Today I'm going to give you a very broad overview of human history.
I'll be using the latest version of my Timeline of World History chart, which is available as a poster from my website usefulcharts.com.
In particular, I'm going to be showing you how history can be divided into various time periods – or ages – and I'll be explaining how these divisions end up highlighting some of the most important turning points in world history.
Intro Let me start by explaining the basics of how this chart works.
The vertical scale represents the flow of time, with time moving forward as you move down the page.
Every white line represents 100 years and the scale is equidistant, which means that the distance between two lines near the top of the chart is exactly same as it is near the bottom.
This is important because it allows for accurate comparisons to be made and thus gives the viewer a proper perspective on time.
Horizontally, the various sections of the chart represent different parts of the world.
So, on the far left, we have the Americas, followed by Africa, Europe, Asia, and finally the Pacific islands.
Every line on the chart represents a specific culture, civilization, or empire and the width of the line represents the relative importance of that culture when compared to other cultures from the same time period or region.
