The Super Summary of World History (4 page)

5.
Tesla
&
Electricity
Generation
(AD
1881,
first
US
Electrical
power
plant).

6.
World
War
I,
and
World
War
II
(
AD
1914
-
1945)
.

7.
World
Population
explosion
(AD
1800
on).

8.
The
Start
of
the
Latest
Interglacial
Period
(15,000
BC)
.

9.
The
Fall
of
the
Western
(AD
455)
and
the
Eastern
Roman
Empire
(AD
1453).

10.
The
Discovery
of
the
New
World
(AD
1492).

11.
The
Industrial
Revolution
(AD
1804,
first
locomotive
).

12.
The
Black
Plague
(AD
1341
China,
1347
Europe).

13.
Pasteur’s
theory
of
germs
(AD
1864).
Start of medical advances.

14.
The
Invention
of
Flight
(
AD
1903).
Leads to satellites, moon landing, jet aircraft etc.

15.
The
rise
of
Megacities
(AD
1950).

16.
The
Invention
of
the
Microprocessor
(AD
1971,
first
types).

17.
The
Invention
of
the
telephone
(
AD
1876)
. Leads to radio, TV, cell phones, etc.

18.
Plato,
Aristotle
(
429
BC).
Philosophy begins.

19.
The
Theory
of
Relativity
and
Quantum
Mechanics
(AD
1905).
Start of modern science.

20.
The
Invention
of
the
Internet
(AD
1974).

_______________________________________________________

21.
The
philosophic/religious
Wars
of
Communism
(1917)

Some of these items, such as the telephone, represent the start of a tremendous advance covering many areas. Religious events are excluded. Which was more important, the birth of Christ, Mohammad, Buddha, or Lao Zi? All this will depend upon one’s religious beliefs, so all of them are excluded.

In this study of history, I conclude that
people
are
both
rational
and
irrational.
In matters of science, engineering, and basic economic decisions people are at least 80 percent rational; however, in matters of politics, religion, social interaction, philosophy, and law people are at least 80 percent irrational. This dualistic nature of humankind is the source of many problems, and it is seemingly part of our genes. In this case, rational means the actions (or events, or results) can be understood on many levels by most people, can be copied for the betterment of all (or the vast majority), and can be built upon for advancement. Irrational is the opposite in that the actions cannot be understood on any level by most people, and if copied or built upon would bring immense harm.

Throughout this history I have sacrificed exactness for readability. Many statements are “slam dunk,” such as, in the reign of Augustus, the Pax Romana ushered in two hundred years of peace. Well, in fact, it did not because there was at least one civil war within the empire and other minor wars on the boarders, but to go into all the detail would destroy the readability of the text and ruin the super summary concept.

I apologize for the quality of the maps herein. Please use the Internet references to see the maps (and photographs) in full color, and in a size that is easy to read. The Internet, especially Wikipedia and Olga’s Gallery (
http://www.abcgallery.com
), is a wonderful source for viewing historical art in full color.

Good reading!

AD2

Dedications

To: My Wife,
Lori
, who puts up with all this history stuff, and her grandson Zimri (Z-man) for all the joy he brings into our lives.

To:
Clarice
Young,
who read over endless amounts of text looking for errors, and was good-natured about it. How do people do that? And to Charlie Young, whose thoughts helped me delve deeper into history.

To: Dr.
Sally
A.
Schumacher
, my high school history teacher who taught me to love history, and
Mrs.
Grey
my grade school teacher who saved my academic life when she had the South High School counselors put me into college prep classes—over their objections.

To:
Sam
McCall
, of Bakersfield Jr. College who taught me to look at the big picture in history, and to the
entire
staff
of
Bakersfield
Jr.
College
who were nonpareil in their instruction of this struggling and starving student.

To: Rita Rowland, Gary Lack, Allen Shaw, Gary Fachin, Tim Otto, Trudy Slater, Debbie Lund (faithful secretary and proof reader), Christopher Noyes, the Gifford family who saved me from starving while I was in college, especially Gail, Glen Spickler who looked after me in times of need, the Honorable Richard Oberholzer, Milo Hall, Dennis Sherman, a Bible teaching pastor, Ralph Kahlen and his dad who told me about the Eastern Front in WWII, Connie L. Daniel (mother), James R. Daniel (father), James K. Daniel (son), Cristin Daniel (daughter), Charlie Daniel (brother), and other friends too numerous to mention who have supported my fascination with history—or at least put up with it.

