong, but then decays, provoking the transfer
of Heaven's mandate to a new ruler. The test of
virtue in a new dynasty is success in being
obeyed by China and neighboring barbarians.
After 2000 years Sima Qian's model still
dominates scholarship, although the dynastic
cycle is no longer used for modern Chinese
history.[10]
In Ancient Greece, Herodotus (5th century BC),
as founder of Greek historiography,[11] presents
insightful and lively discussions of the customs,
geography, and history of Mediterranean
peoples, particularly the Egyptians. However,
his great rival Thucydides promptly discarded
Herodotus's all-embracing approach to history,
offering instead a more precise, sharply
focused monograph, dealing not with vast
empires over the centuries but with 27 years of
war between Athens and Sparta. In Rome, the
vast, patriotic history of Rome by Livy (59 BC-
17 AD) approximated Herodotean
inclusiveness;[12] Polybius (c.200-c.118 BC)
aspired to combine the logical rigor of
Thucydides with the scope of Herodotus.[13]
Rashīd al-Dīn Fadhl-allāh Hamadānī (1247–
1318), was a Persian physician of Jewish
origin, polymathic writer and historian, who
wrote an enormous Islamic history, the Jami al-
Tawarikh, in the Persian language, often
considered a landmark in intercultural
historiography and a key document on the
Ilkhanids (13th and 14th century).[14] His
encyclopedic knowledge of a wide range of
cultures from Mongolia to China to the Steppes
of Central Eurasia to Persia, the Arabic-
speaking lands, and Europe, provide the most
direct access to information on the late Mongol
era. His descriptions also highlight the manner
in which the Mongol Empire and its emphasis
on trade resulted in an atmosphere of cultural
and religious exchange and intellectual ferment,
resulting in the transmission of a host of ideas
from East to West and vice versa.
One Muslim scholar, Ibn Khaldun (1332-1409)
broke with traditionalism and offered a model of
historical change in Muqaddimah, an exposition
of the methodology of scientific history. Ibn
Khaldun focused on the reasons for the rise
and fall of civilization, arguing that the causes of
change are to be sought in the economic and
social structure of society. His work was largely
ignored in the Muslim world.[15] Otherwise the
Muslim, Chinese and Indian intellectuals held
fast to a religious traditionalism, leaving them
unprepared to advise national leaders on how
to confront the European intrusion into Asia
after 1500 AD

Early modern[edit]
During the Renaissance in Europe, history was
written about states or nations. The study of history
changed during
the Enlightenment and Romanticism. Voltaire descri
bed the history of certain ages that he considered
important, rather than describing events in
chronological order. History became an independent
discipline. It was not called philosophia
historiae anymore, but merely history (historia).
Voltaire, in the 18th century, attempted to
revolutionize the study of world history. First,
Voltaire concluded that the traditional study of
history was flawed. The Christian Church, one of the
most powerful entities in his time, had presented a
framework for studying history. Voltaire, when
writing History of Charles XII (1731) and The Age of
Louis XIV (1751), instead choose to focus
economics, politics and culture.[16] These aspects of
history were mostly unexplored by his
contemporaries and would each develop into their
own sections of world history. Above all else,
Voltaire regarded truth as the most essential part of
recording world history. Nationalism and religion
only subtracted from objective truth, so Voltaire
freed himself for their influence when he recorded
history.[17]
Giambattista Vico (1668–1744) in Italy
wrote Scienza nuva seconda (The New Science) in
1725, which argued history as the expression of
human will and deeds. He thought that men are
historical entities and that human nature changes
over time. Each epoch should be seen as a whole in
which all aspects of culture—art, religion,
philosophy, politics, and economics—are
interrelated (a point developed later by Oswald
Spengler). Vico showed that myth, poetry, and art
are entry points to discovering the true spirit of a
culture. Vico outlined a conception of historical
development in which great cultures, like Rome,
undergo cycles of growth and decline. His ideas
were out of fashion during the Enlightenment, but
influenced the Romantic historians after 1800.
A major theoretical foundation for world history was
given by German philosopher G. W. F. Hegel, who
saw the modern Prussian state as the latest (though
often confused with the highest) stage of world
development.
G.W.F. Hegel developed three lenses through which
he believed world history could be viewed.
Documents produced during a historical period, such
as journal entries and contractual agreements, were
considered by Hegel to be part of Original History.
These documents are produced by a person
enveloped within a culture, making them conduits of
vital information but also limited in their contextual
knowledge. Documents which pertain to Hegel’s
Original History are classified by modern historians
as primary sources.[18]
Reflective History, Hegel’s second lens, are
documents written with some temporal distance
separating the event which is discussed in the
academic writing. What limited this lens, according
to Hegel, was the imposition of the writers own
cultural values and views on the historical event.
This criticism of Reflective History was later
formalized by Anthropologists Franz Boa and coined
as Cultural relativism by Alain Locke. Both of these
lenses were considered to be partially flawed by
Hegel.[19]
Hegel termed the lens which he advocated to view
world history through as Philosophical History. In
order to view history through this lens, one must
analyze events, civilizations, and periods objectively.
When done in this fashion, the historian can then
extract the prevailing theme from their studies. This
lens differs from the rest because it is void of any
cultural biases and takes a more analytical approach
to history. World History can be a broad topic, so
focusing on extracting the most valuable information
from certain periods may be the most beneficial
approach. This third lens, as did Hegel’s definitions
of the other two, affected the study of history in the
early modern period and our contemporary period.[20]
Another early modern historian was Adam
Ferguson. Ferguson’s main contribution to the study
erous and more continual and substantial in recent
times. Before about 1500, the network of
communication between cultures was that of
Eurasia. The term for these areas of interaction
differ from one world historian to another and
include world-system and ecumene. Whatever it is
called, the importance of these intercultural contacts
has begun to be recognized by many scholars

