Summary
Throughout history there have been moments that changed everything: the great milestones. To order them, historians divide time into great ages: Prehistory, the Ancient Age, the Middle Ages, the Modern Age and the Contemporary Age, in which we live.
Each age begins or ends with an important event: the invention of writing, the fall of the Roman Empire in 476, the discovery of America in 1492, the French Revolution in 1789… Knowing these milestones and the order in which they happened helps to understand how we got to today.
Key points
- History is divided into great ages to order time.
- The ages: Prehistory, Ancient, Medieval, Modern and Contemporary.
- Writing marks the shift from Prehistory to History.
- The fall of Rome (476) separates the Ancient Age from the Medieval.
- The discovery of America (1492) opens the Modern Age.
- The French Revolution (1789) opens the Contemporary Age.
- Ordering the milestones helps to understand how we got to today.