The categorization of the past into discrete, quantified named blocks of time is called periodization. This is a list of such named time periods as defined in various fields of study. Major categorization systems include cosmological (time periods in the origin and evolution of the universe), geological (time periods in the origin and evolution of the Earth), anthropological (time periods in the origin and evolution of humans) and historical (written history).
These can be divided broadly into prehistorical (before history began to be recorded) and historical periods (when written records began to be kept).
In archaeology and anthropology, prehistory is subdivided around the three-age system. This list includes the use of the three-age system as well as a number of various designation used in reference to sub-ages within the traditional three.
The dates for each age can vary by region. On the geologic time scale, the Holocene epoch starts at the end of the last glacial period of the current ice age (c.10,000 BC) and continues to the present. The beginning of Mesolithic is usually considered to correspond to the beginning of the Holocene epoch.
Prehistory – Period before written history
Ancient history – Aggregate of past events from the beginning of recorded human history and extending as far as the Early Middle Ages or the Postclassical Era. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with Sumerian Cuneiform script, the oldest discovered form of coherent writing from the protoliterate period around the 3rd millennia BC.
Protohistory – Period between prehistory and history, during which a culture or civilization has not yet developed writing but other cultures have already noted its existence in their own writings.
Classical antiquity – Broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world. It is the period in which Greek and Roman society flourished and wielded great influence throughout Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
Post-classical history – Period of time that immediately followed ancient history. Depending on the continent, the era generally falls between the years AD 200–600 and AD 1200–1500. The major classical civilizations the era follows are Han China (ending in 220), the Western Roman Empire (in 476), the Gupta Empire (in the 550s), and the Sasanian Empire (in 651).
Middle Ages – Lasted from the 5th to the 14th century. It began with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery.
Early Middle Ages –
High Middle Ages –
Late Middle Ages –
Modern history – After the post-classical era
Early modern period –
Late modern period –
Machine Age (1880–1945)
Age of Oil (after 1901)
World War I (1914–1918)
Interwar period (1918–1939)
Roaring Twenties (1920–1929)
Great Depression (1929 – World War II)
World War II (1939–1945)
Atomic Age (after 1945)
Post-war era (1946–1962)
The Fifties (1950–1959)
Cold War (Soviet Union and United States, and their allies, 1945–1989 or 1991)
Korean War (1950–1953)
Vietnam War (1955–1975)
Space Age (after 1957)
The Sixties (1960–1969)
Post-Modern (Soviet Union and United States, 1973–present)
Information Age (1970–present)
The Seventies (1970–1979)
The Eighties (1980–1989)
The Nineties (1990–1999)
The Two Thousands (2000–2009)
War on Terrorism (2001–present)
War in Afghanistan (2001–2014)
War in Iraq (2003–2011)
The Social Age (1996–present)
The Tens (2010–2019)
The Big Data age (2001–present)
The Multimedia Age (1987–present)
The Nuclear Age (1950–present)
Contemporary history – History within living memory. It shifts forward with the generations.