hoped his predictions of the collapse of European

empires would soon come true.[38]
In 1936–1954, Toynbee's ten-volume A Study of
History came out in three separate installments. He
followed Spengler in taking a comparative topical
approach to independent civilizations. Toynbee said
they displayed striking parallels in their origin,
growth, and decay. Toynbee rejected Spengler's
biological model of civilizations as organisms with a
typical life span of 1,000 years. Like Sima Qian,
Toynbee explained decline as due to their moral
failure. Many readers rejoiced in his implication (in
vols. 1–6) that only a return to some form of
Catholicism could halt the breakdown of western

all cultures. World historians use

a thematic approach, with two major focal
points: integration (how processes of world
history have drawn people of the world
together) and difference (how patterns of world
history reveal the diversity of the human
experience)

Jerry H. Bentley has observed that 'the

term world history has never been a clear
signifier with a stable referent', and that usage
of the term overlaps with universal
history, comparative history, global history, big
history, macro history, and transnational history,
among others.[2]
The advent of world history as a distinct
academic field of study can be traced to the
1960s, but the pace quickened in the 1980s.[3]
  A key step was the creation of the World
[4]

History Association and graduate programs at a

handful of universities. Over the next decades
scholarly publications, professional and
academic organizations, and graduate
programs in World History proliferated. World
History has often displaced Western Civilization
in the required curriculum of American high
schools and universities, and is supported by
new textbooks with a world history approach.
World History attempts to recognize and
address two structures that have profoundly
shaped professional history-writing:
A tendency to use current nation-states to
1.

