What is an era? Concept and examples

What is an era? This concept is treated differently. Let's consider the most basic versions.

Basic concepts

What is an era? In historical meaning, this word means a period of time with its characteristic phenomena and events. Each period is represented by certain persons, that is, the personification of the past takes place by appropriating the name of the person who played a key role in shaping the spirit of the times. In the domestic history such periods are personified by Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, Joseph Stalin. They correspond to the stages of statehood of our country: Moscow Rus, the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union.

Signs and analysis

Determine what is an era, you can through the etymological analysis of the word. Translation from the ancient Greek language means "a significant moment" - is, so to speak, a point of time in the general historical ensemble.

From a historiosophical point of view, not every period is destined to become epic, and consequently to give material for the epic. "War and Peace", "Quiet Flows the Don" are such literary monuments.

The epic period is opposed by "timelessness", which is expressed by cultural stagnation, historical eventlessness. However, in the academic sense, each such period is a part of a certain epoch.

Stages of World History

Historical epochs in the traditional classification are divided into Ancient, Middle, and New time. The history of the Ancient World is counted from the moment of the formation of the first states, which were founded at the end of 4-3 millennium BC. E. (India, Mesopotamia, Egypt).

The next stage in the development of this era was the creation of empires, by centralizing the power of one tribe over others (the Persian, Chinese, Roman empires). Great importance at this stage of mankind has acquired through the emergence of cities and commerce.

At the very beginning of the first millennium BC. E. Various philosophical and religious trends, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, began to be formed. The breakup of the Roman Empire into several states marked the beginning of a new era (the Middle Ages).

Early Middle Ages was marked by a great migration of peoples, which caused multiple conflicts on cultural, linguistic and religious grounds. In the course of this European outcome, the Byzantine Empire and the Frankish state were formed.

The next stage of the Middle Ages, known as the "High", was marked by crusades and feudalism, a split of the Christian Church. It is impossible not to mention the development of philosophical schools and science.

At the late stage of the Middle Ages there was a terrible plague epidemic, the Hundred Years War, the Reformation of the Church.

The last period is the Renaissance. The Renaissance presented mankind with the greatest geniuses of architecture and painting, whose work became the standards of classical art. The technological revolution in the 16th century qualitatively changed the historical process and determined the beginning of the New Time.

The style of this era consisted of humanism, scientific and industrial breakthrough, which corresponded to the Protestantism laid down in the Middle Ages and paved the way for the Enlightenment period of the late 17th and early 19th centuries. It was during this period of time that scientific and geographical discoveries became systematic.

The newest time, of which we are participants, entered the history of mankind as a military march of destructive world wars, continued with the realities of the Cold War with the discovery of nuclear weapons, and now is the era of globalization and the information revolution.

P.S

An attempt to answer the question: "What is the age?" Can be undertaken with the help of a lexical aspect. Above we have established the meaning of this concept. And can you choose a synonym for the word "era"? The closest candidate is the concept of "age". But the century is a fictitious historical category: it is calendar, but not essential.

Rare century can be entirely timed to the era. The newest history, perhaps, originates in 1914, since the beginning of the First World War, which is 14 years behind the XX century. Hence, the question "what is the era of our time" can be answered from a certain historical distance. And, perhaps, only in the next period.