Our World has Roots in the Distant Past

World history is the story of man. The first part of this story stretches back into the distant past -to a time so long ago that men had not learned to write and therefore left no written records. The end of the story remains to be written, for we ourselves are part of it. Today’s events will be ancient history to our descendants in the remote future.

History tells of the beginnings of civilization describing man’s slow march from savagery to more advanced ways of living. It is a tale scientists have pieced together by studying slow changes in the earth itself or by examining remains left by early men -fragments of skeletons, crude tools, pieces of broken jugs, or cave paintings. For thousands of years human progress was painfully slow. Gradually, however, early men improved their weapons and implements, tamed animals and learned to plant crops. Each discovery made further progress easier, though peoples in a few areas advanced more rapidly than others.

History also relates to how great civilizations developed at an early time in Egypt and Mesopotamia. In fertile river valleys the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians learned better ways of producing food and goods. They set up strong central governments ruled by powerful kings, built huge buildings and made important scientific discoveries. Much of what we know of these early people comes from their own records — words cut in stone or clay, or written on rolls of what we would call paper.

History also tells how civilized ways of living spread from Egypt and Mesopotamia to nearby peoples. These in turn made new advances of their own, some of which have directly influenced later ages down to the present. The Israelites, for example, developed the belief in one God instead of many. In short, history tells us how early peoples laid the foundations of what we know today as “civilization.”