Historical epochs in order: chronology. On the allocation of periods in the description of the historical process

Hello dear friends! Today we’ll talk about how to effectively systematize your knowledge of the history of Russia in order to effectively solve USE tests for high scores.

It is recommended to start studying the history of Russia with the periodization of the history of Russia. Periodization helps to understand which events come after which, to understand the causes that gave rise to them and the consequences to which these events led. Periodization also helps to get rid of garbage and mess in the head, which inevitably occurs if events are not tied to any period. national history. If you are not aware of the structure of events in history, then I recommend my post on how to remember .

How to systematize so many names, events and dates in your head? The answer is simple - my author's technique (read on!).

So what is this technique?
When I come to a student for the first lesson, I immediately explain that the entire history of Russia is divided into five periods. I demand that the student be able to navigate them, that is, to know what events took place in what period. During these periods:

So let's break down each of them.

Period I covers the time frame from the 9th to the 13th centuries. That is, from education Old Russian state and before the invasion of the Mongol-Tatars.

II period - from the XIII to the beginning of the XVI centuries. This period covers the events associated with the formation of the Muscovite state, which follows a period of fragmentation. The completion of the unification, as you know, ended in 1521 with the entry of Ryazan into the Muscovy. In addition, the liberation from the Mongol-Tatar yoke (1240 - 1480) falls on the same period.

Period III covers the events of the 16th and 17th centuries. - further development of the Moscow state, which was also called "Muscovy". Key event - Time of Troubles(1598 - 1613)

IV period - the era of the Empire, which began with the era of Peter I the Great and ended February revolution 1917 This is the most big period national history, there are a lot of key events and processes!

The last V period is Soviet, which begins in October 1917 and ends on December 8, 1991, that is, from October revolution before the collapse of the USSR (Belovezhskaya agreements).

Thus, I highly recommend that you learn these periods before you start, so that later all new events and processes fit into this scheme. "And where," you ask, "is the period from February 1917 to October 1917?" Many refer to this period as a transitional one - from tsarism to Bolshevism through the bourgeois "rule" of the Provisional Government.

So, dear friends, in the next posts and articles we will post a few more video tutorials on preparing for the exam in history and social studies as part of a cycle of posts by a free online tutor. Don't miss it, stay tuned for new posts! And also the website!

on the example of the periodization of Chunqiu (771-453 BC) and Zhangguo (453-221 BC) in history Ancient China

1. Historians study the history of mankind as a historical process. It seems that the definition of this concept has not yet been developed enough. On the importance of clarifying the essence historical process V.O. also wrote Klyuchevsky in the materials for his special course "Methodology of Russian History". The historical process, in his opinion, "can be called: development, interaction and rebirth, more precisely, the change of human unions" [Klyuchevsky, M., 1989, v.6, p. 29].

Only one aspect of the study of history is touched upon here - the social one. If you look more broadly, on the scale of all the main tasks of historical science, then the historical process can be called the totality of processes occurring in the society under consideration for a certain time period in the political, social, economic and cultural spheres.

2. Consider such an important aspect of the theory of the historical process as periodization. We are interested in the development of criteria for identifying and characterizing periods, based on the tasks and capabilities of the historian provided by the source base, which are associated with the characterization (description) of the historical process in a certain society at a certain period of time.

3. The historical process is studied by dividing the time continuum into stages, which historians call periods. This makes it possible to identify and characterize the main stages of its course. historical period is a stage of the historical process under consideration, a period of time, the content of which has common features, essential for separating it from another stage.

Each period has established in the time continuum borders- beginning and the end. The length of periods depends on the nature of historical phenomena or events that underlie the allocation of periods.

4. Periodization can be absolute (general) and relative (private). In the first case, we are talking about the allocation of periods of the historical process for a large number of communities, and in the second, one specific one.

An example of the first is the periodization of the world-historical process: archaic, antiquity, the Middle Ages, modern times, modern times. Based on the time factor. In the last century, Soviet social historians used another approach to the periodization of the world-historical process, namely the formational one, which was based on social and economic factors. Let us recall these socio-economic formations: primitive communal, slaveholding, feudal, capitalist, socialist and communist. Their separation was based on such a criterion as the dominant "mode of production", that is, the economic ("basic") aspect, in its connection with the social aspect (a set of "classes" as participants in "production relations").

