The%20past

1
The past
2
The present
3
The future
4
History of the Earth
5
Geological Time Scales
6
Human evolution

• A small African ape living around six Ma was the
  last animal whose descendants would include both
  modern humans and their closest relatives, the
  chimpanzees.Very soon after the split, apes in
  one branch developed the ability to walk upright.
  Brain size increased rapidly, and by 2 Ma, the
  first animals classified in the genus Homo had
  appeared.
• Modern humans (Homo sapiens) are believed to
  have originated somewhere around 200,000 years
  ago or earlier in Africa the oldest fossils date
  back to around 160,000 years ago.
• By 11,000 years ago, Homo sapiens had reached
  the southern tip of South America, the last of
  the uninhabited continents.

7
Civilization

• Throughout more than 90 of its history, Homo
  sapiens lived in small bands as nomadic
  hunter-gatherers.

Cultural evolution quickly outpaced biological
evolution, and history proper began. Somewhere
between 8500 and 7000 BC, humans in the Fertile
Crescent in Middle East began the systematic
husbandry of plants and animals agriculture.
8
Development of Science

• Agriculture had a major impact humans began to
  affect the environment as never before. Surplus
  food allowed a priestly or governing class to
  arise, followed by increasing division of labor.
  This led to Earths first civilization at Sumer
  in the Middle East, between 4000 and 3000 BC.
  Additional civilizations quickly arose in ancient
  Egypt, at the Indus River valley and in China.

9
Sumer

• The history of Sumer spans the 5th to 3rd
  millennia BC, ending with the downfall of the
  Third Dynasty of Ur around 2004 BC, followed by a
  transition period of Amorite states before the
  rise of Babylonia in the 18th century BC.

Gilgamesh was the fifth king of Uruk, ruling 126
years, according to the Sumerian king list,
placing his reign ca. 2500 BC.
10
Egypt

• By about 6000 BC, organized agriculture and large
  building construction had appeared in the Nile
  Valley. Between 5500 and 3100 BC, during Egypt's
  Predynastic Period, small settlements flourished
  along the Nile, whose delta empties into the
  Mediterranean Sea. By 3300 BC, just before the
  first Egyptian dynasty, Egypt was divided into
  two kingdoms, known as Upper Egypt, and Lower
  Egypt. The historical records of ancient Egypt
  begin with Egypt as a unified state, which
  occurred sometime around 3150 BC.

11
Egypt Old Kingdom

• The Old Kingdom is most commonly regarded as
  spanning the period of time when Egypt was ruled
  by the Third Dynasty through to the Sixth Dynasty
  (2686 BC 2134 BC). The Old Kingdom is perhaps
  best known, however, for the large number of
  pyramids, which were constructed at this time as
  pharaonic burial places.Sneferu is believed to
  have commissioned at least three pyramids while
  his son and successor Khufu erected the Great
  Pyramid of Giza, Sneferu had more stone and brick
  moved than any other pharaoh. Khufu, his son
  Khafra, and his grandson Menkaura, all achieved
  lasting fame in the construction of their
  pyramids.

12
The beginning of writing

• Around the 4th millennium BC writing process
  first evolved from economic necessity in the
  ancient near east. The clay tokens were used to
  represent commodities, and perhaps even units of
  time spent in labor, and their number and type
  became more complex as civilization advanced. A
  degree of complexity was reached when over a
  hundred different kinds of tokens had to be
  accounted for, and tokens were wrapped and fired
  in clay, with markings to indicate the kind of
  tokens inside. These markings soon replaced the
  tokens themselves, and the clay envelopes were
  demonstrably the prototype for clay writing
  tablets.