Classic and Postclassic eras, Central America (200–1519)
Early Intermediate, Middle Horizon, Late Intermediate, Late Horizon (Peru, 200–1534)
Huari, Chimú, Chincha, Chanka people, Tiwanaku, Inca
Baroque (New World, 1600–1750)
Spanish hegemony (Americas, 16th century – 1820s)
Reconstruction era (United States, 1865–1877)
Gilded Age (United States, 1875–1900)
Progressive Era (United States, 1890s–1920s)
Information Age (United States, 1970–present)
Modern age
Postmodern age
Srivijaya (Indonesia, 3rd – 14th centuries), Tarumanagara (358–723), Sailendra (8th and 9th centuries), Kingdom of Sunda (669–1579), Kingdom of Mataram (752–1045), Kediri (1045–1221), Singhasari (1222–1292), Majapahit (1293–1500)
Chenla (Cambodia, 630 – 802) and Khmer Empire (Cambodia, 802–1432)
Anterior Lý Dynasty and Triệu Việt Vương, Third Chinese domination, Khúc Family, Dương Đình Nghệ, Kiều Công Tiễn, Ngô Dynasty, The 12 Lords Rebellion, Đinh Dynasty, Prior Lê Dynasty, Lý Dynasty, Trần Dynasty, Hồ Dynasty, Fourth Chinese domination (Vietnam, 544–1427)
Neolithic-Iron Age (c.10,000 BC - AD 1000)
Classical period (c.1000 A.D.-900 A.D)
Late Classical period (c. AD 900-1500)
Colonial Era (c.1600-1898, 1901-1945)
Sovereign Era (1946–present)
Marcos era Martial Law (1972-1982)
People power EDSA revolution (1986)
Post Martial Law (1986–present)
Xia dynasty (2100 BC - 1600 BC)
Shang Dynasty (1600 BC – 1046 BC)
Zhou Dynasty (1200 BC – 500 BC)
Warring States period (402 BC – 201 BC)
Qin Dynasty (221 BC – 206 BC)
Han Dynasty (206 BC – AD 220)
Six Dynasties (AD 220 – 580)
Three Kingdoms (220 – 265)
Jin Dynasty (265 – 420)
Southern and Northern Dynasties (420 – 580)
Sui Dynasty (580 – 618)
Tang Dynasty (623 – 907)
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (907 – 960)
Song Dynasty (960 – 1279)
Northern Song Dynasty (960 – 1127), Liao Dynasty (907 – 1115), Western Xia Dynasty (1038 – 1227)
Southern Song Dynasty (1127 – 1279), Jin dynasty (1115–1234), Western Xia Dynasty (1038 – 1227)
Yuan Dynasty (1271 – 1368)
Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644)
Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1912)
Republic of China (1912 - 1949)
Xinhai Revolution (1911-1912)
Warlord Era (1918-1927)
Chinese Civil War (1927-1936/1946-1950)
Second Sino-Japanese War (1931-1945)
Xiongnu (Mongolia, 220 BC – AD 200)
Rouran Khaganate (Mongolia, Manchuria, Xianbei, AD 330 – 555)
Sixteen Kingdoms (Xianbei, Turkic peoples, 304 – 439)
Uyghur Khaganate (Mongolia, Manchuria, Tibet, 744 - 848)
Liao Dynasty (Khitan people, 907 – 1125)
Mongol Empire (Mongolia, 1206 – 1380)
Qing dynasty (Manchu China, 1692 – 1911)
Template:No information on rest of Africa
Old Kingdom (3000 BC – 2000 BC)
Middle Kingdom (2000 BC – 1300 BC)
New Kingdom (1550 BC – 1070 BC)
Ptolemaic Kingdom (305 BC – 30 BC)
Aegyptus (30 BC – 390 AD)
Coptic period (300 AD – 900 AD)
Fatimid Caliphate (909 – 1171)
Ayyubid Dynasty (1171 – 1250)
Mamluk Sultanate (1250 – 1517)
Ottoman Eyalet (1517 – 1867)
Khedivate (1867 – 1914)
Bronze Age (c.3000 BC – c.1050 BC)
Early Aegean Civilisation (Crete, Greece and Near East; c.3000 BC – c.1050 BC)
Iron Age (c.1050 BC – c.500 AD)
Greek expansion and colonisation (c.1050 BC – 776 BC)
Archaic Greece (776 BC – 480 BC) – begins with the First Olympiad, traditionally dated 776 BC
Archaic period (776 BC – 612 BC) – establishment of city states in Greece
Pre-classical period (612 BC – 480 BC) – the fall of Nineveh to the second Persian invasion of Greece
Classical antiquity (480 BC – 476 AD)
Classical Greece (480 BC – 399 BC)
Macedonian era (399 BC – 323 BC)
Hellenistic Greece (323 BC – 146 BC)
Late Roman Republic (147 BC – 27 BC)
Principate of the Roman Empire (27 BC – 284 AD)
Late Antiquity (284 AD – 500 AD)