set the boundaries and agendas of studies

of the past.
A deep legacy of Eurocentric assumptions
(found

of world history was his An Essay on the History of

Civil Society (1767).[21] According to Ferguson, world
history was a combination of two forms of history.
One was natural history; the aspects of our world
which god created. The other, which was more
revolutionary, was social history. For him, social
history was the progress humans made towards
fulfilling God’s plan for humanity. He believed that
progress, which could be achieved through
individuals pursuing commercial success, would
bring us closer to a perfect society; but we would
never reach one.[22] However, he also theorized that
a complete dedication to commercial success could
lead to societal collapse—like what happened in
Rome—because people would lose morality.
Through this lens, Ferguson viewed world history as
humanities struggle to reach an ideal society.[23]
Henry Home, Lord Kames was a philosopher during
the Enlightenment and contributed to the study of
world history. In his major historical work, Sketches
on the History of Man, Home’s outlined the four
stages of human history which he observed.[24] The
first and most primitive stage was small hunter-
gatherer groups. Then, in order to form larger
groups, humans transitioned into the second stage
when they began to domesticate animals. The third
stage was the development of agriculture. This new
technology established trade and higher levels of
cooperation amongst sizable groups of people. With
the gathering of people into agricultural villages,
laws and social obligations needed to be developed
so a form of order could be maintained. The fourth,
and final stage, involved humans moving into market
towns and seaports where agriculture was not the
focus. Instead, commerce and other forms of labor
arouse in a society. By defining the stages of human
history, Homes influenced his successors. He also
contributed to the development of other studies such
as sociology and anthropology.[25]
The Marxist theory of historical materialism claims
the history of the world is fundamentally determined
by the material conditions at any given time – in
other words, the relationships which people have
with each other in order to fulfil basic needs such as
feeding, clothing and housing themselves and their
families.[26] Overall, Marx and Engels claimed to have
identified five successive stages of the development
of these material conditions in Western Europe.
[27]
 The theory divides the history of the world into the
following periods:[28][29][30][31][32] Primitive communism;
Slave society; Feudalism; Capitalism; and Socialism.
Regna Darnell and Frederic Gleach argue that, in
the Soviet Union, the Marxian theory of history was
the only accepted orthodoxy, and stifled research
into other schools of thought on history.[33] However,
adherents of Marx's theories argue that Stalin
distorted Marxism.[34]
Contemporary[edit]
World history became a popular genre in the 20th
century with universal history. In the 1920s, several
best-sellers dealt with the history of the world,
including surveys The Story of Mankind (1921)
by Hendrik Willem van Loon and The Outline of
History (1918) by H.G. Wells. Influential writers who
have reached wide audiences include H. G.
Wells, Oswald Spengler, Arnold J. Toynbee, Pitirim
Sorokin, Carroll Quigley, Christopher Dawson,
[35]
 and Lewis Mumford. Scholars working the field
include Eric Voegelin,[36] William Hardy
McNeill and Michael Mann.[37] With evolving
technologies such as dating methods and surveying
laser technology called LiDAR, contemporary
historians have access to new information which
changes how past civilizations are studied.
Spengler's Decline of the West (2 vol 1919–1922)
compared nine organic cultures: Egyptian (3400 BC-
1200 BC), Indian (1500 BC-1100 BC), Chinese
(1300 BC-AD 200), Classical (1100 BC-400 BC),
Byzantine (AD 300–1100), Aztec (AD 1300–1500),
Arabian (AD 300–1250), Mayan (AD 600–960), and
Western (AD 900–1900). His book was a smashing
success among intellectuals worldwide as it
predicted the disintegration of European and
American civilization after a violent "age of
Caesarism," arguing by detailed analogies with other
civilizations. It deepened the post-World War I
pessimism in Europe, and was warmly received by
intellectuals in China, India, and Latin America who
hoped his predictions of the collapse of European
empires would soon come true.[38]
In 1936–1954, Toynbee's ten-volume A Study of
History came out in three separate installments. He
followed Spengler in taking a comparative topical
approach to independent civilizations. Toynbee said
they displayed striking parallels in their origin,
growth, and decay. Toynbee rejected Spengler's
biological model of civilizations as organisms with a
typical life span of 1,000 years. Like Sima Qian,
Toynbee explained decline as due to their moral
failure. Many readers rejoiced in his implication (in
vols. 1–6) that only a return to some form of
Catholicism could halt the breakdown of western
civilization which began with the Reformation.
Volumes 7–10, published in 1954, abandoned the
religious message, and his popular audience slipped
away, while scholars picked apart his mistakes.,[39]
McNeill wrote The Rise of the West (1963) to
improve upon Toynbee by showing how the
separate civilizations of Eurasia interacted from the
very beginning of their history, borrowing critical
skills from one another, and thus precipitating still
further change as adjustment between traditional old
and borrowed new knowledge and practice became
necessary. McNeill took a broad approach organized
around the interactions of peoples across the Earth.
Such interactions have become both more num

