Mylo's Study Sheet

HISTORY

Earth began, from a scientific and historical perspective, with the Big Bang, which took place approx. 13.8 billion years ago. Our solar system came into existence 4.5 billion years ago, and human life began 3.7 billion years ago.

These humans were predominantly hunter-gatherers and nomads, and this period of human history was called the Paleolithic era. During this time, humans made do with stone weaponry and such.

Next came the Mesolithic era. Humans began to stay in groups in set places, where they built (semi-)permanent settlements. They would advance to more elaborate and effective tools.

Eventually, the Neolithic era came along. This consisted of the newfound knowledge that animals and plants could be tamed and used not as an outside force to sieze but an inside one to nurture.

It wasn't long before there were hundreds of thousands of civilizations forming all over the world, ranging in culture and ways of life.

One day (11/11/1620), thousands of years after the Neolithic era came to an end, along came America—a settlement of English who landed just around Cape Cod. They built their homes and defended them well. When the Revolutionary War (4/19/1775) came around, no one backed down. They had fought hard enough to get here, and they would fight hard enough to stay. George Washington was the General of the Continental Army, and after the British surrendered at Yorktown (10/19/1781) he was elected to be the first president of the United States of America.

In 1760, the Industrial Revolution began. No longer did countries rely on (so heavily) farmers and handcrafters when they could just use machines to produce what they need. Of course, this was a very efficient and productive thing that needed to happen for us to get where we are now, but the way things went about were unjust. Labor laws were horrible and neglectful, hundreds of workers were injured and even killed in factories, even children. Payment was measly and barely enough for one to survive, let alone families. Machines were fueled by coal, and when burned for said fuel, the smoke could cause a plethora of health issues—not that corporate worried as long as they got their money's worth. Not to mention, to get said coal they needed to miners into caves and deposits, and there were little to no safety laws regarding such back then.