Migration Period (Europe, 300 AD – 700 AD)
Middle Ages (Europe, 476 – 1453)
Byzantine era (330 – 1453)
Dark Ages (Europe, 476 – 800)
Early Middle Ages (Europe, 476 – 1066)
Viking Age (Scandinavia, Europe, 793 – 1066)
High Middle Ages (Europe, 1066 – c.1300)
Late Middle Ages (Europe, c.1300 – 1453)
The Renaissance (Europe, c.1300 – c.1600)
Early modern period (Europe, 1453 – 1789)
Age of Discovery (or Exploration) (Europe, c.1400 – 1770)
Polish Golden Age (Poland, 1507 – 1572)
Golden Age of Piracy 1650 – 1730
Elizabethan era (United Kingdom, 1558 – 1603)
Protestant Reformation (Europe, 16th century)
Classicism (Europe, 16th – 18th centuries)
Industrious Revolution, (Europe, 16th – 18th centuries)
Jacobean era (United Kingdom, 1603 – 1625)
Petrine Era (Russia, 1689 – 1725)
Age of Enlightenment (or Reason) (Europe, 18th century)
Long nineteenth century (1789 – 1914)
Georgian era (United Kingdom, 1714 – 1830)
Industrial Revolution (Europe, United States, elsewhere 18th and 19th centuries)
Age of European colonialism and imperialism
Romantic era (1770 – 1850)
Napoleonic era (1799 – 1815)
Victorian era (United Kingdom, 1837 – 1901); British hegemony, much of world, around the same time period.
Edwardian era (United Kingdom, 1901 – 1914)
First and Second World Wars (1914 – 1945)
Cold War (1945 – 1991)
Post-Cold War / Postmodernity (1991 – present)
Indus Valley Civilization (2500 BC – 1300 BC)
Vedic period (1500 BC – 500 BC)
Mahajanapada kingdoms
Maurya Empire (321 BC – 185 BC)
Kushan Empire (185 BC – 220 AD), Satavahana Empire (230 BC – 220 AD),
Gupta Empire (320 AD – 535 AD)
Vakatak Empire (300AD -650 AD)
Middle kingdoms of India (1 AD – 1279 AD)
Pala Empire (750 – 1174)
Rashtrakuta Dynasty
Sena Empire (1070 – 1230)
Hoysala Empire (1026 –1343), Kakatiya Empire (1083 – 1323)
Medieval India (1206 – 1526)
Vijayanagara Empire (1336 – 1646), Gajapati Kingdom (1434 – 1541), Reddy dynasty (1325 – 1448)
Mughal Empire (1526 – 1857)
Maratha Empire (1674-1818)
British Raj (1858 – 1947)
Independence (1947–present)
Jomon period (10,500 BC – 400 BC)
Yayoi period (400 BC – 250 AD)
Kofun period (250 – 600)
Asuka period (600 – 710)
Nara period (710 – 794)
Heian period (794 – 1185)
Kamakura period (1185 – 1333)
Muromachi period (1333 – 1573)
Azuchi–Momoyama period (1573 – 1603)
Tokugawa shogunate (1603 – 1868)
Meiji period (1868 – 1912)
Taishō period (1912 – 1926)
Shōwa period (1926 – 1989)
Post-occupation era (1952 – present)
Heisei period (1989–present)
Ancient Near East (Sumer, 3100 BC – 500 BC)
Jemdet Nasr period (3100 BC – 2900 BC)
Early Dynastic Period (2900 BC – 2270 BC)
Akkadian Empire (2270 BC – 2083 BC)
Gutian Dynasty (2083 BC – 2050 BC)
Sumerian renaissance (2050 BC – 1940 BC)
First Babylonian Dynasty (1830 BC – 1531 BC), Hittites (1800 BC – 1178 BC)
Kassites (1531 BC – 1135 BC), Mitanni (1500 BC – 1300 BC)
Neo-Assyrian Empire (934 BC – 609 BC)
Neo-Babylonian Empire (626 BC – 539 BC), Medes (678 BC – 549 BC)
Persian Empires (550 BC – 651 AD)
Achaemenid Empire (550 BC – 330 BC)
Conquered by Macedonian Empire (330 BC – 312 BC)
Seleucid Empire (312 BC – 63 BC)
Parthian Empire (247 BC – 224 AD)
Sasanian Empire (224 AD – 651 AD)
Islamic period (7th – 21st centuries)
Rashidun Caliphate (632 – 661)
Umayyad Caliphate (661 – 750)
Islamic Golden Age (750 – 1300)
Abbasid Caliphate (750 – 1258), Fatimid Caliphate (909 – 1171)
Buyid dynasty (934 – 1055)
Seljuq dynasty (1055 – 1171)
Ayyubid dynasty (1171 – 1341)
Ottoman Empire (1300 – 1923), Safavid Empire (1501–1736)
Mythological and astrological time periods
Astrological ages
Age of Taurus
Age of Aries
Age of Pisces
Age of Aquarius
Greek mythology (See also: Ages of Man)
Golden Age, self-sufficient
Silver Age, self-indulgent
