The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the history of Western civilization:
History of Western civilization – record of the development of human civilization beginning in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, and generally spreading westwards.
Ancient Greek science, philosophy, democracy, architecture, literature, and art provided a foundation embraced and built upon by the Roman Empire as it swept up Europe, including the Hellenic world in its conquests in the 1st century BC. From its European and Mediterranean origins, Western civilization has spread to produce the dominant cultures of modern North America, South America, and much of Oceania, and has had immense global influence in recent centuries.
Nature of Western civilization Western world – The first civilizations made various unique contributions to the western civilizations. These contributions, which are likewise the achievements of antiquated civilizations, incorporate certain things in the zones of philosophy, art and engineering, and math and science. The antiquated civilizations were a momentous civilization in that they have made every one of these contributions and achievements while at the same time battling. The most imperative regions of Greek achievement were math and science. They accomplished a wide range of things in the territories of brain science, astronomy, geometry, science, material science, and physics. In philosophy, first civilizations had made numerous powerful contributions to western civilization. Greek philosophers were capable thinkers who were resolved to look for truth to a specific subject or question regardless of where it drove them. The well-known philosophers trusted that life was not worth living unless it was inspected and the truth about existence was searched out. With a specific end goal to solve problems in life, Socrates created a method for taking care of these problems called the Socratic Method. On the planet today this method is generally known as the Scientific method and is utilized broadly in the region of science. Plato additionally had numerous equitable thoughts which he communicated through his book. Ultimately, Aristotle accepted unequivocally that human reason was critical. These thoughts alongside the thoughts of human thinking, norms for justice, and a majority rules system are as yet utilized as a part of Western civilization. The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident, is a term referring to different nations depending on the context.Western Civilization, Our Tradition; James Kurth; accessed 30 August 2011 Western culture – Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization or European civilization, is a term used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific Cultural artifacts and technologies.
Antiquity: before 500
Ancient Greek philosophy – Ancient Greek philosophy dealt with a wide variety of subjects, including political philosophy, ethics, metaphysics, ontology, logic, biology, rhetoric, and aesthetics. Alexander the Great – Alexander III of Macedon, commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of Macedon, a state in northern ancient Greece. Ancient Rome – Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that began growing on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BCE.Chris Scarre, The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Rome (London: Penguin Books, 1995). Roman Empire – The Roman Empire was the post-Roman Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean."Roman Empire", Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2008 Migration Period – The Migration Period, also known as the Barbarian Invasions, was a period of intensified human migration in Europe from about 400 to 800.The delimiting dates vary; often cited are 410, the sack of Rome by Alaric I; and 751, the accession of Pippin the Short and the establishment of the Carolingian dynasty.Bury, J. B., The Invasion of Europe by the Barbarians, Norton Library, 1967. Invasion of the Huns, Attilla the Hun – from 370 to 500; invasion extended into what is now modern France and Germany.
Rise of Christendom Outline of Judaism – Judaism – "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people, based on the ancient Mosaic Law. Outline of Christianity – Christianity – monotheistic religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament. History of Christianity – The history of Christianity concerns the Christian religion, its followers and the Church with its various Christian denominations, from the Christianity in the 1st century to the Christianity in the present. Western Roman Empire – The Western Roman Empire refers to the western half of the Roman Empire.
