Human history, or world history, is the record of humankind from prehistory to the present. Modern humans evolved in Africa around 300,000 years ago and initially lived as hunter-gatherers. They migrated out of Africa during the Last Ice Age, spreading to every continent except Antarctica by its end, 12,000 years ago. Soon afterwards, the Neolithic Revolution in West Asia included the first systematic husbandry of plants and animals, and saw many humans transition from nomadic lives to sedentary existences as farmers in permanent settlements. The growing complexity of human societies necessitated systems of accounting and writing. Early civilizations then emerged in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Peru, the Indus Valley, and China, marking the beginning of the ancient period in the 4th millennium BCE. These civilizations enabled the establishment of regional empires and provided fertile ground for transformative philosophical and religious ideas. Hinduism originated during the late Bronze Age and was followed by the many seminal belief systems of the Axial Age: Buddhism, Confucianism, Greek philosophy, Jainism, Judaism, Taoism, and Zoroastrianism. Christianity began later as an offshoot of Judaism. The subsequent post-classical period, from about 500 to 1500 CE, included the rise of Islam and the flourishing of China under the Tang and Song dynasties while civilization expanded to new parts of the world and trade between societies increased. Major empires rose and fell, such as the Byzantine Empire, the Islamic caliphates, and the Mongol Empire. This period's invention of gunpowder and the printing press greatly affected later history. During the early modern period, from approximately 1500 to 1800 CE, European powers explored and colonized regions worldwide, intensifying cultural and economic exchange. This era's intellectual, cultural, and technological changes in Europe included the Renaissance, Reformation, Scientific Revolution, and Enlightenment. By the 18th century, the accumulation of knowledge and technology had reached a critical mass that brought about the Industrial Revolution, underpinning the Great Divergence and began the modern period starting around 1800 CE. The rapid growth in productive power further increased international trade and colonization, linking the different civilizations in the process of globalization and cementing European dominance throughout the 19th century. Over the last 250 years, which included two devastating world wars, there has been a great acceleration in many spheres, including human population, agriculture, industry, commerce, scientific knowledge, technology, communications, military capabilities, and environmental degradation. The study of human history relies on insights from academic disciplines such as history, archaeology, anthropology, linguistics, and genetics. To provide an accessible overview, researchers divide human history by a variety of periodizations.
Prehistory
Human origins
Humans evolved in Africa from great apes through the lineage of hominins, which arose 7–5 million years ago. Unlike other primates, hominins developed bipedalism, the ability to walk on two legs. Hominins began to use rudimentary stone tools c. 3.3 million years ago, marking the advent of the Paleolithic era. Early hominin evolution coincided with climatic changes in Africa that made the continent drier, colder, and less forested. These changes, and especially the cycle of alternating glacial and interglacial periods that began 3.2 million years ago, may have been key drivers of human evolution. The genus Homo evolved from Australopithecus. The earliest record of Homo is a 2.8 million-year-old jawbone from Ethiopia, and the earliest named species is Homo habilis which evolved by 2.3 million years ago. The most important difference between Homo habilis and Australopithecus was a 50% increase in brain size. H. erectus evolved about 2 million years ago and was the first hominin species to leave Africa and disperse across Eurasia. Perhaps as early as 1.5 million years ago, but certainly by 400,000 years ago, hominins began to use fire for heat and cooking. Beginning about 600,000 years ago, Homo diversified into several new species, first H. heidelbergensis in Africa and Europe and then the Neanderthals in Europe and the Denisovans in Siberia. Human evolution was not a simple linear or branched progression but involved interbreeding between related species. Neanderthals, Denisovans, Homo sapiens, and other unidentified hominins all interbred with one another and hybridized.
Early humans
Homo sapiens evolved in Africa around 300,000 years ago from H. heidelbergensis. Humans continued to develop over the succeeding millennia and became anatomically modern by 125,000 years ago. By 100,000 years ago they buried their dead, wore jewelry, and adorned the body with red ochre. One of the most important changes (the date of which is unknown) was the development of syntactic language, which dramatically improved the human ability to communicate. Paleolithic humans lived as hunter-gatherers and were generally nomadic. Signs of early artistic expression can be found in the form of cave paintings and sculptures made from ivory, stone, and bone. The cave paintings suggest a form of spirituality generally interpreted as animism or shamanism. The earliest known musical instruments besides the human voice are bone flutes from the Swabian Jura in Germany, dated around 40,000 years old. Humans migrated out of Africa in multiple waves beginning 194,000–177,000 years ago. The dominant view among scholars is that the early waves of migration died out, and all modern non-Africans are descended from a single group that left Africa 70,000–50,000 years ago. H. sapiens proceeded to colonize all the continents and larger islands, arriving in Australia 65,000 years ago, Europe 45,000 years ago, and the Americas 21,000 years ago. These migrations occurred during the most recent Ice Age, when various temperate regions of today were inhospitable. Nevertheless, by the end of the Ice Age some 12,000 years ago, humans had colonized nearly all ice-free parts of the globe. Human expansion coincided with both the Quaternary extinction event and the Neanderthal extinction. These extinctions were probably caused by climate change, human activity, or a combination of the two.
Neolithic
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