Bronze Age, warlike
Heroic Age, nobly aspirant
Iron Age, violent
Aztec mythology
Nahui-Ocelotl, Destroyed by Jaguars
Nahui-Ehécatl, Destroyed by Hurricane
Nahuiquiahuitl, Destroyed by rain of Fire
Nahui-Atl, Destroyed by Flood
Nahui-Ollin, Destroyed by Earthquakes
The Marxian theory of history identifies five major distinct periods of history:
The First Stage: is usually called primitive communism. It has the following characteristics.
Shared property: there is no concept of ownership beyond individual possessions. All is shared by the tribe to ensure its survival.
Hunting and gathering: tribal societies have yet to develop large scale agriculture and so their survival is a daily struggle.
Proto-democracy: there is usually no concept of "leadership" yet. So tribes are led by the best warrior if there is war, the best diplomat if they have steady contact with other tribes and so forth.
The Second Stage: may be called slave society, considered to be the beginning of "class society" where private property appears.
Class: here the idea of class appears. There is always a slave-owning ruling class and the slaves themselves.
Statism: the state develops during this stage as a tool for the slave-owners to use and control the slaves.
Agriculture: people learn to cultivate plants and animals on a large enough scale to support large populations.
Democracy and authoritarianism: these opposites develop at the same stage. Democracy arises first with the development of the republican city-state, followed by the totalitarian empire.
Private property: citizens now own more than personal property. Land ownership is especially important during a time of agricultural development.
The Third Stage: may be called feudalism; it appears after slave society collapses. This was most obvious during the European Middle Ages when society went from slavery to feudalism.
Aristocracy: the state is ruled by monarchs who inherit their positions, or at times marry or conquer their ways into leadership.
Theocracy: this is a time of largely religious rule. When there is only one religion in the land and its organizations affect all parts of daily life.
Hereditary classes: castes can sometimes form and one's class is determined at birth with no form of advancement. This was the case with India.
Nation-state: nations are formed from the remnants of the fallen empires. Sometimes to rebuild themselves into empires once more. Such as England's transition from a province to an empire.
Marx pays special attention to this stage in human development. The bulk of his work is devoted to analysing the mechanisms of capitalism, which in western society classically arose "red in tooth and claw" from feudal society in a revolutionary movement. In capitalism, the profit motive rules and people, freed from serfdom, work for the capitalists for wages. The capitalist class are free to spread their laissez faire practices around the world. In the capitalist-controlled parliament, laws are made to protect wealth.
Capitalism may be considered the Fourth Stage in the sequence. It appears after the bourgeois revolution when the capitalists (or their merchant predecessors) overthrow the feudal system. Capitalism is categorized by the following:
Market economy: In capitalism, the entire economy is guided by market forces. Supporters of laissez-faire economics argue that there should be little or no intervention from the government under capitalism. Marxists, however, such as Lenin in his Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, argue that the capitalist government is a powerful instrument for the furtherance of capitalism and the capitalist nation-state, particularly in the conquest of markets abroad.