The Middle Ages
Early Middle Ages: 500–1000
Saint Patrick – Saint Patrick was a Romano-Briton and Christian missionary, who is the most generally recognized patron saint of Ireland or the Apostle of Ireland, although Brigid of Kildare and Colmcille are also formally patron saints.Old Irish is a Q-Celtic language, which means that the sound /p/ in other languages is converted to the sound /k/.St Patrick in the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913).Common Worship: Services and Prayers for the Church of England, The Calendar, p. 7 Skellig Michael – literate monks became some of the last preservers in Western Europe of the poetic and philosophical works of Western antiquity. Skellig Michael, also known as Great Skellig, is a steep rocky island in the Atlantic Ocean about 14.5 kilometres from the coast of County Kerry, Republic of Ireland. Clovis I – Clovis or Chlodowech was the first King of the Franks to unite all the Frankish tribes under one ruler, changing the leadership from a group of royal chieftains, to rule by kings, ensuring that the kingship was held by his heirs.The date 481 is arrived at by counting back from the Battle of Tolbiac, which Gregory of Tours places in the fifteenth year of Clovis's reign.Frassetto, Michael, Encyclopedia of barbarian Europe, (ABC-CLIO, 2003), p. 126 Islam – first preached c. 610 – Islam is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion articulated by the Qur'an, a Religious text considered by its adherents to be the verbatim word of God in Islam, and by the teachings and normative example of Muhammad, considered by them to be the last prophet of Allah.There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced , or (when the stress is on the first syllable) (Merriam Webster). The most common are (Oxford English Dictionary, Random House) and (American Heritage Dictionary).: Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~. At some geographic regions, such as Northwestern Africa they don't have stress. Al-Andalus (711–1492) – the Islamic empire in southwestern Europe, particularly Spain, Portugal and South France – The term caliphate, "dominion of a caliph ", refers to the first system of government established in Islam and represented the leaders unity of the Muslim Ummah. Charles Martel – in 732, stopped Islamic advance into Europe. Charles Martel, also known as Charles the Hammer, was a Frankish military and political leader, who served as Mayor of the Palace under the Merovingian kings and ruled de facto during an interregnum at the end of his life, using the title Duke and Prince of the Franks.The Frankish Kingdom . 2001. The Encyclopedia of World History"Charles's victory has often been regarded as decisive for world history, since it preserved western Europe from the Moors conquest and Islamization." Battle of Tours - Britannica Online Encyclopedia Charlemagne – Charlemagne also known as Charles the Great, was King of the Franks from 768 and Holy Roman Emperor from 800 to his death in 814. Alfred the Great – Alfred the Great was King of Wessex from 871 to 899. Norse colonization of the Americas – The Norse colonization of the Americas began as early as the 10th century, when Norse sailors explored and settled areas of the North Atlantic, including the northeastern fringes of North America.
High Middle Ages: 1000–1300
Holy Roman Empire in Germany and central Europe, established in 962 (survives until 1806) Feudalism – Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour. Catholic Church – The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with more than one billion members.. For greater details on numbers of Catholics and priests and their distribution by continent and for changes between 2000 and 2008, see (in Italian) Franciscans – Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi in 1209. Dominican Order – The Order of Preachers, after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Roman Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France.The word friar is etymologically related to the word for brother in Latin. Devotion to the Virgin Mary – Roman Catholic Mariology is theology concerned with the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ as developed by the Catholic Church.(Cf. Summa Theologiae, I, Q, 25, Art 6 as 4um). Chivalry – Chivalry, or the chivalric code, is the traditional code of conduct associated with the medieval institution of knighthood. Crusades – The Crusades were a series of religious expeditionary wars blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church, with the stated goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem.Riley-Smith, Jonathan. The First Crusaders, 1095–1131 Cambridge University Press, 1998. . Cathedral schools – began in the Early Middle Ages as centers of advanced education, some of them ultimately evolving into medieval universities. Some of these institutions continued into modern times. Scholasticism – Scholasticism is a method of critical thought which dominated teaching by the academics of medieval universities in Europe from about 1100–1500, and a program of employing that method in articulating and defending orthodoxy in an increasingly pluralistic context.See Steven P. Marone, "Medieval philosophy in context" in A. S. McGrade, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003). On the difference between scholastic and medieval monastic postures towards learning, see Jean Leclercq, The Love of Learning and the Desire for God (New York: Fordham University Press, 1970) esp. 89; 238ff. Scientific method – Scientific method refers to a body of Scientific techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. Saint Anselm – Anselm of Canterbury is called the founder of scholasticism and is famous as the originator of the ontological argument for the existence of God. Walk to Canossa – The Walk to Canossa refers to both the trek itself of Henry IV of the Holy Roman Empire from Speyer to the fortress at Canossa in Emilia Romagna and to the events surrounding his journey, which took place in and around January 1077. Magna Carta – Magna Carta, also called Magna Carta Libertatum, is an English charter, originally issued in the year 1215 and reissued later in the 13th century in modified versions.