human history

Also known as history of humanity, world history, history of the world, history of human

narrative of humanity's past

AI overview

Human history is the story of how people have lived, organized themselves, and changed over time. It matters because understanding where we came from helps us make sense of our present world and think more clearly about our future.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Wikidata facts

Subclass of: history
Significant event: neolithic revolution

Show 6 more facts

start time: 2600000-01
facet of: Earth
studied by: world history
topic's main category: Category:World history
on focus list of Wikimedia project: Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/1
topic has template: Template:Human history

Sources (3)

via Wikidata · CC0

~40 min read

Encyclopedic overview

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Human history, or world history, is the record of humankind from prehistory to the present. Modern humans evolved in Africa around 300,000 years ago and initially lived as hunter-gatherers. They migrated out of Africa during the Last Ice Age, spreading to every continent except Antarctica by its end, 12,000 years ago. Soon afterwards, the Neolithic Revolution in West Asia included the first systematic husbandry of plants and animals, and saw many humans transition from nomadic lives to sedentary existences as farmers in permanent settlements. The growing complexity of human societies necessitated systems of accounting and writing.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “human history” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.