13
to 2000 BC

• The Egyptian calendar, the first known based on
  365 days (12 months of 30 days and 5 days of
  festival) is possibly instituted as early as 4241
  BC
• Babylonians predict eclipses (2900 BC)
• The Great Pyramid of Giza is built as a tomb for
  Khu-fu (2800 BC)
• Units of length, weight and capacity are legally
  fixed in Mesopotamia (2400 BC)
• A form of soldering to join sheets of gold is
  used by the Chaldeans in Ur (2400 BC)
• Positional notation is developed in Mesopotamia
  unlike most other systems, the Sumerian system
  has a base of 60 instead of 10 (2400 BC)
• Mesopotamian cultures learn to solve quadratic
  equations that is, equations in which the
  highest power is two (2000 BC)

14
The World in 2000 BC

• Minoan Civilization in Crete
• Old Babylonia in Mesopotamia
• Harappa Period in India
• Middle Kingdom in Egypt
• Xia Dynasty in China
• Olmec Civilization in Mesoamerica

15
Assyria

• Assyria was a kingdom centered on the Upper
  Tigris river, in Mesopotamia (Iraq)

During the Old Assyrian period (20th to 15th
centuries BC), Assur controlled much of Upper
Mesopotamia and parts of Asia Minor. In the
Middle Assyrian period (15th to 10th centuries
BC), its influence waned and was subsequently
regained in a series of conquests.
16
Babylonia

• Babylonia was an ancient cultural region in
  central-southern Mesopotamia, with Babylon as its
  capital. Babylonia emerged when Hammurabi (fl.
  ca. 1696 1654 BC, short chronology) created an
  empire.

Hammurabi is known for the set of laws called
Hammurabi's Code, one of the first written codes
of law in recorded history. These laws were
written on a stone tablet standing over eight
feet tall (2.4 meters) that was found in 1901.
17
Hittites

• The "Hittites" were an ancient Anatolian people
  who spoke a language of the Anatolian branch of
  the Indo-European language family and established
  a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central
  Anatolia ca. the 18th century BC. The Hittite
  empire reached its height ca. the 14th century
  BC. After ca. 1180 BC, the empire disintegrated
  into several independent city-states.

Under Muwatallish (1306-1282), they fought the
Battle of Kadesh (1298 BC) against Rameses II and
won.
18
to 1000 BC

• Around 1750 BC, under Hammurabi, star catalogs
  and planetary records are compiled.
• Around 1700 BC, the Phoenicians are writing with
  a 22-letter alphabet.
• Around 1600 BC, the zodiac is identified by
  Chaldean astrologers.
• Around 1050 BC, the Duke of Chou in China builds
  the first magnetic compass.

19
Old Babylonian astronomy

• Planetary theory
• The first civilisation known to possess a
  functional theory of the planets were the
  Babylonians. The oldest surviving planetary
  astronomical text is the Babylonian Venus tablet
  of Ammisaduqa, a 7th century BC copy of a list of
  observations of the motions of the planet Venus
  that probably dates as early as the second
  millennium BC.
• The Sumerians, predecessors of the Babylonians
  who are considered to be the first civilization
  and are credited with the invention of writing,
  had identified at least Venus by 1500 BC. Shortly
  afterwards, the other inner planet Mercury and
  the outer planets Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were
  all identified by Babylonian astronomers.

20
1000 BC

• In Israel, David is the king
• Egypt is a minor power
• Alphabet is developed by the Phoenicians
• Midas is the king in Phrygia
• Dorians invaded Greece
• Chou Dynasty in China

21
Median Empire

• The Medes were an ancient Iranian people who
  lived in the northwestern portions of present-day
  Iran.
• During the deciding battle of the war between the
  Medes and Lydians, a sudden solar eclipse took
  place. Both armies took this as a sign from the
  gods and they made peace. The chief result is
  that the date of this aborted battle is the
  earliest event in human history that we can
  confidently say happened on a particular day, and
  no other. That day was May 28th, 585 BC.

22
Persian Empire

• Persian Empire (ca. 550330 BC), was the
  successor state of the Median Empire. The empire
  took its unified form with a central
  administration erected by Cyrus the Great.
• It was during the reign of Darius I that
  Persepolis was built (518516 BC) and which would
  serve as capital for several generations of
  Achaemenid kings. Darius I attacked the Greek
  mainland, which had supported rebellious Greek
  colonies under his aegis but as a result of his
  defeat at the Battle of Marathon, he was forced
  to pull the limits of his empire back to Asia
  Minor.