Thank
You
, thank you, one and all.

AD2

 
Chapter 1

Prehistory 150,000 BC to 3,500 BC (approximate)

Going back to the very beginning of time we discover the
Big
Bang
started the entire universe off about 13 to 15 billion years ago. Currently accepted theories (Einstein’s Theories of Relativity for example) hold that our entire universe started out as a point far smaller than the period at the end of this sentence—in fact, smaller than an atom. Before the Big Bang space, time, and matter did not exist—at least as we know them. Then, for unknown reasons, the small point began to expand rapidly. An “explosion,” of sorts took place and the entire universe began to expand from that infinitesimal point. Researchers studying space are discovering leftovers from the big bang; for example, the cosmic radiation present everywhere we look in space. Scientists are finding numerous other proofs of this long past mysterious event; thus, the Big Bang theory enjoys wide scientific support. It is difficult to imagine stuffing all the matter from over 200 billion galaxies into an area much smaller than a pinpoint. Nonetheless, that is where our theories and our mathematics leave us. Thus, the mystery lingers.

While many interesting things go on in the first few billionths of a second after the Big Bang occurred one phenomenon is especially intriguing—
inflation.
As originally proposed, the Big Bang theory could not explain the universe as it exists now. Explaining the present nature of our universe required something more, for example, why does the universe have a uniform temperature, how could atoms come into existence, and the how did the basic forces controlling matter come about? Mr. Alan Guth, a physicist, came up with an explanation now termed “inflation.” Mr. Guth theorized that at 10
-36
(that means a 10 with 36 zeros after it) of a second after the Big Bang the universe accelerated its speed of expansion, and this speed was incredibly different from the normal speed of the expansion—
faster
than
the
speed
of
light
. At 10
-34
of a second this acceleration (inflation) stopped. Thus, for something like three times less than a trillionth of a second the universe expanded at a rate more than 100 times greater than normal, then it went back to its normal rate of expansion. Without this inflationary period our universe would not exist. Alternatively, if the inflation took place for a different length of time our universe would not exist. Fundamentally, any change in the time of inflation destroys the ability of matter and atoms to come into existence. Brian Greene has a good explanation of this phenomenon for the non-scientist in
The
Elegant
Universe
, Greene, Vintage Books, 2003, page 355 et seq.

Our universe contains mysteries so deep that we earthlings may not solve them. As we have seen, the Big Bang theory states the universe started with a massive “explosion” of sorts; then, as the universe sailed off creating space, time, matter, and whatnot it cooled off and began to form atoms. From those atoms the universe, and our small blue world, were constructed—we think. What we measure and study here on earth is the framework for exploring the known universe; however, recent discoveries call into question the assumption that the universe works the same in deep space as it does here on earth. Astronomers discovered that the galaxies we observe are not slowing down as they travel away from one another—they are speeding up! As we know from watching explosions here on earth, gravity slows down the flying debris and soon the explosion is over. If gravity acts the same way in deep space the galaxies should be slowing down, but they are not. Astronomers say this acceleration is a function of “dark energy,” an unexplained force in the universe. In another problem, astronomers found that atoms make up only four percent (4%) of the universe. The rest of the universe is some kind of “dark matter.” As dark matter and dark energy are concepts without foundations here on earth they are beyond scientific explanation at this point in time. In fact, they are little more than names. These mysteries may defy solution if we fail to reach beyond our solar system.

Here we may note the vastness of the universe. One light year is about six trillion miles, and it takes 100,000 light years to cross the
Milky
Way
—our galaxy. The Milky Way may contain as many as 3 trillion stars (suns). From our sun it would take about 26,000 light years to reach the center of our galaxy. Our sun, which is at the end of one of several arms spiraling out from the center of our galaxy, revolves around the center of the Milky Way about once every
220
million
years
. The size of the universe is tough to determine, but the observable matter is about
93
billion
light
years
across.
Even our solar system is large. Neptune, the most distant planet from the sun in our system, is 2.8 billion miles away. No matter how one slices it the universe is a
big
place.