of world history was his An Essay on the History of

Civil Society (1767).[21] According to Ferguson, world
history was a combination of two forms of history.
One was natural history; the aspects of our world
which god created. The other, which was more
revolutionary, was social history. For him, social
history was the progress humans made towards
fulfilling God’s plan for humanity. He believed that
progress, which could be achieved through
individuals pursuing commercial success, would
bring us closer to a perfect society; but we would
never reach one.[22] However, he also theorized that
a complete dedication to commercial success could
lead to societal collapse—like what happened in
Rome—because people would lose morality.
Through this lens, Ferguson viewed world history as
humanities struggle to reach an ideal society.[23]
Henry Home, Lord Kames was a philosopher during
the Enlightenment and contributed to the study of
world history. In his major historical work, Sketches
on the History of Man, Home’s outlined the four
stages of human history which he observed.[24] The
first and most primitive stage was small hunter-
gatherer groups. Then, in order to form larger
groups, humans transitioned into the second stage
when they began to domesticate animals. The third
stage was the development of agriculture. This new
technology established trade and higher levels of
cooperation amongst sizable groups of people. With
the gathering of people into agricultural villages,
laws and social obligations needed to be developed
so a form of order could be maintained. The fourth,
and final stage, involved humans moving into market
towns and seaports where agriculture was not the
focus. Instead, commerce and other forms of labor
arouse in a society. By defining the stages of human
history, Homes influenced his successors. He also
contributed to the development of other studies such
as sociology and anthropology.[25]
The Marxist theory of historical materialism claims
the history of the world is fundamentally determined
by the material conditions at any given time – in
other words, the relationships which people have
with each other in order to fulfil basic needs such as
feeding, clothing and housing themselves and their
families.[26] Overall, Marx and Engels claimed to have
identified five successive stages of the development
of these material conditions in Western Europe.
  The theory divides the history of the world into the
[27]

following periods:[28][29][30][31][32] Primitive communism;

Slave society; Feudalism; Capitalism; and Socialism.
Regna Darnell and Frederic Gleach argue that, in
the Soviet Union, the Marxian theory of history was
the only accepted orthodoxy, and stifled research
into other schools of thought on history.[33] However,
adherents of Marx's theories argue that Stalin
distorted Marxism.[34]
Contemporary[edit]
World history became a popular genre in the 20th
century with universal history. In the 1920s, several
best-sellers dealt with the history of the world,
including surveys The Story of Mankind (1921)
by Hendrik Willem van Loon and The Outline of
History (1918) by H.G. Wells. Influential writers who
have reached wide audiences include H. G.
Wells, Oswald Spengler, Arnold J. Toynbee, Pitirim
Sorokin, Carroll Quigley, Christopher Dawson,
[35]
 and Lewis Mumford. Scholars working the field
include Eric Voegelin,[36] William Hardy
McNeill and Michael Mann.[37] With evolving
technologies such as dating methods and surveying
laser technology called LiDAR, contemporary
historians have access to new information which
changes how past civilizations are studied.
Spengler's Decline of the West (2 vol 1919–1922)
compared nine organic cultures: Egyptian (3400 BC-
1200 BC), Indian (1500 BC-1100 BC), Chinese
(1300 BC-AD 200), Classical (1100 BC-400 BC),
Byzantine (AD 300–1100), Aztec (AD 1300–1500),
Arabian (AD 300–1250), Mayan (AD 600–960), and
Western (AD 900–1900). His book was a smashing
success among intellectuals worldwide as it
predicted the disintegration of European and
American civilization after a violent "age of
Caesarism," arguing by detailed analogies with other
civilizations. It deepened the post-World War I
pessimism in Europe, and was warmly received by
intellectuals in China, India, and Latin America who
hoped his predictions of the collapse of European
empires would soon come true.[38]
In 1936–1954, Toynbee's ten-volume A Study of
History came out in three separate installments. He
followed Spengler in taking a comparative topical
approach to independent civilizations. Toynbee said
they displayed striking parallels in their origin,
growth, and decay. Toynbee rejected Spengler's
biological model of civilizations as organisms with a
typical life span of 1,000 years. Like Sima Qian,
Toynbee explained decline as due to their moral
failure. Many readers rejoiced in his implication (in
vols. 1–6) that only a return to some form of
Catholicism could halt the breakdown of western
civilization which began with the Reformation.
Volumes 7–10, published in 1954, abandoned the
religious message, and his popular audience slipped
away, while scholars picked apart his mistakes.,[39]
McNeill wrote The Rise of the West (1963) to
improve upon Toynbee by showing how the
separate civilizations of Eurasia interacted from the
very beginning of their history, borrowing critical
skills from one another, and thus precipitating still
further change as adjustment between traditional old
and borrowed new knowledge and practice became
necessary. McNeill took a broad approach organized
around the interactions of peoples across the Earth.
Such interactions have become both more num
included Voltaire (1694-1778), Hegel (1770-
1831), Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Arnold J.
Toynbee (1889-1975). The field became much
more active (in terms of university teaching, text
books, scholarly journals, and academic
associations) in the late 20th century. It is not to
be confused with comparative history, which,
like world history, deals with the history of
multiple cultures and nations, but does not do
so on a global scale. World history looks for
common patterns that emerge across
of world history was his An Essay on the History of
Civil Society (1767).[21] According to Ferguson, world
history was a combination of two forms of history.
One was natural history; the aspects of our world
which god created. The other, which was more
revolutionary, was social history. For him, social
history was the progress humans made towards
fulfilling God’s plan for humanity. He believed that
progress, which could be achieved through
individuals pursuing commercial success, would
bring us closer to a perfect society; but we would
never reach one.[22] However, he also theorized that
a complete dedication to commercial success could
lead to societal collapse—like what happened in
Rome—because people would lose morality.
Through this lens, Ferguson viewed world history as
humanities struggle to reach an ideal society.[23]
Henry Home, Lord Kames was a philosopher during
the Enlightenment and contributed to the study of
world history. In his major historical work, Sketches
on the History of Man, Home’s outlined the four
stages of human history which he observed.[24] The
first and most primitive stage was small hunter-
gatherer groups. Then, in order to form larger
groups, humans transitioned into the second stage
when they began to domesticate animals. The third
stage was the development of agriculture. This new
. Scholars working the field include Eric Voegelin,
[36]
 William Hardy McNeill and Michael Mann.[37] With
evolving technologies such as dating methods and
surveying laser technology called LiDAR,
contemporary historians have access to new
information which changes how past civilizations are
studied.
together) and difference (how patterns of world
history reveal the diversity of the human
experience)