23
Etruscans

• Etruscan civilization is the modern English name
  given to a civilization of ancient Italy in an
  area corresponding roughly to Tuscany. Their
  origin is unknown. But one hypothesis is that by
  1000 BC, refugees of the Phyrigian invasion from
  Asia Minor had reached the western shores of
  Italy and settled there.
• According to tradition the Roman Republic was
  established around 509 BC, when the last of the
  seven kings of Rome, Tarquin the Proud, was
  deposed, and a system based on annually elected
  magistrates and various representative assemblies
  was established. A constitution set a series of
  checks and balances, and a separation of powers.
  The most important magistrates were the two
  consuls, who together exercised executive
  authority as military command. The consuls had to
  work with the senate, which was initially an
  advisory council of the ranking nobility, or
  patricians, but grew in size and power.

24
Greece

• In the 8th century BC, Greece began to emerge
  from the Dark Ages. From about the 9th century BC
  written records begin to appear. By 800 BC, Homer
  had written the Iliad and Odyssey. By the 6th
  century BC several cities had emerged as dominant
  in Greek affairs Athens, Sparta, Corinth, and
  Thebes. Each of them had brought the surrounding
  rural areas and smaller towns under their
  control, and Athens and Corinth had become major
  maritime and mercantile powers as well.

25
to 500 BC

• In 763 BC, the Babylonians record a solar
  eclipse, the oldest eclipse recorded.
• Around 580 BC, Pythagoras is born on Samos.
• Around 570 BC, Greek philosopher Xenophanes
  speculates that because fossil sea shells are
  found on the tops of the mountains, the surface
  of Earth must have risen and fallen in the past,
  one of the earliest ideas of earth science.
• Around 500 BC, Pythagoreans are killed and
  dispersed by a mob in Croton, and Pythagoras
  flees to Tarentum.

26
The Presocratics Introduction

• If we define physics as the study of matter and
  changes in matter, then we may search for its
  origins in a tradition of critical debate
  established by the presocratic natural
  philosophers who lived in early Greek colonies
  scattered, for the most part, around the Aegean
  Sea, before the time of Socrates. With the
  exception of the Pythagoreans, presocratic
  speculations in natural philosophy were distinct
  from the mathematical approach to interpreting
  nature in the astronomy of the ancient Near East.
  
• To appreciate the presocratics, we should keep in
  mind something of (i) the geography of the
  Aegean, (ii) their significance for the history
  of science, and (iii) their social and religious
  cultural contexts.

27
Geograpy
28
Significance of the Presocratics

• What is nature? For the Babylonians, natural
  phenomena such as the motions of the heavens were
  signs of the will of the gods, to be interpreted
  for the benefit of the king and empire. For the
  presocratics, natural phenomena were the result
  of some abstract first principle, a divine
  principle on which everything else depended but
  which itself did not depend upon anything else.
  We have noted their divine first principles
• Thales of Miletos Water - Monism (related to
  the mythological Okeanos?)
• Anaximandros of Miletos Apeiron - Monism
• Anaximenes of Miletos Air - Monism
• Herakleitos of Ephesos Fire Monism (Logos)
• Parmenides of Elea, Zenon of Elea, Melissos of
  Samos It, The One - Monism, Plenism,
  Rationalism, Necessitarianism, Sufficient Reason,
  Akinesis, Eternity of the World
• Leukippos of Miletos and Demokritos of Abdera
  Atoms Void - Pluralism, Void
• Anaxagoras of Klazomenai All in All - Radical
  Pluralism, Teleology (Nous)
• Empedokles of Akragos Roots (earth, air, fire
  water) - Moderate Pluralism, Tychism (Love and
  Strife)