5. Periods can be divided depending on the level of temporal and spatial "approximation". At any depth of consideration of the historical process, each of its periods can be divided into several sub-periods. Hence, the most important task is to establish criteria determining the boundaries of periods at each of the given "depth". Its choice depends on the tasks and capabilities of the researcher, which are largely determined by the sources and the degree of knowledge of historical time. We are concerned here with a lower level of "approximation": regional history.

6. The establishment of the boundaries of periods is determined on the basis of historical realities, the choice of criteria is determined by the priorities of the historian and his assessment of the main content of the historical process. Since the most important component of the history of any society is the transformation of the institution of supreme power (its bearers, first of all, were written in the annals), this is more often accepted as a criterion. Since in the history of antiquity and the Middle Ages the institution of supreme power is associated with the hereditary transfer of power, government is often singled out as one period. one dynasty(Rurikovich, Romanovs). The name of the dynasty is used as the name of the state (the Abbasid Caliphate, etc.).

7. The task of identifying periods becomes more complicated when it comes to establishing the periodization of the historical process in the development of not one state entity, but several on the scale of one historical region.

Below we offer a variant of the periodization of the history of the Chunqiu (771-453 BC) and Zhangguo (453-221 BC) periods in the history of Ancient China.

Since the history of a relatively large number of state formations, then it is necessary to establish a single criterion that reflects the paradigm of the historical process. In this case, the basis is the process of transformation of the supreme power, namely the development of forms of real political dominance in the conditions of the exhaustion of not only the real (this happened by 771 BC), but also the sacred power of the Zhou wang and the emergence of a new historical the stage of a new bearer of supreme power - the sovereign of the Qin empire, and then Han. The identification of the main "agrarian centers" and the establishment of the historical dynamics of their development (under the leadership of D.V. Deopik) made it possible to connect the political aspect of the historical process with the economic one, which was accompanied by the intensive development of the agrarian centers of the "Zone" of the Great Plain, which ended from the beginning of the 1st millennium BC .e.

I. Chunqiu (770-453)

First period. 771-697 Institute qingshi. Tacking the Zhou Vans between qingshi Eastern Go and "left qingshi» Ruler of Zheng Kingdom
1.1. 771-720 Qingshi - the ruler of the kingdom of Zheng;
1.2. 719-697 Huan-wang's attempt to regain real power. The weakening of the importance of qingshi (first, until 714, qingshi was the ruler of Eastern Guo, then zuo qingshi was the ruler of Zheng).

Second period. 696-597 Hegemonic Institute. "Northern Hegemons". Time of influence of large kingdoms
2.1. 696-643 The era of the dominance of the kingdom of Qi. Hegemony of the Cis Huan Gong (from 679 to 643);
2.2. 643-597 Hegemony of the Jin Wen Gong (from 632 to 628). Leadership of Qin under Mu-gun (from 624 to 621). Confrontation of Qin and Jin, Chu and Jin.

Third period. 597 - 453 "Southern Hegemons". Weakening and crisis of the large kingdoms of the Yellow River basin (collapse or change of dynasties)
3.1. 597-553 Hegemony of the ruler of Chu (from 597 to 591). Parity between Jin and Chu, the gradual predominance of Jin, the struggle of Jin and Qi for access to the Great Plain;
3.2. 552-498 Weakening of Jin due to internal political struggle, strengthening of Qi;
3.3. 497-453 Hegemony of the southern kingdoms: Wu under Fu Cha (from 495 to 473), then Yue under Gou Jiang (from 473 to 464). Weakening of the northern kingdoms of Jin and Qi. The collapse of the Jin.

II. Zhangguo (453-221)

The fourth period. 453-403 The emergence of three large kingdoms on the Great Plain as a result of the collapse of Jin (Wei, Zhao, Han). The growth of their political activity.

Fifth period. 403-295 Great Plain Wars - polycentric world
5.1. 403-367 Joint actions of Zhao, Han and Wei against Qin and Qi;
5.2. 366-295 AD Strengthening of Qin (successful reforms), the beginning of the struggle for access to the Great Plain.

