Many people use the word "era", not thinking much about its meaning. “Victorian era”, “Soviet era”, “Renaissance” - what do these phrases really mean, what is this time period so often used by historians, philosophers, archaeologists and other researchers?
Definition of the term "era"
The era is an exception to the rule on time units. This cannot be said to be a year, a decade, a century, or a millennium. An era can last an indefinite period of time, sometimes it takes several centuries, and sometimes millennia. It all depends on the degree and speed of human development. The era is the unit by which the periodization of the historical process takes place. The term is also interpreted as a specific qualitative period of human development.
Periodization of the development of society
The historical era is a philosophical concept symbolizing the degree of development of civilization, the transition of mankind to another level of cultural, technical and social development, ascent to the highest level. Philosophers and historians of different times have tried to solve the puzzle and create a single faithful periodization. For this, scientists took certain historical periods, studied what exactly happened in those days, at what level of development people were, and then they were united. For example, the era of the ancient world is slavery, of the new time is capitalism, etc.
It should be noted that historians have created several periodizations of the development of mankind, and all of them affect different time frames. The most common division: antiquity, the Middle Ages, modern times. This question remains open so far, since scientists have not yet come to a consensus. The separation of world history by epoch is ambiguous.
Criteria for dividing the story
The era of the world is a time period allocated by a certain criterion. Perhaps historians would agree if they assessed the development of society according to one definition. And so there is no consensus on how to share history, what to build on. Some take the people's attitude to property as the basis, others the level of development of productive forces, some make up periodization, choosing the degree of enslavement or freedom of the individual.
In the end, the world community of historians decided that the era is a technological stage in the development of society. There were several such periods in history, and all of them are separated by technological revolutions. The best minds are struggling to understand what stages humanity has already passed and which ones it has yet to go through.
The main era of world history
Scientists distinguish four main epochs of the development of society: archaic, agrarian, industrial and post-industrial. The first period dates back to the 8th-6th centuries. BC. The archaic era is characterized by a significant breakthrough of mankind forward, a change in the face of society, the emergence of the foundations of statehood, a large demographic surge. During this period, urbanization flourished, mostly people lived in cities. Significant changes in military affairs have also occurred.
The agrarian era falls on the 5th-4th centuries. BC. Society from the primitive communal goes into the agrarian-political. During this period, many principalities, kingdoms and empires with centralized management arose. The division of labor into cattle-breeding, agricultural and handicraft appeared. This period is characterized by the agricultural method of production.
The industrial era (XVIII - 1st half. XX centuries) accounted for global socio-economic, technological and political changes. Instead of manufactories, factories appeared, that is, manual labor was replaced by machines. As a result, the labor market expanded, productivity increased, and active urbanization was observed. The post-industrial era began in the second half of the twentieth century, it is also called the "period without patterns." It is characterized by accelerated development of events, automation of production. The era began with significant changes in all areas of life, it continues to this day.