What is an era? This concept is interpreted in different ways. Consider the most basic versions.
Basic concepts
What is an era? In historical meaning, this word means a period of time with its characteristic features and events. Each period is represented by certain persons, i.e., the personification of the past occurs by assigning it the name of a person who played a key role in shaping the spirit of the times. In Russian history, such periods are personified by John the Terrible, Peter the Great, Joseph Stalin. The stages of statehood of our country correspond to them: Moscow Russia, the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union.
Signs and analysis
It is possible to determine what an era is through the etymological analysis of a given word. The translation from the ancient Greek language means "a significant moment" - this is, so to speak, the pointe of time in the general historical ensemble.
From a historiosophical point of view, not every period is destined to become epic, and therefore provide material for an epic. "War and Peace", "Quiet 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 plot of a certain era.
Stages of World History
Historical eras in the traditional classification are divided into Ancient, Middle, and also Modern time. The history of the Ancient World is usually counted from the moment of the formation of the first states that were founded at the end of the 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 (Persian, Chinese, Roman empires). Great importance at this stage of mankind has acquired thanks to the emergence of cities and trade.
At the very beginning of the first millennium BC. e. various philosophical and religious movements began to take shape, such as: Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism. The collapse of the Roman Empire into several states marked the beginning of a new era (the Middle Ages).
The early Middle Ages was marked by a great migration of peoples, which caused multiple conflicts on cultural, linguistic and religious grounds. During this European exodus, the Byzantine Empire and the Frankish State formed.
The next stage of the Middle Ages, called "High", was marked by the Crusades and feudalism, the split of the Christian Church. It is impossible not to say about the development of philosophical schools and science.
The terrible epidemic of the plague, the Hundred Years War, and the Reformation of the Church came to the late stage of the Middle Ages.
The last period is the Renaissance. The Renaissance gave mankind the greatest geniuses of architecture and painting, whose works 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 Age.
The style of this era consisted of humanism, science and an industrial breakthrough, which corresponded to the Protestantism laid down in the Middle Ages and set the stage for the period of the Enlightenment 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 by the military march of world war of extermination, continued by 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 an era?" can be undertaken using the lexical aspect. Above, we established the meaning of this concept. Is it possible to find a synonym for the word "era"? The closest candidate is the concept of "century". But the century is a fictitious historical category: it is calendar, but not essential.
A rare century can be completely timed to coincide with the era. The latest history, perhaps, originates in 1914, since the outbreak of the First World War, which is 14 years behind the 20th century. This means that the question “what is the era of our time” can be answered from a certain historical distance. And, perhaps, only in the next period.