As humans we live life forwards, but can only examine it backwards. History is where we spot patterns in the way humanity evolved, fought and erred.
There are obvious flaws in grouping by century. Things which happened in the 1990s share a lot more with the 2000s than with the 1910s. Yet, there still is an argument for temporal analysis. Seeing how patterns affected our shared history lets us reflect on how we can improve as a species.
List of centuries
This list of centuries takes you to stories I’ve researched and documented.
- 21st century – Hard to believe there are stories from modernity that are (kind of) unknown.
- 20th century – From the fin de siècle to the Internet age.
- 19th century – The Napoleonic wars and relative peace in Europe
- 18th century – Humanity developed lots of stuff we’ve lost, and fought many wars we’ve forgotten.
- 17th century – Humanity evolved to think the natural world wasn’t at the mercy of some unnamed god. We started to think for ourselves and examine everything around us.
- 16th century – More superstition than religion, but the stories are fascinating!
- 15th century – Hauntings, buildings and destruction. Will humanity ever learn?
- 14th century – Some of the buildings we call old come from this century.
- 13th century – Mysticism and romanticism. What would it have been like to have been alive at the time?
- 12th century – Central Europe began to coalesce into what it is today. One small change there, and our present is completely different.
- 11th century – Mankind started the second millennium with the crusades. Not the first, or last, time we confused coincidence for causality.
- 10th century – Mankind formalized religion in many ways. This is the century which left us remains we can study, separate from the legends we inherited
- 9th century – Charlemagne is the one European figure that stands out from this time. Most of modern Europe is the way it is due to his influence.
- 7th century – Far away enough to be full of legends, but close enough to verify some of them.
- 5th century – Legends that influenced religion and modern art.
- 4th century – Primitive structures that tell tales we can only imagine.