Historical Periodization and Its Limits

📋 Course Outline

1. Classical Historical Periodization
2. Debating Historical Turning Points
3. Alternative Ways to Divide Time
4. Continuity Change and Historical Method

📅 Key Dates

1. 3500 BCE to 476Antiquity extends across the period
2. 1453The Ottoman Turks’ capture of Constantinople ended the Byzantine Empire and created a new geopolitical situation in Europe
3. 476 to 1492The Middle Ages extend across the period
4. 1492Christopher Columbus’s arrival in America is conventionally described as the ‘discovery of America’ from a European perspective — Christophe Colomb
5. 1492Isabella and Ferdinand expelled the last Muslims from the Spanish kingdom, marking the end of the Reconquista
6. 1517Martin Luther’s birth of Protestantism led to several forms of Protestantism that competed with Catholicism and created religious divisions throughout the West
7. 1492 to 1789 or 1815The Modern Period extends across the period
8. 1789 or 1815 to the present dayThe Contemporary Period extends to the present day

📖 1. Classical Historical Periodization

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Periodization: consists of dividing history in order to classify events over time and distinguish political, economic, and social developments