29
Greece

• Athens and Sparta would soon have to become
  allies in the face of the largest external threat
  ancient Greece would see until the Roman
  conquest. After suppressing the Ionian Revolt, a
  rebellion of the Greek cities of Ionia, Darius I
  of Persia, King of Kings of the Achaemenid
  Empire, decided to subjugate Greece. His invasion
  in 490 BC was ended by the Athenian victory at
  the Battle of Marathon under Miltiades the
  Younger.
• After this war Athens and Sparta fought for a
  long time for a hegemony in Greece. These wars
  weakened both of them. The weakened state of the
  heartland of Greece coincided with the Rise of
  Macedon, led by Philip II. Alexander, son and
  successor of Philip, continued the war with
  Persians. Alexander defeated Darius III of Persia
  and completely destroyed the Persian Empire,
  annexing it to Macedon and earning himself the
  epithet 'the Great'.

30
Hellenistic Greece

• After the death of Alexander his empire was,
  after quite some conflict, divided amongst his
  generals, resulting in the Ptolemaic Kingdom
  (based upon Egypt), the Seleucid Empire (based on
  the Levant, Mesopotamia and Persia), the kingdom
  of Pergamon in Asia Minor and the Antigonid
  dynasty based in Macedon.

31
Rome

• Roman Republic was established around 509 BC. The
  Romans gradually subdued the other peoples on the
  Italian peninsula, including the Etruscans. In
  the second half of the 3rd century BC, Rome
  clashed with Carthage in the first of three Punic
  Wars. These wars resulted in Rome's first
  overseas conquests, of Sicily and Hispania, and
  the rise of Rome as a significant imperial power.
  After defeating the Macedonian and Seleucid
  Empires in the 2nd century BC, the Romans became
  the dominant people of the Mediterranean Sea.

32
Syracuse

• Syracuse has been inhabited since ancient times
  and had a relationship with Mycenaean Greece.
• Hiero II seized power in 275 BC. Hiero
  inaugurated a period of 50 years of peace and
  prosperity, in which Syracause became one of the
  most renowned capitals of Antiquity. Under his
  rule lived the most famous Syracusan, the
  mathematician and natural philosopher Archimedes.
  Among his many inventions were various military
  engines, later used to resist the Roman siege.
• Hiero's successor, the young Hieronymus (ruled
  from 215 BC), broke the alliance with the Romans.
  The Romans besieged the city in 214 BC. The city
  held out for three years, but fell in 212 BC. It
  is believed to have fallen due to a peace party
  opening a small door in the wall to negotiate a
  peace, but the Romans charged through the door
  and took the city, killing Archimedes in the
  process.

33
to 380BC...

• around 500 BC Pythagoreans teach that Earth is
  a sphere and not in the shape of a disk...
• around 480 BC Greek philosopher Oenopides is
  believed to be the first to calculate the angle
  that Earth is tipped wrt the plane of its orbit,
  his value was 24 degrees
• around 450 BC Pythagorean philosopher Philolaus
  suggests that there is a central fire around
  which the Earth, sun, moon and planets revolve,
  he also believes that Earth rotates
• around 390 BC Plato founds a school in a grove
  on the outskirts of Athens since the groove once
  belonged to the hero Academos, the school is
  named the Academy...
• around 390 BC Greek astronomer Heracleides
  suggests that Venus and Mercury may orbit the
  sun...
• around 380 BC Democritus recognizes that the
  Milky Way consists of numerous stars, that the
  moon is similar to Earth, and that matter is
  composed of atoms...

34
to 300 BC ...

• around 370 BC Aristotle discovers that free
  fall is an accelerated form of motion, but
  believes that heavier bodies fall faster than
  lighter bodies...
• in 352 BC Chinese observers report a supernova,
  the earliest known record of such a sighting...
• around 330 BC Kiddinu of Babylon works out an
  early version of the precession of the
  equinoxes...
• in 334 BC Aristotle founds the Lyceum in
  Athens...
• in 318 BC Prince Xuan establishes in the
  capital of the Qi state in China an academy of
  scholars...
• around 300 BC Euclid's Elements summarizes and
  organizes the mathematical knowledge developed in
  Greece it includes information on plane and
  solid geometry and the theory of numbers it will
  be the basic textbook in mathematics for the next
  2000 years...

