|
“Christopher Columbus’ voyages to the Western Hemisphere mark one of
the clearer turning points in world history. Since the year 1492, the
cross-cultural contacts inaugurated by Columbus have clearly influenced
the experiences of all peoples on earth.”
Jerry H. Bentley
A turning point is an event, era, and/or development in world history
that has brought about significant social, cultural, ecological,
political or economic change. Many turning points focus on such world
history connections and linkages as: belief systems, conflicts,
migrations, trade, multi-regional empires and ideas, technology, foods,
and diseases. Many are representative of comparable events that have
occurred elsewhere in the world. Thus the Iranian Revolution of 1979,
is, for example, somewhat related to the later Revolution of the Taliban
and other activist Islamic political movements. On a technological and
commercial level, the reference to the Industrial Revolution refers to
an entire sequence of industrial and economic changes that have
transformed the modern world.
The Turning Points component of the Global History and Geography
Online Resource was developed to stimulate a conversation or a
discourse, not as a list to be memorized by students. When the editors
developed the initial listing, five criteria were taken into
consideration. The turning points:
- Have brought about significant change
- Can be viewed from multiple perspectives
- Concentrate on the “big ideas” of world history
- Focus on the concept of continuity and change, and
- Reflect all world regions
There is no absolute, set number of Turning Points. The 62 Turning
Points that are included in this component of the Online Resource
are indicative of major world history turning points. After each unit,
semester, or year is completed, teachers might have students create
their own lists of turning points. What events would you place on a Top
10 World History Turning Points listing?
"History followed different courses for different peoples because of
differences among peoples’ environments, not because of biological
differences among peoples themselves."
Jared Diamond
|
