![]() ![]() In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries “historical” maps were often drawn to promote particular political-or territorial-agendas. Maps have also come to be used to illustrate historical accounts, but have often done this in simplified-and problematic-ways. As humans began to employ more sophisticated measuring, data-gathering, and visualizing techniques, maps became ways of understanding the earth’s shape, form, its place in the solar system, and the systems on its surface that have made sustaining life on it possible. Still others were drawn to claim property or territory. Some maps were drawn to aid navigation, others to distinguish farming areas, or to locate settlements, hunting or fishing grounds, or religious sites. Humans in every corner of the earth have drawn maps as long as they have had tools to draw. Pietro Martire d’Aghiera, Map of the Caribbean for the Spanish Crown (1511) ![]() Maps, visual representations of aspects of the earth’s surface, can offer graphic evidence of how human views of the world have differed and how these views have themselves changed over time. In other cases, historians work to interpret visual evidence from sources like paintings, drawings, tapestries, buildings, and, sometimes, the earth’s surface, particularly in places where it has changed noticeably. Historians commonly consult written documents such as personal letters and government or business records, if these are available. Historians most often rely on documented accounts of what happened at a particular time and place, and work from these to explain how and why these events took place. It involves an ongoing process of making sense of evidence and evaluating the significance of that evidence. Learning history is not a matter of learning a given set of facts about the past. As societies came into contact with one another, sometimes peacefully, sometimes violently, these known worlds became ever larger, and stories of world history had to change to make sense of new situations. For millennia, the “known” world in these accounts was very local. As long as people have recognized a world, they have sought to explain how it came to be, and how and why it, and their experience of it, has changed over time. Giving an account of the history of the world is an ancient practice. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Lynch, Brooke Nelson, Julie Tatlockīook title: World History Volume 1, to 1500 We recommend using aĪuthors: Ann Kordas, Ryan J. ![]() Use the information below to generate a citation. Then you must include on every digital page view the following attribution: If you are redistributing all or part of this book in a digital format, Then you must include on every physical page the following attribution: If you are redistributing all or part of this book in a print format, Want to cite, share, or modify this book? This book uses the This book may not be used in the training of large language models or otherwise be ingested into large language models or generative AI offerings without OpenStax's permission. You are about to take a journey into human history. Yet each new history book written and each new source uncovered reveal an ever more precise record of events around the world ( Figure 1.1). ![]() Will history ever be a perfect telling of the human tale? No. It is the historian’s task to paint as clear a picture as sources will allow. It cannot be a way to mask the darker parts of human nature, nor a way to justify acts of previous generations. Above all else, it is a path to knowing why we are the way we are-all our greatness, all our faults-and therefore a means for us to understand ourselves and change for the better.īut history serves this function only if it is a true reflection of the past. What is history? Is it simply a record of things people have done? Is it what writer Maya Angelou suggested-a way to meet the pain of the past and overcome it? Or is it, as Winston Churchill said, a chronicle by the victors, an interpretation by those who write it? History is all this and more. ![]()
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