35
Aristotle

• Aristotle (384 BC 322 BC) was a Greek
  philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of
  Alexander the Great. His writings cover many
  subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry,
  theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics,
  government, ethics, biology, and zoology.
  Together with Plato and Socrates, Aristotle is
  one of the most important founding figures in
  Western philosophy. Aristotle's writings were the
  first to create a comprehensive system of
  Western philosophy, encompassing

morality and aesthetics, logic and science,
politics and metaphysics. Aristotle's views on
the physical sciences profoundly shaped medieval
scholarship, and their influence extended well
into the Renaissance, although they were
ultimately replaced by Newtonian physics. In the
zoological sciences, some of his observations
were confirmed to be accurate only in the 19th
century.
36
to 140 BC ...

• around 270 BC Aristarchus of Samos challenges
  Aristotle's teachings by asserting that the sun
  is the center of the solar system and that the
  planets revolve around the sun he estimates the
  distance of the sun from Earth by observing the
  angle between the sun and the moon when it is
  exactly half full...
• around 250 BC the Mo Ching, a collection of
  writings by followers of Mo-tzu, contains a clear
  statement of the first law of motion later
  formulated by Newton...
• in 240 BC Chinese astronomers observe Halley's
  comet in its first known recorded visit...
• around 240 BC Eratosthenes of Cyrene (Libya)
  calculates the circumference of Earth from the
  difference in latitude between Alexandria and
  Aswan and finds a figure 46,000 km close to the
  present value...
• in 165 BC Chinese astronomers record sunspots,
  probably the first accurately dated record...
• around 150 BC Hipparchus of Nicea draws up a
  listing of fixed stars and discovers the
  precession of the equinoxes...

37
Roman Republic

• Meanwhile the slaves sometimes rose in rebellion.
  The first rebellion lasted from 135 to 132 BC
  when slaves in Sicily rebelled. Sicilian slaves
  rebelled again in 103 BC but they were crushed in
  99 BC. Finally Spartacus led a rebellion of
  Italian slaves in 73 BC. However the rebellion
  was crushed in 71 BC.
• In the first century BC the Roman republic slowly
  broke down and power was increasingly in the
  hands of successful generals. In 60 AD another
  powerful general, Gnaius Pompey formed a
  triumvirate with two other men Crassus and Julius
  Caesar. The triumvirate only lasted about one
  year but it was renewed in 56 BC. However Crassus
  died in 52 BC and Pompey was made sole Consul.
• Meanwhile the third member of the triumvirate,
  Julius Caesar conquered Gaul. His military
  victories made him very popular with his men.
  However in 49 BC the Senate voted that Caesar
  should give up command of the army and return to
  Rome without his troops. Caesar refused and
  instead marched on Rome.

38
Roman Empire

• Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC. After his death
  Gaius Octavius (Octavian), Julius Caesar's
  great-nephew, Octavian became the first Roman
  emperor (in all but name). In 27 BC he was
  granted the title 'Augustus'. The Roman republic
  was at an end.
• Augustus kept the senate but he held the real
  power. He controlled the army and the civil
  service. Augustus managed to restore order to the
  Roman empire and when he died in 14 AD it was
  peaceful and prosperous.
• Diocletian split the empire into two halves,
  western and eastern. Constantine united them in
  324 but they split again after his death.
  Gradually there was less and less co-operation
  between the two halves.

39
to 70 AD ...

