9. World History to 1550. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002

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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002.

World History to 1550

This section covers the period from the beginnings of civilization in the Stone Age through the rise and fall of the ancient Mediterranean civilizations, to the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages, and the beginnings of the Renaissance and the Reformation. The Stone Age ended roughly around 4000 B.C. with the beginning of the Bronze Age, which encompassed the years from about 4000 B.C. to 2000 B.C., at which point the Iron Age began. The great civilizations of Egypt, Greece, and Rome developed during the Iron Age. Egyptian civilization flourished in the second millennium B.C. and then declined. Ancient Greece reached the pinnacle of its influence in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. and then saw its influence wane after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. The importance of Rome increased dramatically in the century before the birth of Jesus, in large measure because of the military conquests of Julius Caesar. Rome consolidated its rule over much of Europe, Asia Minor, and North Africa in the reign of the first Roman emperor, Augustus Caesar, who died in A.D. 14.

The period from the Fall of Rome in the fifth century A.D. to roughly the tenth century is often called the Dark Ages. In the Medieval period, which is sometimes referred to as the age of chivalry, modern nation-states emerged. That period peaked between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries and then waned with the rise of the Renaissance in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The Renaissance, a cultural rebirth during which many of the literary and artistic treasures of the ancient world were rediscovered, lasted into the seventeenth century. Starting in the fifteenth century, the religious rift of the Reformation divided Europe between Protestants and Roman Catholics.

Although American schools and colleges still use these divisions of history, we should be mindful that a growing number of Muslim, African, Asian, and Latino immigrants to the United States carry a different set of historical markers in their heads. To Muslims, for example, the Dark Ages, which Europeans associate with ignorance and barbarism, coincided with a glorious time, the rise and spread of Islam, whereas South Americans recognize that the civilization of the Mayas flourished during Europe’s Dark Ages. To Asians, the period that Europeans call the Middle Ages coincided with the empire established by Genghis Khan, the largest land empire in history; to Africans, the Middle Ages paralleled the Mali empire.

—J.F.K.

Entries

Alexander the Great	Athens	Attila the Hun
Augustus Caesar	Aztecs	Babylon
Bacon, Francis	Balboa, Vasco Nùñez de	Becket, Thomas à
Black Death	Boleyn, Anne	Borgia, Cesare
Borgia, Lucrezia	bread and circuses	Bronze Age
Brutus	Byzantine Empire	Caesar
Caligula	Carthage	Cato
Charlemagne	chivalry	classical antiquity
Cleopatra	Columbus, Christopher	conquistadores
Constantine the Great	Constantinople	Copernicus, Nicolaus
Cortés, Hernando	Crusades	Dark Ages
Demosthenes	Erasmus, Desiderius	Ericson, Leif
Fall of Rome	Ferdinand and Isabella	feudalism
fief	Genghis Khan	Godiva, Lady
guilds	Gutenberg, Johann	Hammurabi
Hannibal	Hastings, Battle of	Hellenistic Age
Henry VIII	Herodotus	hieroglyphics
Holy Roman Empire	homage	Hundred Years’ War
Huns	I came, I saw, I conquered	ides of March
Incas	indulgence	Inquisition
Iron Age	Joan of Arc	Julius Caesar
knight	Latin	Magellan, Ferdinand
Magna Carta	Mali empire	Marathon, Battle of
Mayas	Medici	Medici, Lorenzo de
medieval	Mesopotamia	Middle Ages
Ming Dynasty	Montezuma	More, Thomas
Nero	Norman Conquest	Olympic Games
Ottoman Empire	Oxford and Cambridge Universities	Pax Romana
Peloponnesian War	Pericles	Persian Empire
pharaohs	Phoenicia	Pizarro, Francisco
Polo, Marco	Pompeii	Ponce de León, Juan
Praetorian Guard	Ptolemy	Punic Wars
pyramids	Reformation	Renaissance
Richard the Lion-Hearted	Roman Empire	Roses, Wars of the
Rosetta stone	Rubicon	Saladin
Savonarola, Girolamo	serf	Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
Spanish Inquisition	Sparta	Spartacus
Stone Age	Stonehenge	1066
Thucydides	toga	Torquemada, Tomás de
Trojan War	Tutankhamen	Vandals
vassal	vestal virgins	Vikings
William the Conqueror

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

CONTENTS · INDEX · GUIDE · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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