Question

). How do historians divide the past Into periods? Do
they face any problems in doing so?​

Answer 1

Answer:

Division of past into large segments or periods makes it easy to study different eras and their culture. The world history is generally divided into -

Prehistory

History

Modern

These three periods are further divided into various sub periods. For example the Prehistoric period is divided into - Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic. In India, British historians in the middle of the nineteenth century, divided time into three periods-Hindu, Muslim and British. This was a periodization based on the different religious phases of the country and the rulers who ruled it. But as a matter of fact, this division ignored the rich diversity of the subcontinent. Few historians take this periodization even today while most of them take the economic and social factors into account in order to characterize the major elements of different moments of the past. The history of the past thousand years has seen considerable changes. As a result, the sixteenth century was not the same as the eighteenth century or the eighth or eleventh centuries. Hence it is very difficult for the historians to describe the entire period as one historical unit.