2011 CompassLearning, Inc.

WH001, Video 1

Good day, Im Professor Higginbotham and welcome to WORLD HISTORY! To begin, I
want to take a look at something you might find shocking! A simple fact: When studying
history, you need to understandTIME!

Yes, TIME!!! Since history is essentially the study of change-over-TIME, its easy for us
to see the connection and understand just why TIME is sooooo important! Here, let me
show you what I mean

If we start by discussing dating systems, we can see how time is important, since
being able to date certain events is critical to the construction and understanding of
history.

Now, for a very long time, people in the western parts of the world dated historical
events according to the Gregorian-Christian-Calendar created by Pope-Gregory-the
Thirteenth in the Sixteenth Century.

According to the Gregorian calendar, dates were divided into TWO categories. B.C.,
which stands for before Christ and means before the birth of Jesus of
NazarethandA.D. which stands for anno domini, which is Latin for in the year
of the Lord, meaning the year Christians believe Jesus of Nazareth was born. It was
marked this way because the birth of Jesus was a major historical turning point for
Christians.

Now, according to the Gregorian Calendar, Jesus of Nazareths birth took place in the
year A.D. One. SO, all the years PRIOR to A.D. One were marked by the suffix B.C.
These years started large and grew smaller as time progressed. For example: Julius
Caesar was born in One-Hundred B.C. and died in Forty-four B.C.


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The years AFTER the birth of Jesus, however, start SMALL and grow LARGER. For
example: Nero, who was born in A.D. Thirty-seven and died in A.D. Sixty-eight. But here
comes the twist.

In recent years, World Historians have switched to a more secular, or nonreligious,
dating systema dating system that allows for ALL the people of the world to be
included in history. This dating system is defined by the concept of the Common Era.
For THIS World History course well be using this system to date events. So, hoooow
exactly does this dating system work? Well, lets take a look....

The Common Era dating system follows the dates of the Gregorian Calendar,
HOWEVERB.C. is replaced by B.C.E. which stands for Before-the-Common- Era
and A.D. is replaced by C.E. which stands for the-Common-Era.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when taking a look at history andthats right,
TIME.