A Visual Timeline of World History: Watch the Rise & Fall of Civilizations Over 5,000 Years

From Open Culture

UsefulCharts creator Matt Baker suggests that we not refer to the period spanning the fifth and the late fifteenth centuries as the “dark ages.” In justification, he doesn’t put forth the argument, now fairly common, that the time in question was actually full of subtle innovation occluded by modern prejudice. The real problem, as he sees it, is that the slowing, if not reversing, of the progress of human society that we’ve traditionally regarded as occurring in what are commonly known as the Middle Ages only occurred in Europe. What’s more, there have been multiple such eras in the world: take the earlier “Greek dark ages” associated with the Bronze Age civilizational collapse of 1177 BC.