Sixth period. 294-251 Wars for the Great Plain - towards the creation of a monocentric world
6.1. 294-267 Everyone is against Qin, Qin is looking for allies. A combination of military and diplomatic measures. Successful anti-Qin resistance;
6.2. 266-251 AD Qin captures cities (but not yet kingdoms) on the Great Plain. Wei makes an alliance with Qin. Chu, Zhao, Qi successfully confront Qin, and Han loses land. Zhao tried to attack Qin and lost everything.

Seventh period. 250-221 AD The Great Plain Wars are the creation of a monocentric world. Qin Against All - Seizes lands in the Great Plain and eventually destroys individual kingdoms
7.1. 250-245 AD Campaigns of Qin against Zhao and Wei. Qin consolidates success with administrative activities in the Great Plain. The coalition led by Wei defeated Qin, but failed to develop the advantage;
7.2. 244-237 Wei is the main object of capture. Last futile attempts to create an anti-Qin alliance (Zhao's initiative). Undeveloped success. A series of rebellions in Qin;
7.3. 236-231 AD Solo throws. Hitting Zhao. Weakening the Han, intimidating the expectant Wei;
7.4. 230-221 Successive capture of the kingdoms of the Great Plain. Victory over Chu. Qin's brief triumph .

Thus, the proposed periodization reflects, in our opinion, the specifics of the historical process. During the Chunqiu period, it was about political dominance over the kingdoms in conditions when the old agrarian centers were already fully developed, and the development of the Great Plain was just being completed. In Zhangguo, about dominance in a wider area, there was a struggle for agrarian centers that arose (due to natural processes) throughout the Great Plain. It continued in subsequent periods, but took on different forms. During the Western Han period (206 BC - 8 AD) is the struggle of the bearer of supreme power with relatives in the male line, who actually became the heads of the kingdoms of the end of Zhangguo, included after 206 BC. e. into a single state of huaxia as their hereditary possessions (go), for their transformation into districts and counties - units of the administrative-territorial division of the empire. Only Wang Mang (8-23 AD) managed to do this (in the first approximation), which became one of the factors of resistance and the return of the Liu clan to power in 25 AD.

Published: Ulyanov M.Yu. On the allocation of periods in the description of the historical process on the example of the periodization of Chunqiu (771-453 BC) and Zhangguo (453-221 BC) in the history of Ancient China // Scientific Conference Lomonosov readings. April 2008. Oriental studies. Abstracts of reports. M. 2008. S. 60-62.

Theme 11

Periodization of history

According to the famous English thinker of the XX century. Albert Toynbee, "History exists where and only where there is time." Indeed, in the course of time there is a change of states human societies, and through this change, the content of history is in turn revealed. In order to understand this endless stream of time and events, they must somehow be ordered.

The problem of periodization criteria. One way to comprehend history is to periodize it. Periodization is a conditional division of history into separate chronological periods, which differ from each other by some features. In order to identify these features, scientists develop a system of criteria, on the basis of which they distinguish periods. Such general criteria are most often chosen as culture, religion and forms of its organization, economy, productive forces, or sometimes even as part of the productive forces - natural conditions.

Among scientists there is still no agreement on the question of which of the criteria to put in the first place. Moreover, it is not enough to single out and arrange the criteria, it is also necessary to agree on what is meant, for example, by the word "culture", since this term has a lot of definitions.

Periodization is primarily subject to general, or civil, history, and in its various scales, ranging from global, worldwide to local, local. Within the periods are divided into sub-periods, which are given a specific name. Separate areas can also be divided into periods public life, for example, the development of the economy, science, the development of technology, art. The history of art is a separate history, subject to its own periodization, not directly related, for example, to economic history. Develop a general scientific periodization world history- the task is probably impossible. In different eras, in different historical conditions philosophers proceeded from ideas characteristic of their time about the world, about time, about the course of history, about the fate of mankind.

Images of time and epochs of the past. V Ancient Greece was substantiated by the cyclic concept of development, or otherwise - the theory of circulation. One of Plato's students explained it this way: the movement of time connects the end with the beginning, and this happens an infinite number of times. Ancient Greek historians came to this conclusion by observing Roundabout Circulation celestial bodies. The change of seasons and, accordingly, agricultural cycles, determined by the movement of celestial bodies, was in full agreement with this theory in the views of the inhabitants of that time.