Jerry H. Bentley has observed that 'the

term world history has never been a clear
signifier with a stable referent', and that usage
of the term overlaps with universal
history, comparative history, global history, big
history, macro history, and transnational history,
among others.[2]
The advent of world history as a distinct
academic field of study can be traced to the
1960s, but the pace quickened in the 1980s.[3]
[4]
 A key step was the creation of the World
History Association and graduate programs at a
handful of universities. Over the next decades
scholarly publications, professional and
academic organizations, and graduate
programs in World History proliferated.
included Voltaire (1694-1778), Hegel (1770-
1831), Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Arnold J.
Toynbee (1889-1975). The field became much
more active (in terms of university teaching, text
books, scholarly journals, and academic
associations) in the late 20th century. It is not to
be confused with comparative history, which,
like world history, deals with the history of
multiple cultures and nations, but does not do
so on a global scale. World history looks for
common patterns that emerge across
of world history was his An Essay on the History of
Civil Society (1767).[21] According to Ferguson, world
history was a combination of two forms of history.
One was natural history; the aspects of our world
which god created. The other, which was more
revolutionary, was social history. For him, social
history was the progress humans made towards
fulfilling God’s plan for humanity. He believed that
progress, which could be achieved through
individuals pursuing commercial success, would
bring us closer to a perfect society; but we would
never reach one.[22] However, he also theorized that
a complete dedication to commercial success could
lead to societal collapse—like what happened in
Rome—because people would lose morality.
Through this lens, Ferguson viewed world history as
humanities struggle to reach an ideal society.[23]
Henry Home, Lord Kames was a philosopher during
the Enlightenment and contributed to the study of
world history. In his major historical work, Sketches
on the History of Man, Home’s outlined the four
stages of human history which he observed.[24] The
first and most primitive stage was small hunter-
gatherer groups. Then, in order to form larger
groups, humans transitioned into the second stage
when they began to domesticate animals. The third
stage was the development of agriculture. This new
. Scholars working the field include Eric Voegelin,
[36]
 William Hardy McNeill and Michael Mann.[37] With
evolving technologies such as dating methods and
surveying laser technology called LiDAR,
contemporary historians have access to new
information which changes how past civilizations are
studied.
together) and difference (how patterns of world
history reveal the diversity of the human
experience)

Jerry H. Bentley has observed that 'the

term world history has never been a clear
signifier with a stable referent', and that usage
of the term overlaps with universal
history, comparative history, global history, big
history, macro history, and transnational history,
among others.[2]
The advent of world history as a distinct
academic field of study can be traced to the
1960s, but the pace quickened in the 1980s.[3]
[4]
 A key step was the creation of the World
History Association and graduate programs at a
handful of universities. Over the next decades
scholarly publications, professional and
academic organizations, and graduate
programs in World History proliferated.