• around 130 BC, Hipparchus uses a total eclipse
  of the sun and parallax to determine correctly
  the distance to and the size of the moon...
• around 100 BC, the Chinese begin to use
  negative numbers...
• in 56 BC, De rerum natura (On the nature of
  things) by Lucretius Titus is written...
• around 10 AD, Liu Hsin is the first person
  known to have used a decimal fraction...
• around 50 AD, Pliny the Elder writes Naturalis
  historia, a work of 37 volumes summarizing all
  that is known in his time about astronomy,
  geography and zoology...
• in 79 AD, Pliny the Younger writes the first
  detailed account of the eruption of Vesuvius that
  destroyed Pompeii...
• in 79 AD, Pliny the Elder died of asphyxiation
  while observing an eruption of Mount Vesuvius...

40
Migration Period

• The Migration Period, also called the Barbarian
  Invasions was a period of human migration that
  occurred roughly between AD 300 to 700 in Europe,
  marking the transition from Late Antiquity to the
  Early Middle Ages. These movements were catalyzed
  by profound changes within both the Roman Empire
  and the so-called 'barbarian frontier'. Migrating
  peoples during this period included the Huns,
  Goths, Vandals, Bulgars, Alans, Suebi, Frisians,
  and Franks, among other Germanic and Slavic
  tribes.

41
The Almagest

• Almagest is the Latin form of the Arabic name of
  a mathematical and astronomical treatise
  proposing the complex motions of the stars and
  planetary paths, originally written in Greek by
  Ptolemy of Alexandria, Egypt, written in the 2nd
  century. Its geocentric model was accepted as
  correct for more than a thousand years in Islamic
  and European societies through the Middle Ages
  and early Renaissance. The Almagest is the most
  important source of information on ancient Greek
  astronomy. The Almagest has also been valuable to
  students of mathematics because it documents the
  ancient Greek mathematician Hipparchus's work,
  which has been lost. Hipparchus wrote about
  trigonometry, but because his works have been
  lost mathematicians use Ptolemy's book as their
  source for Hipparchus' works and ancient Greek
  trigonometry in general.

42
to 600 AD ...

• around 190 AD, Chinese mathematicians use
  powers of ten to express numbers...
• around 300 AD, the Maya develop the day-count
  calendar this calendar dates events back to
  3000BC...
• in 497 AD, Aryabhata recalculates Greek
  measurements of the solar system although the
  mostly accepts Ptolemy's scheme of the universe,
  he also puts forward the idea that Earth
  rotates...
• in 529 AD, the Academy and the Lyceum, the
  schools started by Plato and Aristotle at Athens,
  are closed by the emperor Justinian...

43
7th Century
44
Arab Empire

• Muslim conquests (632732) also referred to as
  the Islamic conquests or Arab conquests, of
  non-Arab peoples began after the death of the
  Islamic prophet Muhammad. He established a new
  unified polity in the Arabian Peninsula which
  under the subsequent Rashidun (The Rightly Guided
  Caliphs) and Umayyad Caliphates saw a century of
  rapid expansion of Muslim power.

45
Expansion of Islam
46
End of 8th Century
47
End of 9th Century
48
End of 10th Century
49
to 1000 AD ...

• ... around 690, the first uses of a "goose-egg"
  sign for zero appear in Cambodia and Sumatra,
  although the Chinese had longed used an empty
  space as a placeholder and later Mesopotamian
  numeration also used a sign as a placeholder it
  is not clear when 0 comes to be understood as a
  number and not just a placeholder...
• ... around 830, Al-Khowarizmi's Al-jabr wa'l
  muqabalah, known in the West as Algebra, gives
  methods for solving all equations of the first
  and second degree with positive roots...

50
Islamic Science 610-700

• There are several rules in Islam which lead
  Muslims to use better astronomical calculations
  and observations. The first issue is the Islamic
  calendar.
• The other issue is moon sighting. Islamic months
  do not begin at the astronomical new moon,
  defined as the time when the moon has the same
  celestial longitude as the sun and is therefore
  invisible instead they begin when the thin
  crescent moon is first sighted in the western
  evening sky.
• In approximately 638 A.D, Caliph Umar introduced
  a new lunar calendar based on the Islamic
  viewpoint. This calendar has twelve lunar months,
  the beginnings of which are determined by the
  sighting of the crescent moon.