With the emergence and spread of Christianity, an idea appeared about the linearity of time from the creation of the world by the Lord God to the Last Judgment and the end of the world. The concept of linear time at the end of the 1st - beginning of the 5th c. justified by Blessed Augustine - one of the fathers of the church, who laid the foundations of the Christian doctrine. Medieval scientists singled out a special particle of time, which they called sacred time, that is, sacred. This is the time of the earthly life and activity of Christ and his disciples. On the one hand, it belongs to the divine, but since the life of Christ took place on Earth, it is involved in earthly time. Divine services or liturgies, in which the life of Christ was constantly reproduced symbolically, also became part of sacred time. Such ideas dominated in the Middle Ages throughout the Christian world, including in Russia. And the Church disposed of this sacred time exclusively.

In the Renaissance, with the rise of science and experimental knowledge, new ideas about time appeared. Natural philosophers - philosophers who studied the phenomena of nature - put forward the concept of objective and absolute time. The famous astronomer Giordano Bruno defined the main property of such time as infinite duration. The absoluteness of time in the understanding of natural philosophers meant that it does not depend on movement, but exists on its own. This theory was subsequently developed by the English scientist Isaac Newton.

This idea of ​​time formed the basis of the perception of time. modern man. It finally took shape in the 19th century, having received expression in the idea of ​​continuity community development. The periodization of the historical process was based on these changing views on time and its nature.

In the Middle Ages, periodization according to the ages of the world was very common. According to this concept, the age of the world corresponded to human age: childhood, youth, maturity, old age. The world, like man, is decrepit and moving towards its end. In this theory, the beginning and the end human history consistent with the biblical concept of the beginning and end of the world. This is how the monks looked at the world, compiling chronicles in the monasteries, which they, as a rule, began from Adam, regardless of whether they wrote the history of the Franks or the Hungarians. With this periodization of world history, another periodization according to empires or monarchs, dynasties perfectly agreed. During the decline of the Western Roman Empire, philosophers, trying to comprehend world history, gave its first universal periodization, highlighting four periods in the history of the Empire: the Assyro-Babylonian state, Medo-Persian, Greco-Macedonian and Roman, and as the last, final. In the Middle Ages, Christian philosophers came up with the theory of empire translation. According to her, the Roman Empire did not perish, it already, as a Christian empire, had to pass from people to people, from state to state.

Some monarchs, for example, Charlemagne, tried to bring this idea to life by creating their own monarchies, which they built to the Roman one. The theory of "Moscow - the Third Rome" also goes back to this idea of ​​the translation of the empire and to this periodization of world history.

But more practically, the periodization of history was tied to the rule of some kingdom or dynasty, and some monarch got into the spotlight. The state of society was not taken into account with this approach, and this is precisely the important difference between the understanding of history by scientists today and people of that time.

Renaissance opened new page in the periodization of history and brought it closer to our time. Humanist scientists, who discovered Greco-Roman antiquity for themselves and for the world, coined the term Middle Ages, more precisely middle age. This Middle Age separated the time of the humanists from Antiquity, and the criterion for such a separation was pure Latin, which Caesar spoke, wrote Cicero. The Middle Ages, from this point of view, was the time of kitchen Latin, that is, the time of barbarism and the decline of culture.

In the 17th century world history was divided into Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the New Age. This periodization has taken root in science, and it is still accepted, although of course with some changes, since time has not stopped either.

Modern ideas about historical periods. In modern historical science The periodization of world history looks like this: Antiquity, Middle Ages, Modern and Modern times. Often, after the Middle Ages, the Renaissance is distinguished as a special period. But the recognition of such periodization does not mean that all disputes about it are over. There is no agreement among scholars on the boundaries of these periods. The border between Antiquity and the Middle Ages is conditionally determined by the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, but the opinions of scientists differ greatly about the distinction between the Middle Ages and the New Age. The new time sometimes begins in the 13th century, when cities and trade rise, sometimes during the Great geographical discoveries, that is, from the end of the 15th century, and sometimes the first bourgeois revolutions, that is, from mid-seventeenth v. In the last decade, the concept of "early modern times" has been introduced in science to refer to the transitional historical period between the Middle Ages and the New Age, and the chronological framework of this period is determined by the 16th - the end of the 18th centuries.