Private property: The means of production are no longer in the hands of the monarchy and its nobles, but rather they are controlled by the capitalists. The capitalists control the means of production through commercial enterprises (such as corporations) which aim to maximise profit.
Parliamentary democracy: The capitalists tend to govern through an elected centralised parliament or congress, rather than under an autocracy. Capitalist (bourgeois) democracy, although it may be extended to the whole population, does not necessarily lead to universal suffrage. Historically it has excluded (by force, segregation, legislation or other means) sections of the population such as women, slaves, ex-slaves, people of colour or those on low income. The government acts on behalf of, and is controlled by, the capitalists through various methods.
Wages: In capitalism, workers are rewarded according to their contract with their employer. Power elites propagate the illusion that market forces mean wages converge to an equilibrium at which workers are paid for precisely the value of their services. In reality workers are paid less than the value of their productivity — the difference forming profit for the employer. In this sense all paid employment is exploitation and the worker is "alienated" from their work. Insofar as the profit-motive drives the market, it is impossible for workers to be paid for the full value of their labour, as all employers will act in the same manner.
Imperialism: Wealthy countries seek to dominate poorer countries in order to gain access to raw materials and to provide captive markets for finished products. This is done directly through war, the threat of war, or the export of capital. The capitalist's control over the state can play an essential part in the development of capitalism, to the extent the state directs warfare and other foreign intervention.
Financial institutions: Banks and capital markets such as stock exchanges direct unused capital to where it is needed. They reduce barriers to entry in all markets, especially to the poor; it is in this way that banks dramatically improve class mobility.
Monopolistic tendencies: The natural, unrestrained market forces will create monopolies from the most successful commercial entities.
But according to Marx, capitalism, like slave society and feudalism, also has critical failings — inner contradictions which will lead to its downfall. The working class, to which the capitalist class gave birth in order to produce commodities and profits, is the "grave digger" of capitalism. The worker is not paid the full value of what he or she produces. The rest is surplus value — the capitalist's profit, which Marx calls the "unpaid labour of the working class." The capitalists are forced by competition to attempt to drive down the wages of the working class to increase their profits, and this creates conflict between the classes, and gives rise to the development of class consciousness in the working class. The working class, through trade union and other struggles, becomes conscious of itself as an exploited class. In the view of classical Marxism, the struggles of the working class against the attacks of the capitalist class will eventually lead the working class to establish its own collective control over production
After the working class gains class consciousness and mounts a revolution against the capitalists, socialism, which may be considered the Fifth Stage, will be attained, if the workers are successful.
Marxist socialism may be characterised as follows:
Common property: the means of production are taken from the hands of a few capitalists and put in the hands of the workers. This translates into the democratic communes controlling the means of production.
Council democracy: Marx, basing himself on a thorough study of Paris Commune, believed that the workers would govern themselves through system of communes. He called this the dictatorship of the proletariat, which, overthrowing the dictatorship (governance) of capital, would democratically plan production and the resources of the planet.
Marx explained that, since socialism, the first stage of communism, would be "in every respect, economically, morally, and intellectually, still stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it emerges", each worker would naturally expect to be awarded according to the amount of labor he contributes, despite the fact that each worker's ability and family circumstances would differ, so that the results would still be unequal at this stage, although fully supported by social provision.
The geologic time scale covers the extent of the existence of Earth, from about 4600 million years ago to the present day. It is marked by Global Boundary Stratotype Sections and Points. Geologic time units are (in order of descending specificity) eons, eras, periods, epochs, and ages; and the corresponding chronostratigraphic units, which measure "rock-time", are eonothems, erathems, systems, series, and stages.
The second and third timelines are each subsections of their preceding timeline as indicated by asterisks. The Cenozoic is sometimes divided into the Quaternary and Tertiary periods, although the latter is no longer used officially.