51
Islamic Science 700-825

• This period was most notably the period of
  assimilation and syncretization of earlier
  Hellenistic, Indian and Sassanid astronomy
  occurred during the 8th and early 9th centuries.
• Historians point out several factors that
  fostered the growth of Islamic astronomy. The
  first was the proximity of the Muslim world to
  the world of ancient learning. Much of the
  ancient Greek, Sanskrit and Middle Persian texts
  were translated into Arabic during the 9th
  century. This process was enhanced by the
  tolerance towards scholars of other religions.
• Another impetus came from Islamic religious
  observances, which presented a host of problems
  in mathematical astronomy. In solving these
  religious problems the Islamic scholars went far
  beyond the Greek mathematical methods.

52
Islamic Science 8251025

• The period throughout the 9th, 10th and early
  11th centuries was one of vigorous investigation,
  in which the superiority of the Ptolemaic system
  of astronomy was accepted and significant
  contributions made to it. Astronomical research
  was greatly supported by the Abbasid caliph
  al-Mamun. Baghdad and Damascus became the centers
  of such activity. The caliphs not only supported
  this work financially, but endowed the work with
  formal prestige.

53
11th Century

• In the history of European culture, this period
  is considered the early part of the High Middle
  Ages. There was a sudden decline of Byzantine
  power and rise of Norman domination over much of
  Europe, along with the prominent role in Europe
  of notably influential popes. In what is now
  Northern Italy, a growth of population in urban
  centers gave rise to early organized capitalism
  and more sophisticated, commercialized culture by
  the late 11th century.
• In this century the Turkish Seljuk dynasty comes
  to power in the Middle East over the now
  fragmented Abbasid realm, while the first of the
  Crusades were waged towards the close of the
  century.

54
11th Century

• Chola-era India and Fatimid-era Egypt, had
  reached their zenith in military might and
  international influence. The Western Chalukya
  Empire (the Chola's rival) also rose to power by
  the end of the century.
• In this century the Turkish Seljuk dynasty comes
  to power in the Middle East over the now
  fragmented Abbasid realm, while the first of the
  Crusades were waged towards the close of the
  century.
• In Japan, the Fujiwara clan continued to dominate
  the affairs of state.
• In the Americas, the Toltec and Mixtec
  civilizations flourished in central America,
  along with the Huari Culture of South America and
  the Mississippian culture of North America.
• In Ukraine, there was the golden age for the
  principality of Kievan Rus.
• In Korea, the Goryeo Kingdom flourished and faced
  external threats from the Liao Dynasty
  (Manchuria).
• In Vietnam, the Li Dynasty began, while in
  Myanmar the Pagan Kingdom reached its height of
  political and military power.

55
End of 11th Century
56
12th Century

• Europe undergoes the Renaissance of the 12th
  century. It included social, political and
  economic transformations, and an intellectual
  revitalization of Western Europe with strong
  philosophical and scientific roots. For some
  historians these changes paved the way to later
  achievements such as the literary and artistic
  movement of the Italian Renaissance in the 15th
  century and the scientific developments of the
  17th century. In this century there was a
  continuous fight between the papacy, Holy Roman
  Emperor (mostly today's Germany), Norman Italy
  and the Byzantine Empire. All through this time,
  the Mongols in the East were uniting their forces
  for the next century.

57
Science in 12th Century

• After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire,
  Western Europe had entered the Middle Ages with
  great difficulties. Most classical scientific
  treatises of classical antiquity, written in
  Greek, had became unavailable.
• This scenario changed during the renaissance of
  the 12th century. The increased contact with the
  Islamic world in Spain and Sicily, the Crusades,
  the Reconquista, as well as increased contact
  with Byzantium, allowed Europeans to seek and
  translate the works of Hellenic and Islamic
  philosophers and scientists, especially the works
  of Aristotle.
• The development of medieval universities allowed
  them to aid materially in the translation and
  propagation of these texts and started a new
  infrastructure which was needed for scientific
  communities.