The reasons for these disagreements between scientists lie in their different understanding of the content of the historical process and, accordingly, the allocation of different criteria for the development of the historical process. V modern science Antiquity is most often understood as the time when the slave-owning system dominated, the Middle Ages are identified with the domination of feudal relations, and the New Age - with the domination of capitalist relations. But how to understand feudalism? As a political system, as a special economic system, or as a system of special interpersonal relationships? There is no common understanding among historians.

In the 19th century in the social sciences, two approaches to history were developed and became widespread, which was reflected in its periodization. This is a formative approach civilizational approach. The first was developed by the prominent economist Karl Marx. By formation, he understood the division of the historical process into large periods on the basis of the relations of property and production that dominated within them. Who owned the main wealth - say, land under feudalism? Who directly worked on this earth? And how were the results of labor distributed between the owners of the land and the worker on this land? The focus of this approach is on economics. Marx distinguished five formations or modes of production: primitive communal formation, slaveholding, feudal, capitalist and communist. Each of them has experienced a period of formation, prosperity and decline. Having exhausted her options, she gave way to the next.

The civilizational approach is based on the territorial delimitation of human societies that retain their special person throughout the entire period of existence. Civilizations are usually understood as closed societies that are characterized by common features, such as natural conditions, way of life, customs, religion, culture, historical destiny. Civilizations, although they represent some kind of closed integrity, are most often interconnected in time and space.

In the XX century. especially in its last decade, the concept of civilization and the periodization based on this concept have gained especially great importance in the studies of philosophers, historians, sociologists, including in our country.

The formational approach to history is based on the recognition of the continuous progressive course of the development of history. However, in its present form, it does not answer the question: what kind of formation follows the communist one? And then the problem of continuity of development is called into question.

The civilizational approach gives scope for various cyclic theories of development, some of which recognize, while others deny the progress of historical development. In modern science, in addition to dividing history into ancient, medieval, etc., there are other approaches. Thus, the separation of traditional and modernized societies is widespread. The first refers to the period of historical development, when the agrarian economy, based on the manual labor of small workers, dominated. This time includes both ancient antiquity and the Middle Ages. social structure in these societies it is motionless, it is represented by class groups. Such social groups that, on a legal basis, enjoy certain rights or perform certain duties and occupy a clearly defined place in society, and the transition from one class to another is extremely difficult.

The era of modernity and postmodernity. The problem of periodization also affects modernity: it is divided into the eras of modernity and postmodernity or industrial and postindustrial societies. The chronological framework between them falls on the decades that followed the end of World War II. The era of modernity in general corresponds to the traditional chronological framework new history, that is late 18th- the beginning of the XX century. and corresponds to the name of a modernized society. From an economic point of view, it is marked by two industrial revolutions and the transformation of an agrarian society into an industrial one. During this period was created big industry, mass consumption. From a social point of view, the era of modernity is characterized by a new division of society mainly on the basis of economic interests. The social structure of such a society is mobile, it is quite easy to move from one social stratum to another, moreover, based on one's own talents and relying on one's own abilities, in contrast to, say, the feudal era.

And finally, the postmodern era. It is characterized primarily by the results of the scientific and technological revolution, the so-called. third revolution. As a result of this revolution, the role of the consumer sector of the economy is growing sharply. And the industry based on the production of machines and machine tools is receding into the background. Now there are machines with the help of which, with one button, you can control the entire production from the remote control, which is remote from this production itself. Therefore, the production of large machine tools and machines fades into the background, not only in essence, but even in the mentality of people. The first place is occupied by the consumer sector. And it is interesting that mass production and consumption in this society outgrow the framework of the national economy and the same globalization is taking place, causing widespread public protest.

High technologies are developing, a society of consumers is finally taking shape. From a social point of view, this society is distinguished by the widest possibilities of communication. The cultural life of the postmodern is determined by the mass media and pop culture. Humanity has received an unusually wide access to information. V social movement A special place is now occupied by the protection of nature and anti-war speeches - these are perhaps the most striking phenomena in public life.