58
13th Century

• After its conquests in Asia the Mongol Empire
  stretched from Eastern Asia to Eastern Europe
  under Genghis, Ogodai and Kublai Khans.
• In England, John I was forced to sign the Magna
  Carta (1215), which guaranteed the rights of the
  nobility and of free-men generally, against
  encroachment by the arbitrary power of the crown.
• During the crusades, Constantinople fell to the
  crusaders and they destroyed all the ancient
  Greek culture in the last city which preserved it.

59
Science in the 13th Century

• The most important scholar of the period was
  Roger Bacon who upheld the principle of
  experimental science. He attempted to write a
  universal encyclopedia of knowledge and pointed
  out the deficiencies of the Julian calendar then
  being used.
• Alfonso X, the King of Castille was most famous
  for sponsoring the publication of planetary
  motions based on Hipparchus and Ptolemy. The
  necessary math was so complicated that Alfonso is
  supposed to have remarked that if God has asked
  his advise, he would have recommended something
  much simpler.

60
14th Century

• Europe in 1300 was well on the way to rapid
  expansion. It was rapidly increasing in
  intellectual and mathematical sophistication.
  Technically, thanks to water power and the
  mechanical discoveries that flowed from it,
  Europe was in the midst of the Medieval
  Industrial Revolution. One reason there seems to
  be such a break between the Middle Ages and the
  Renaissance was that there was in fact a break.
  The 14th Century was a time of turmoil,
  diminished expectations, loss of confidence in
  institutions, and feelings of helplessness at
  forces beyond human control.
• Two great natural disasters struck Europe in the
  14th Century. One was climatic the Little Ice
  Age. If the Little Ice Age weakened Europe's
  agricultural productivity and made life
  uncomfortable, the Bubonic Plague brought life to
  a virtual standstill.

61
Science in the 14th Century

• The first half of the 14th century saw much
  important scientific work being done, largely
  within the framework of scholastic commentaries
  on Aristotle's scientific writings. William of
  Ockham introduced the principle of parsimony
  natural philosophers should not postulate
  unnecessary entities, so that motion is not a
  distinct thing but is only the moving object and
  an intermediary "sensible species" is not needed
  to transmit an image of an object to the eye.
  Scholars such as Jean Buridan and Nicole Oresme
  started to reinterpret elements of Aristotle's
  mechanics. In particular, Buridan developed the
  theory that impetus was the cause of the motion
  of projectiles, which was a first step towards
  the modern concept of inertia. The Oxford
  Calculators began to mathematically analyze the
  kinematics of motion, making this analysis
  without considering the causes of motion.

62
15th Century

• Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman
  Empire, falls to emerging Ottoman Turks, forcing
  Western Europeans to find a new trade route.
• Spanish and Portuguese explorations led to first
  European sightings of the Americas and the sea
  passage along Cape of Good Hope to India, in the
  last decade of the century. After this first
  sightings by Europeans, transportation increased
  to Europe from America. Native indigenous
  cultures that lived within the continent of the
  Americas had already developed advanced
  civilizations that attest to thousands of years
  of human presence sophisticated engineering,
  irrigation, agriculture, religion and government
  existed before the arrival of the Spanish and the
  Portuguese.

63
The Renaissance

• The 14th century saw the beginning of the
  cultural movement of the Renaissance. The
  rediscovery of ancient texts was accelerated
  after the Fall of Constantinople, in 1453, when
  many Byzantine scholars had to seek refuge in the
  West, particularly Italy. Also, the invention of
  printing was to have great effect on European
  society the facilitated dissemination of the
  printed word democratized learning and allowed a
  faster propagation of new ideas.
• But this initial period is usually seen as one of
  scientific backwardness. There were no new
  developments in physics or astronomy, and the
  reverence for classical sources further enshrined
  the Aristotelian and Ptolemaic views of the
  universe. Philosophy lost much of its rigour as
  the rules of logic and deduction were seen as
  secondary to intuition and emotion.